By BRENT STUBBS
Senior Sports Reporter
bstubbs@tribunemedia.net
AFTER a two-year hiatus as a result of COVID-19, the country’s most prestigious Father Marcian Peters Invitational Basketball Tournament for primary and high school basketball teams is back.
This year’s event is scheduled for December 9-13 at the Kendal Isaacs Gymnasium, but will be played without the intermediate boys’ division, according to tournament director Jimmy ‘Joe Black’ Clarke, who noted that the emphasis will be placed on the senior girls’ division.
Clarke, a consultant in the Ministry of Youth, Sports and Culture, revealed that there are already 32 teams confirmed to participate in the event, which will only take place over five days.
“We have teams from Abaco and Andros and the Majority Special School is entered in the primary boys division and they say they are ready for any public or private school team,” Clarke said. “Woodcock Primary is also looking forward to participating.
“In the senior girls’ division, the CV Bethel Stingrays are expected to be the top-ranked school. They have about four to five players who are members of the junior girls national basketball team. This time around, it’s going to be interesting.”
The Ministry of Sports, according to Clarke, has increased the stipend they have provided to the Family Island teams to assist in getting them to New Providence for the tournament and so they are encouraged by what they see.
Clarke said the ministry will release the team rankings when they hold a press conference on Monday. But he noted that the primary boys and girls and junior boys and girls as well as the senior girls division will be keenly contested.
Clarke, however, said they eliminated the intermediate boys division from this year’s lineup because of the High School Hoop Fest that will start on December 14 for high school boys between teams coming in from the United States and all-stars teams from New Providence and Grand Bahama. “Our females will be in the spotlight this year,” Clarke said.
“We feel we have some very exciting teams that will be on display and so we want the public to get ready for the Father Marcian Peters Invitational. It’s on.”
This is the 34th edition of the Father Marcian Invitational, which is being held in honour of the late ‘Sporting Priest,’ who is known as one of the founders of the establishment of organised basketball in the country.
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