The Tribune

By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

WHILE on a break for the Christmas holiday, the Providence Basketball Club is providing an opportunity for the local high school basketball players to stay physically fit for the second half of their season that resumes in January.

Starting today and running through Saturday at the DW Davis Gymnasium, 16 of the top senior boys high school teams will be in action as they compete for the coveted title.

Kevin ‘KJ’ Johnson, the founder and president of the Providence Basketball Club, said ever since they started the tournament in 2003, they have seen a significant improvement in the players coming out of the Christmas break.

“The purpose of the tournament is not only to get our young men scholarships, but definitely keep them busy during the holiday and to keep them sharp for the second half of the season,” he said. “We know both the public and private schools will open back up in January and this will provide an opportunity for our young men to play some competitive basketball before then.”

The teams have been split in four pools of four teams each. They comprise of the following:

Pool 1 – CI Gibson Rattlers, Agape, Anatol Rodgers Timberwolves and the South Andros Cheetahs.

Pool 2 – Jordan Prince William Falcons, CC Sweeting Cobras, Teleos Cherubims and St John’s College Giants.

Pool 3 – Doris Johnson Mystic Marlins, St Augustine’s College Big Red Machine, Government High Magicmen and Aquinas College Aces.

Pool 4 – CV Bethel Stingrays, St George’s Jaguars, Mt Carmel Cavaliers and Queen’s College Comets.

“We know that the competition is going to be very keen,” said Johnson, who also coaches the Rattlers.

“I think basketball has grown a bit, even though we as coaches have to work on our skills set to get our kids to play at the next level and our kids have to be more disciplined to work on their craft on their own when we teach them.

“But the competition has always been very keen. We have some teams that might be a little better than one another, but overall, it seems to be a balanced playing field in terms of the competition and I’m looking for it to be a very good tournament.”

With the Jaguars, coached by Darrel Sears coming in from Grand Bahama as the national champions, Johnson said they bring a high level of competitiveness to the tournament along with Agape from Abaco. But he’s not counting out the locally based teams like the Cobras, Mystic Marlins, his own Rattlers, the Big Red Machine and the Comets.

CI Gibson are the defending champions, snatching the title away from CC Sweeting, who won the year before. As a point of interest, St George’s carted off the title to Grand Bahama before.

• The tournament

kicks off with the

following schedule

of games on tap:

TODAY’S

SCHEDULE

10am - Prince Williams vs

Teleos

11am - CV Bethel vs

Mt Carmel

Noon - Doris Johnson vs

Government High

1pm - CI Gibson vs

Anatol Rodgers

2pm - Agape vs South Andros

3pm - CC Sweeting vs St John’s

4pm - St Augustine’s vs Aquinas

5pm - St George’s vs

Queen’s College

6pm - CI Gibson vs Agape

7pm - Doris Johnson vs

St Augustine’s College

8pm - CV Bethel vs

St George’s

9pm - CC Sweeting vs

Jordan Prince Williams