Basketball President Pleas for Support of Successful Junior Program

The junior male basketball program is the highest globally ranked of all Belize’s team sports. Belize is ranked number nine in all the Americas and has even defeated Brazil, the number eleven ranked basketball program in the whole world. However, despite its success, the team still struggles to attract financial support for international competitions. They could not even afford to take a physiotherapist to the Central American Games, which later showed in players’ performance at critical times on the court. Now that Belize has once again made history by bringing back the bronze medal from Guatemala, the President of the Belize Basketball Federation is calling on government and the business community to support the teams’ next mission.

Jacob Leslie, President, Belize Basketball Federation

“The three years that I’ve been president has been very challenging financially. We try to compete at least once a year and that in itself is a burden. We will find that when we do get support, we might get support right at the brink of competition, like the week of. And we know that we are competing in these games a year in advance. And you try to lobby, and you try to get support to have the kids prepared properly, right, so that they are, they have a fair shot of being the best version of themselves. In Belize, we have the only team sport that is ranked top ten in the Americas. These kids over the three years have proven to us what they are and what they can accomplish. It is time that Belize gets behind them and supports them. We have another year again ahead of us that we know. We know the date, July, end of July 2026. We know what we’re up against. I appeal to the government. I appeal to the private sector to support these kids. They deserve it and every time they come out here they put Belize on their chest and they play with pride and they play with heart and they deserve a fair chance to really compete at this level.”