The Tribune

By RENALDO DORSETT

Tribune Sports Reporter

rdorsett@tribunemedia.net

THE Government Secondary Schools Sports Association Basketball championship series promises to provide an unique experience for the student-athletes participating and fanbases cheering them on.

Stakeholders hosted a press conference at the Atlantis R]resort yesterday to announce plans for this year’s event, to be hosted February 4-6 at the Kendal Isaacs Gymnasium.

Sponsors include REV TV, Atlantis, Generali and Aliv.

Evon Wisdom, of the Ministry of Education’s Sports Unit, said the event has grown exponentially with the continued support of its most loyal sponsor and new additions.

“Our championships started at humble beginnings in local school gymnasiums. We then moved on to the KGLI Gymnasium, which in those days we could only half fill and then we got an opportunity from Cable Bahamas.

“Since that intervention, this event has grown to where we host all our playoffs in the national gymnasium to capacity crowds,” he said.

“Where we envision this going is to have more and more corporate entities like our partners here to assist us in making this event an even greater success. We only see this getting better. One of the things we are trying to highlight is our women in sport. Our young men are highlighted but we still want to bring some equity to this. A lot of these young people receiving this opportunity are of humble means and so for us to showcase their skills means a lot to them and they perform to an even higher level.”

Each of the four divisions will be contested each day with the senior boys’ matchup televised live at 8pm on Our Tv.

“It is our pleasure to be the presented broadcast partner in these events. We like to think of ourselves as providing a platform through exactly what it is that we do for these games to be seen nationwide and empowering young people. It’s a part of our corporate social responsibility mandate to empower young people, particularly through sport,” said Alexia Coakley, Our TV media operations manager.

“Sport development is significant in building character and skills these young people can carry throughout the rest of their lives. We are happy to utilise our resources, our production team, our network and all things that come together to make this event significant and it is something we look forward to every year.”

Rick Gallagher, vice president of entertainment and special events, said his organisation was eager to come on board to aid the development of the sport in the country.

“From its inception, Atlantis has been an avid supporter of youth development and indeed a sponsor of a myriad of sporting programmes. We couldn’t be more excited to assist in sponsoring this event. It is our belief that sports is an important empowerment tool for young people the world over,” he said.

“We look forward to a day in the near future when we see some of these GSSSA players playing college ball right here on the court during one of our Battle 4 Atlantis tournaments and living up to the likes of our new Bahamian superstars – Buddy Hield and Deandre Ayton.”

Aliv is in its third year of sponsorship while Generali comes on board for the first time.

Said Sherelle Johnson, business development manager: “This helps us with one of our core values which is ‘living the community.’ We know these players have a lot of skill but they do not have the necessary financial support. We look at it as helping the community and we know sports can help in areas of educational achievements, overall wellness and as one of our key roles is to help the Bahamas live healthier lifestyles.”

Sasha Lightbourne, Aliv media champion added: “Sports, and by extension, basketball is popular across many demographics in this country. As a result, supporting the GSSSA and the Ministry of Education underscores our commitment to encourage growth and development throughout the Bahamas. We feel that whenever we invest in our youth in something such as basketball, it impacts the entire community and produces a better society.”

The 2018 champions were HO Nash in the junior girls, DW Davis in the junior boys, Doris Johnson in the senior girls and Anatol Rodgers in the senior boys.