The Tribune

By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

IT’S not every day you see players and coaches get together to relive the memories of a major feat in their lives.

However, the members of the Bahamas women’s national basketball team that went undefeated in winning the gold medal at the 1992 Caricom Games in Bridgetown, Barbados did that on Tuesday night as they came together at the home of Kim Rolle to reflect on their historic performance.

Members of the team present were Roberta Quant, Sharelle Cash, Kim Rolle, Fontella Chipman-Rolle, Juliette Delancy-Taylor, Natasha Miller, Felecia Cartwright, Ann Bullard, Glenda Gilcud, Varel Clarke- Davis, Antoinette Knowles and coach Sharon ‘The General’ Storr.

Unable to attend were Sharon Smith-Walker and Lavern Fife, both of whom are living in the United States of America.

It has been 29 years since their achievement, but Rolle, now the athletic director of the University of the Bahamas Mingoes sporting programme and the wife of PLP’s South Beach Member of Parliament Bacchus Rolle, said they couldn’t afford to let the opportunity slip by without reflecting on their past accomplishment.

“It was a lovely evening, tremendous, amazing,” was how Rolle described the event. “After 29 years, we picked up the pieces as if we were in Barbados. It was a great, great night. I think the General was overwhelmed with emotion and very grateful.

“In fact, many of the ladies were grateful, many of whom had not seen each other in years despite us living here. We were glad that we could do it at a time when Ann and Felecia were in town. They are both on the Family Islands.”

In such a short time pulling the event together, Rolle said they were not able to get Smith-Walker and Fife to make the trip, but they still got to share their memories of what they considered to be the “best” women’s national team ever assembled, the same year that the men’s national team also won the title with an undefeated record.

Storr, back with the Ministry of Youth, Sports and Culture on the Games Secretariat for the Bahamas Games, said he enjoyed the interaction with the team, the first one he coached at the international level.

“It was a very touching moment for me because what those ladies went through, it was a very good experience for me to coach them,” said Storr, who was only filling in for head coach Anthony Swaby, who was unable to make the trip after he got ill.

“So it was a tremendous experience. And to see all of the girls and the response to the turnout made it extra special as we look back at the accomplishment. It’s one of those championships that brought in a new style with more pressing on the defensive end.”

As a veteran former player, coach and now official, Storr said his only regret was that he didn’t stay around with the team for at least another tournament or two, but he gracefully returned the reigns of the team to Swaby for the Central American and Caribbean Games in Puerto Rico a year later.

“I should have kept that squad together and probably just add some height because we only had Laverne (Fife) and Natasha (Miller),” said Storr, who indicated that in hindsight, he felt he and Swaby would have made a great coaching duo if he had continued with the team.

Bullard, a coach in Harbour Island who is hoping that the Ministry of Education will transfer her back to New Providence, said it was an “epic” night to remember as they all made a commitment to stay in touch with each other at least once a month.

“We had built a bond with each other that year and to come back that night (Tuesday) was just magical,” Bullard said.

Looking at the team’s achievement and where the women’s programme is right now, Bullard said the Bahamas Basketball Federation will need to develop a more vibrant junior national programme to help develop the next generation of players.

“Back then, our team didn’t just practice two weeks before we went away. We practiced year round for that tournament,” she said.

“And we need coaches who are dedicated to teaching the fundamentals of the game and not just concentrating on winning.

“I have to tip my hat off to coaches like Anthony Swaby, Benny Adderley, John Todd, Martin Lundy who were dedicated to building women’s basketball.

“We don’t have that many coaches who are dedicated and those who are dedicated like Terrance McSweeney are not given the opportunity to do it,” she added.

Bullard is also calling on the Bahamas Government to upgrade the community facilities on the parks, not only in New Providence, but in the Family Islands as well, to allow the youngsters to harness their game while they are not in school.

Clarke-Davis, the youngest member of the team at 14 in grade 10, said she was delighted to see all of her former team-mates 29 years later.

“We were so happy to see each other,” said Clarke-Davis, now the president of the Government Secondary Schools Sports Association and a physical education teacher at the CH Reeves Junior High School.

“Everybody was alive and well, so it was good to sit in their company and reminisce about all of the good times we had together in Barbados in an undefeated season under one of the best coaches the Bahamas has ever produced in Sharon ‘The General’ Storr.”

Clarke-Davis thanked Rolle for bringing them all together.

And while they won’t be fantasizing about forming a team anytime soon to play again, they said they have not been fully recognised for putting the Bahamas women’s programme on the map.