The Tribune

By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

IN his continued effort to mold and develop the skills of as many young female basketball players as he can, Terrance ‘Red Eye’ McSweeney is taking his Diamond Basketball Development Programme into the primary schools.

Starting on Saturday at the Sunshine Park basketball court on Moonshine Drive, McSweeney is all set to host a free Primary Schools training programme from 9am to noon.

Under the theme “Developing Your Hidden Talent for the Future,” the event will be the final chapter in the Diamond Basketball Development Programme and is designed just for primary girls from grades three to six.

“Since 1995 from the inception of the Diamond Basketball Development Programme for girls year round, it’s been developing girls basically from grades 7-12, that is junior high to senior high schools in both public and private schools,” McSweeney said.

“So I decided to venture into a new and final chapter for the Diamond Basketball Development Programme and that is the Diamond Basketball Primary Schools Girls’ Development Programme. So there should be no more excuses for schools, be it private or in the public with girls in grades three to six, whether they have a school programme or not.”

McSweeney said it’s unfortunate, but back in the day, under the leadership of the late Vincent Ferguson, it was mandatory for all basketball clubs to provide a super mini and mini basketball development to have a feeder programme.

That’s the same concept that McSweeney said he’s trying to develop in the girls’ programme and in particular to those schools who have students from kindergarten or grade one through grade 12.

“That should start from grades three to six,” he said. “It’s like baseball, which has a development programme from the tee ball straight on up. Soccer has a youth development programme from the kiddies and toddlers straight up.

“When you look at track and field, they also have a programme from the kiddies or age group system right up to its elite or pro athletes. But when it comes to basketball, in the last 20 years, we have not had any consideration for our primary school basketball.”

Rather than complain about the situation, McSweeney said when he started coaching female basketball in 1992 at the night league and in 1995 when he was asked to coach the ladies team in the third Bahaas Games and by the Basketball Federation from 1996 to 2000 to take over the senior ladies national team, he saw the deficiencies into the ladies’ programme.

“I went into Temple Christian School and started coaching at the senior girls level and then came into the junior girls and then the primary girls,” he pointed out.

“Now that I’ve been doing the Diamond Basketball Development Programme from 1995, which was just for Temple Christian Schools and then going into the community in 1998, I realize that the problem lay in the trenches where we don’t have coaches in these girls, who are paid to in both the public and private schools to develop the girls who are interested in playing basketball.”

Unlike the boys, who continue to play whenever the school year is ended, McSweeney said the girls need to be encouraged and that there be coaches who will help out these young players in developing their skills outside of the school system.

“Therefore, Diamond Development Basketball is saying to Joe public and to the schools, no more excuses for any institution that has grades three, four, five and six grades, to have a basketball programme for them to play in whenever it is the situation for the return of school sports.”

McSweeney is asking for the parents to remain at the courts so that they can assist their young girls in any matters that may arise on and off the court.

“Our watch words are safety is first, so with Covid-19 regulations in place, we will definitely have the health measures in place as well as we will definitely make certain that each girl coming to the park will sanitize their hands and have their temperature checked and recorded next to have name every time she come to practice,” McSweeney said.

“We will make sure that they sanitize their hands before and after every water break to ensure that th3e safety concerns that a parent may have, we want to have in place. Safety is our watch word. We also welcome any further safety measures that their parents may have.”

McSweeney advises the parents that the programme is not a babysitting one and as such, they are not expecting them to just drop their young girls off and go and do their Saturday’s chores.

“We are asking all of the parents to not just drop off their daughters in my care to help develop their child,” he said. “The programme is free of charge, so we are asking the parents to be very vigilant in this programme and not just drop their child off.”

Sunshine Park is the birthplacMcSweeney’s coaching career and thaat is the eason why he decided to

While the primary school girls programme is launched on Saturday, McSeeney said the high school girls programme will continue at the Hope Center basketball courts on Saturday.