The Tribune

By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

WITH Eugene Horton opting not to seek another term as president, incumbent first vice president James Price said the time is right for him to step up and take over the helm of the New Providence Basketball Association.

Having served for three consecutive terms, two under the presidency of Keith ‘Belzee’ Smith and the last under Horton, Price will be running for the top spot when the NPBA elections are held on May 25.

He is expected to be opposed by Ricardo Smith.

Price, who officially retired as a head coach in the league this past season, has put together a team of executives that he has called the “Next Level,” whom he feels will take the association to higher heights.

They include first vice president Kevin ‘KJ’ Johnson; second vice president Donnie Culmer; third vice president Kevin ‘Island’ McPhee; fourth vice president Ryan ‘Rat’ Turnquest; secretary Rochelle ‘Ro’ Kemp; assistant secretary Rhondia Johnson; treasurer Sophia Hunter; commissioner Anthony ‘Cops’ Rolle; assistant commissioner Terrance ‘Red Eye’ McSweeney and public relations officer Moses Johnson.

“I think it’s best for me to step up and take over the league because I know I can continue to steer it in the right direction,” Price said.

“If you leave it and just let it flow, we know where we’ve been and we will be heading back into that same direction.”

A self-employed businessman, Price said he intends to bring the development of basketball back to the level where the mini and super-mini programme served as a feeder system for the clubs.

“We have some other plans that will include some givebacks to the players because they have carried the league,” Price stated. “Without the players, we won’t have a league, so we intend to treat them a lot better than we did in the past.”

Over the years, the NPBA had revealed its plans to erect their own facility that they can have as their own and not rely on the AF Adderley or CI Gibson gyms to accommodate them.

“I want to either start or finish the facility in four years,” Price said. “We have been knocking around as a league for too long and we are not utilising the property that was earmarked for us to create our own facility.

“It seems like nobody wants to take up the mantle to get that going, so when we get in office, we will stop speaking about it and get some headward in at least getting it started.”

Looking at the personnel he has lined up to run with him, Price said he’s confident that they can get the job done. “I’ve had a talk with everybody before their names were put on the slate, so I feel very confident that they will step forward and do what they have to do to make the league a better one,” he said.

“Sometimes, we know everybody has their own egos, but we also know that there is no such thing as one individual in a team. So we will make decisions as a team and that’s the way it’s going to be.”

Having joined the league in 1999 as a sponsor and then a coach, Price said he feels he has reached his apex and will now like to move on. He’s endured a great sting with the Real Deal Shockers, which have won both the men’s division one and two titles in the past.

“I told everybody, win, lose or draw, this past season was my last,” Price said. “The role as a head coach is a commitment and sometimes you have to know when enough is enough because your body can only take so much.

“When you are a head coach, whether you feel good or you feel bad, you have to get to practice because as a leader, you have to lead by example. That was the key. With my business, I had to leave things to go to practice or to the games.”

Over the past two years, Price said he was grooming Conrad Bullard to take over as the head coach and now he feels, as he steps up to challenge for the top executive post of the association, he has found his replacement on the sidelines of the Shockers team.

In the challenge he anticipates from Smith, Price said he’s an opponent so he has to prepare for it. But he doesn’t anticipate that it will be a major challenge for him to overcome.

No doubt, Smith will have something to say about that.