The Tribune

By RENALDO DORSETT

Tribune Sports Reporter

rdorsett@tribunemedia.net

THE sporting calendar for the Ministry of Education’s National High School Championship series continues with basketball and soccer highlighting the next two months for student athletes.

The Ministry of Education, in conjunction with the Ministry of Youth Sports and Culture and Bahamas Basketball Federation, will host the National High School Basketball Championships March 27 to April 1 in Grand Bahama.

The ministries will then partner with the Bahamas Football Association to host the Samuel P Haven National High School Soccer Championships April 27 to May 4 in New Providence. These championships will showcase top teams from various school leagues for the senior boys and girls’ divisions.

Evon Wisdom, senior education officer at the Ministry of Education, said the development of the championship series within the school system has become paramount.

Basketball Nationals will have a new look this year as the boys’ division will now solely include a single division for senior boys with the suspension of the Family Island division due to expenses and budgetary restraint. Twenty teams will qualify outright with the expected addition of several wild card teams.

The senior girls’ division will feature 11-12 teams.

The selection process has not been finalised, and that is being dealt with by the selection committee which includes the president of the basketball federation, insider Ozzie Simmons from Grand Bahama and members of the local organising committee.

Several of the Family Island teams, like Gateway Academy who came to Hugh Campbell and won games against ‘Super 20’ teams, will now be playing in our main division.

“We also have about three or four schools with special circumstances,” Wisdom said. “Every detail with regard to the selection of girls will be looked at with special emphasis being paid to the competitiveness of those teams. The committee does not want imbalanced games being played at the national championship level.”

Keith Smith, senior vice president of the BBF and tournament co-chair, said this year’s event will continue its vision of presenting an improved product for local basketball enthusiasts. “We will be working very hard with the LOC in Freeport as well as here in New Providence to ensure that everything is in place. This National Championship will be the best out of any we have had before because we have to implement more professionalism. We look at the result but we don’t take time to appreciate the amount of work it takes to make an event like this successful. We will do that this time around and the Bahamian people will be proud of the result they will see,” he said.

“The BBF is excited about this. The young men and women in basketball are beginning to ‘get it’ about life after basketball. We are preparing these kids with the principles of this game that they can apply to life. It’s an ongoing concern to develop basketball in the Family Islands and we must do more for girls’ basketball.”

Soccer Nationals will also experience a change in its logistics with games played in two venues, several fixtures in the opening round in Grand Bahama before the venue shifts to the capital and the Roscow Davies Soccer Field.

Carl Lynch, deputy general secretary of the BFA, said the opening round will give fans in the nation’s second city a chance to experience the atmosphere of the nationals firsthand.

“The first day of the competition, match day one, will be held in Freeport Grand Bahama. We have listened to our constituents, residents in Grand Bahama have been asking for a number of years to have this. They are very passionate about the sport and their support for young people.”

GSSSA runners-up and BAISS runners-up will travel to Grand Bahama to play the Grand Bahama winners and runners-up.

“All of the schools will be concluding their seasons around that time. When they return from Easter break there is basically a week to get into training and then we’ll be ready for nationals. We have to find schools playing at a high level, last year we brought in the team from Abaco and they played very well, we have to find the next school, the next island capable of playing at a high level,” Lynch said.

“The BFA will be launching a coaching academy, we want to develop a cadre of coaches that our counterparts throughout the region and as such we want to bring along our school coaches in the programme. This is something we want to do to expand to include the BAISS and the other bodies. The BFA is also increasing its role in high school football on a number of fronts. It has been mandated by CONCACAF and FIBA that we become more involved, we have initiatives in the pipeline so expect to see more from the BFA in this regard.”

After a successful hosting in the 2016 edition of the tournament, the 2017 event was postponed due to the BFA putting its resources on the country’s hosting of the FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup. It returned in 2018 with a record number of participants.

“We see it as a development tool to assist the BFA in the development of soccer in our country. We feel as though this can be powered by schools and their rivalries will make this sport so much better so the ministry is proud to promote this event. The popularity of the tournament has continued to grow so now we have even been asked to include our junior high schools. This is something that we intend to work with the BFA on to see how each year we can make the tournament bigger and better,” Wisdom said.

“We are putting in place a development programme for Family Islands where they can develop those leagues to the point where they can be invited to play in nationals. Those talks are ongoing and will continue throughout the summer so next year we will be able to see participation from the Family Islands. We take the development of soccer very seriously and feel that it should be done properly and in order.”