The Tribune

By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

WITH some unfinished business since moving up from first vice president to president during the middle of the past four-year term in office, Eugene Horton will be seeking another tenure at the helm of one of the country’s most fledgling sporting bodies.

When the Bahamas Basketball Federation’s election of officers takes place on Saturday in the Ministry of Education’s conference room, Horton will be running against the challenge of Grand Bahama’s Quentin ‘Three Ounce’ Hall, a former national team player turned coach.

The elections will take place during the annual general meeting that will start at 10am.

“We have a lot of unfinished business, things that we need to do,” Horton said. “One of the things I would like to do before I leave is to develop the Family Island programme, which we started to work on since taking office,” Horton said. “We have some partners who are eager to assist us with that.

“I would also like to see the establishment of the national team coaches’ selection. The only one I probably would not interfere with is the national men’s team because of the position that they are in right now. You don’t want to interrupt the chemistry that they have developed.”

Horton, a former president of the New Providence Basketball Association, began his tenure in the federation as the public relations officer under the presidency of Charlie ‘Softly’ Robins.

He then served as the first vice president under immediate past president Mario Bowleg, who demitted office when he became the new Ministry of Youth, Sports and Culture after the Bahamas general elections in 2021.

After taking over from Bowleg, Horton said he’s seen some improvement, especially with the men’s national basketball team which, earlier this month, qualified for the Olympic Qualifying Tournament in July in the hopes of advancing to the Olympic Games in Paris, France.

Horton will be running a slate of officers that includes men’s national team assistant coach Moses Johnson as first vice president; rules interpreter Freddie Brown as second vice president; Andros’ Brian Cleare as third vice president; LaToya Silver as secretary general with Natasha Miller as her assistant and Simone Beneby as treasurer.

“Most of the people on the slate have been in the executive role in the past,” Horton said. “We have a good slate and so we will just be continuing what we started.

“Hopefully on Saturday, the delegates will give us another chance to continue what we started. We will see how it goes, one way or the other. We have a challenge from Quentin Hall and a slate of officers, but we feel confident that we will be returned to office.”

Although nominations have already been closed, Horton said the BBF will be able to entertain any nominations from the floor, but it will have to be voted on by the delegates.

Other than that, it will come down to a two-way slate for each position.

“One thing I don’t do is politics, so I just hope that at the end of the day, whoever is elected is elected to serve for the good of basketball,” Horton said.

“We have presented our case to the delegates, so hopefully they will give us the mandate to serve for the next four years.”

According to Horton, the achievements of the federation during this electoral tenure should be commended because they were put on a good footing towards future success.

He highlighted a summary of the BBF executive team effort expressed in the achievements and the challenges that the team undertook over the review period that encompasses the past two fiscal years ending 2022/2023. Within the context of facing the unprecedented world-wide COVID-19 pandemic, the BBF has soldiered on in pursuit of rebound-focused key strategic goals.

Establish Standardised Fee Structures and Negotiating Guidelines

• We are happy to have established a standardised sanctioning fee structure that was communicated widely to local and foreign agencies and also is posted to the federation website.

• The federation has successfully negotiated a new 3-year agreement with The Atlantis Paradise Island Battle 4 Atlantis who has proven themselves to be what we regard as one of our key strategic partners.

Established local and international donation/ sponsorship capabilities

• We shepherded a landmark achievement in establishing a tax efficient federation affiliated 501(C)3 organisation. This has put the BBF on a new track that has addressed a longstanding need to attract US-based funding.

• Based on successes of our national team programme we have created standard proposal packages to offer to local businesses/ agencies detailing the benefits of their support and the cost for the same. Through these negotiations we have been able to foster continuing business relationships with Island Luck, SuperClub Breezes, Oak Tree and Superior.

Family Island Support

• We have been proactive in our efforts to effectively maintain contact with each of the Family Island Association presidencies.

• We are actively negotiating with agents and teams participating in our annual Summer of Thunder tournament to bring necessary support to developing our family island facilities, equipment and uniforms.

• The federation, in our constant pursuit to partner with reputable key strategic partners, we are happy to have finalised an agreement with BD Global Sports Agency in bringing that all important international component in the promotion of our beloved sport of basketball.

Training and Technical Support

• The federation is proud of the fact that we successfully held officials and table technician training throughout the Commonwealth of The Bahamas

• The federation has been successful in ensuring representation at FIBA meetings.

National Team Programmes

• The federation is heartened by the fact that we have successfully established both a blue-ribbon national team selection committee and a streamlined application process

• During 2022, despite the ever-present financial challenges, the federation was successful in sending four national teams to participate in FIBA regional and Central and South American competitions. This included the following:

The Under 15 male National Team,

The Under 15 female National Team

The Sr. Women National Team

The Senior Men National Team

• The above teams participated in FIBA events, that saw our senior men assembled which is arguably the strongest team ever to date, that includes four NBA players. We are thankful to these players for their service and their sense of national pride exhibited in the face of unmentioned personal and professional self-sacrifice for the common goal of maintaining The Bahamas’ banner waving high.

• In our efforts to, as much as possible, promote our country and to feed our number one economic industry of tourism, the federation has successfully hosted four FIBA Americas tournament games here in Bahamas.

Federation Social and Government Responsibilities

• The federation is pleased to have successfully participated in the commemoration of The Bahamas 50th Anniversary of Independence in working with our key strategic partner, the Ministry of Youth Sports & Culture in the organisation of the Bahamas Games.

• Render support to the baseball federation, assisting in the set-up and online ticketing platform for their recent international tourney in Nassau. Additionally, we have assisted in providing them with a fee structure and guidelines to operate by as they venture into sports tourism.

Challenges

• The economic hardship that persists, and that unavoidably is endemic in The Bahamas archipelagic structure.

• In the face of ever competing sports interest for funding, there exists an acute lack of adequate funding sources.

• The new FIBA home and away tournament format has proven cost prohibitive, where the cost of the senior men’s national team averaged in excess of $80,000 per trip.

• The federation, like so many others, had been faced with the inevitable challenging sustained economic downturn brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The above factors present limited the BBF’s ability to do more in basketball promotion and programming.

Future Initiatives will include:

• Continue strengthening BBF capacity through focused training modules targeting the following:

• Statisticians’ Training

• Referees’ Training at various levels.

• Coaches training.

• FIBA-based executive training

• Continue to enhance our ongoing fiscal management improvement capabilities through key officer certifications and training.

• Continue to provide clean audited financial statements of the federation to The Registrar General Department and to other requisite authorities.

• Publish our audited financial statements on our website.

• Implement an executive shadowing initiative to promote stronger future capacity in leadership building.

• Promote the building of more Family Island facilities.

• Hold more FIBA technical multi-island workshops.

• Develop a robust youth development programme.

• Promote the development of 3-on-3 basketball tournaments.

• Pursue multi-jurisdictional networking as strategy to engender greater revenue streams through institutional advancement initiatives.