The Tribune

By Brent Stubbs

Senior Sports Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

IT HAS been another banner year for sports in the country and one of those that stood out in the foreground were the performances of our various teams that competed both locally and on the international scene.

Today, as we begin our series of spotlights on the events that occurred in 2018, we take a look at the Team of the Year.

1) Men’s Davis Cup

You can argue about the trip the Bahamas Lawn Tennis Association’s team of Baker Newman, Philip Major Jr, Jodi Turnquest and player/captain Marvin Rolle made to Costa Rica in June for the Americans Zone III Davis Cup tie.

When it was all said and done, Major Jr won his opening singles in the first to fourth playoff match against Costa Rica, while Newman lost his match. It came down to the pivotal doubles where Major Jr and Rolle teamed up to secure the win. That enabled the Bahamas to clinch one of the two spots along with Honduras to claim their promotion into zone II for 2019. It was a heart wrenching experience for the team because of the hostility that the Bahamas has endured when playing in South America.

The effort earned the team the top spot as the Team of the Year. They were awarded with that distinction as well in October when the Ministry of Youth, Sports and Culture honoured the team at their year-ending awards ceremony.

For his efforts as well, Rolle was named the Coach of the Year.

Quite an achievement for the sport of tennis and the BLTA, which ended the year last week with a dark cloud hanging over its annual Giorgio Baldacci National Open at the National Tennis Centre where some of the top seeded players, including Major Jr, objected to the way the seeding for the main draw was done and they refused to play. Now the BLTA will have to go back to the drawing board in selecting both the Davis Cup and Fed Cup teams for women as they head into the new year.

2) Be the G.O.A.T

In what could be described as the biggest upset this year, Drumeco Archer lodged a campaign on the phrase: “Be the G.O.A.T. - Greatest of All Time” - and he and his slate of officers were successful in whisking the administration from incumbent Rosamunde Carey and her “‘Bonafide Innovators” team last month.

For the first time, the elections were held under a newly revised constitution, which only allowed the delegates of the clubs to vote. The elections, however, didn’t go without controversy as evidence was produced to show that there was another document registered that the members were not aware of.

However, it was cleared up and the show went on.

When the dust had cleared, Archer provided a real live goat at the Thomas A Robinson National Stadium to help him celebrate his triumph.

Now the work is beginning and everybody is waiting to see how he will bend the wall in bringing all of the stakeholders, including the athletes, coaches and officials back together as they head into what promises to be a big year in 2019.

3) Men’s National Basketball Team

It’s not been the showing that head coach Mario Bowleg expected from the Bahamas Basketball Federation men’s national basketball team as they competed in the first round of the FIBA World Cup Qualifying Tournament.

Playing out of Group D, the Bahamas sits at the bottom of the file of four teams with a 1-5 win-loss record and an accumulation of seven games with six more games to play. Unfortunately, the results have eliminated the Bahamas from automatically qualifying for the trip to China in September, 2019.

The Bahamas’ only victory came in an 86-85 nipping of the Dominican Republic on July 2 in what Bowleg had dubbed his “final appearance” as a coach. The current first vice president of the BBF is hoping to move up the ladder to take over as president from Charlie ‘Softly’ Robins when the elections are held next year.

The team opened play on November 24, losing 99-89 on the road to Canada. That was followed by three back-to-back decisions at home at the Kendal Isaacs Gymnasium on November 27 to the Virgin Islands 93-85; on February 22 to the Dominican Republic 96-63 and on February 25 to Canada 113-67.

Not only the appearance of Sacramento Kings’ guard Chavanno ‘Buddy’ Hield and Lourawls “Tum Tum” Nairn Jr, now in the Phoenix Suns’ front office with a role in player development to work alongside fellow Bahamian national team member Deandre Ayton, was enough to propel the Bahamas to the second round that started in September.

As they moved from one game to the next, Bowleg and his coaching staff added pieces to the team, but it was obvious that the chemistry wasn’t there as there wasn’t sufficient time for the players to come together and work out.

4) Men’s 1600m Relay Team Commonwealth Silver

There was much dispute over the absence of Steven Gardiner at the IAAF World Championships in 2017 where the Bahamas failed to make it to the final of the men’s 4 x 400 metre relay in London, England that at the next showing, the Bahamas Association of Athletic Associations made some amendments.

With or within the country’s top quarter-miler, the Bahamas was destined to get back on the medal podium at its next major international event that came at the Commonwealth Games in the Gold Coast, Australia in April.

The combo of Ojay Ferguson, Teray Smith, Stephen ‘Dirty’ Newbold and Alonzo Russell ran a season’s best of 3:01.92 to snatch the silver medal behind Botswana and ahead of Jamaica. The quartet of Ferguson, Russell, Michael Mathieu and Ramon Miller survived the semifinal with the third fastest time where three teams were causalities of disqualifications.

The silver capped off a great showing by Team Bahamas at the games as Shaunae Miller-Uibo bagged the only gold in the women’s 200m and both high jumper Jamaal Wilson and 400m hurdler Jeffery Gibson added silver hardware in their respective events to Team Bahamas’ total of five for 21st lace overall in the standings.

5) Bahamas Water Polo Team

From the Carifta Games where the Bahamas Swimming Federation captured three gold medals in Kingston, Jamaica in April to the XXXI CCCAN Swimming Championships in Aruba in June, the Water Polo team, coached by Laszlo Borbely, made headlines with their fantastic performances.

It seemed as if no matter what meet Borbely had the players participate in this year, the Bahamas name always appeared in the final standings. The team complimented the performances by yet an impressive showing by the swimmers in their respective individual events during those two meets.

In July, seven members of Bahamas Mantas Water Polo - Alex Turnquest, Gabriel Sastre, Nicholas Wallace-Whitfield, Gabriel Encinar, Thomas Illing, Damian Gomez and Thor Sasso - joined the Houston Storms at the USA Water Polo Junior Olympic Championships in Houston, Texas where they finished fourth out of 10 teams.

The sport wrapped up the top five list of accomplishments posted by the Bahamas during this past year. There were others that have received honorable mention, including the the entire Commonwealth Games team, the entire Central American and Caribbean Games contingent, the Carifta track team, the Central American and Caribbean Bodybuilding and Caribbean Amateur Golf Championship teams.

During the course of the next few days, Tribune Sports will publish its’ top male and female athletes in both the junior and senior categories.