The Tribune

By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

THE Diamond Basketball Development Camp is now in full swing and director and coach Terrance ‘Red Eye’ McSweeney is looking forward to “developing the hidden talent” in the young female participants over the rest of the week.

The camp got started on Tuesday at the Tom ‘The Bird’ Grant Community Center and is scheduled to run through Friday with the sessions taking place between the hours of 9am and noon.

“It was excellent. To God be the glory. I want to give God thanks for everything,” said McSweeney at the first day of the camp that comes smack into the Easter break. “We have about 12 girls out for the first day. It’s exciting because even though we had some more entries, some individuals are probably still dealing with the fatigue of Easter.

“But I’m expecting girls who are interested in coming out to work on the hidden talent that God has given them. Our motto is ‘Developing Your Talent for the future’ so we are looking for the numbers to come from both our private and public schools, but I’m hoping that some of these girls will enter into the junior national development and through academics, they can go on to play college basketball.”

The campers were taken through a series of drills as they were taught the fundamentals of the game. Some of the campers, who are not as accomplished basketball players as some of the others, found it a bit difficult to deal with the routine. But McSweeney tried to encourage them to press on.

At least two of the campers said they were thrilled to receive the instructions that they got from McSweeney.

“I feel comfortable working with him because he’s a good coach,” said Tenaz McKay, a 12-year-old seventh grader at Aquinas College.

“The stuff that he is teaching us is amazing.”

The point guard for the Aces junior girls’ team said she hopes to develop her endurance as she plays the game.

Noted Trenice Comarcho: “We learn a lot of things like how to dribble the ball and playing with your teammates.”

The 15-year-old ninth grader at CH Reeves is a point guard for the Raptors. She plans to take the lessons learned to help improve her team.

“I want to make sure that we play better than we did this year,” said Comarcho, whose Raptors were runners-up to the HO Nash Lions in the Government Secondary Schools Sports Association.

Also on hand to assist and work with her team at Aquinas College was coach Whitley Albury. Now in her first year, Albury said she’s trying to get as much knowledge as she can to help her team in the Bahamas Association of Independent Secondary Schools and she was glad to be reunited with her former coach McSweeney when she played the game.

“I’ve been working with these girls since September and I’ve seen a lot of improvement in them, but this will help them to get even better,” Albury said.

“We have been coming out to (McSweeney’s) practices on Saturdays and Sundays and I’ve noticed how their bodies are now getting structured to play the game better. And they love the way he coaches.”

Albury said if she can get her entire team out, it will definitely be beneficial to the Aces programme in the long run.