Basketball Uniting Belize District Communities

After three months of fierce competition between twenty Belize District community teams, the William Dawson Sprite Basketball Tournament has finally crowned a champion. News Five has been following the tournament all season and what we found out is that the impact of this tournament is felt far beyond the basketball court. Shane Williams has this report.

 

Shane Williams, Reporting

Tuff Enuff are the new champs of the William Dawson Basketball Tournament, walking away with five thousand dollars. What started as a small six-team event in 2015 is now a major fixture with twenty teams and big cash prizes. More than basketball, the tournament, pushed by the late William Dawson, aims to steer at-risk youth away from gangs. Organizers say it’s working.

 

Douglas Hyde, Tournament Coordinator

“The strategy of intervention through sports is working and these teams have showed that through sports they are willing to put all out on the basketball court rather than go shoot up at each other.”

 

Shane Williams

“What have you seen from the effect of the tournament off the court?”

 

Douglas Hyde

“The partnership, the collaboration, the team efforts. Some of these guys didn’t talk to each other before. Some of them didn’t go in different neighborhoods. Now they’re doing that. There’s a like partnership. There’s a friendship that have developed over these years with these teams, and I’m very proud of that.We see how they have worked very closely with the LIU when it comes to intervention and they’re going more and more to the offices.”

 

The tournament draws top-tier talent, players who shine on Belize’s biggest stages; but for them, this peace tournament is personal. It gives them an opportunity to represent their neighborhood and even sometimes defend home turf in front of relatives and friends. Francis Arana and Godfrey Arnold went at it all game long, with the championship hanging in the balance, right down to the final 0.3 seconds. Players of both teams left it all on the court.

 

Francis Arana, MVP, Tuff Enuff

“This tournament, I da from the hood and da something weh the hood look forward to every year. And just fi compete – make the ghetto youths them compete and show them talent. I da from the ghetto soh I always come out and I try give back to the community.”

 

Shane Williams

“You think this tournament make a difference to help calm down gang violence?”

 

Francis Arana

“Yeah it help a lot because a lot of the youths them active pan the court. They have much time fi play ball. They noh the think bout hang out and the do violence and stay pan the street corner. Every weekend they the look forward fi play wa game

 

Godfrey Arnold, Top Scorer, Don One

“This da wa good tournament mein. This da the tournament lotta people look out for cause then they noh really have lot of tournaments in belie like that weh the do them thing ya so this da wah good tournament. Every year we the look out for it again same way to.”

 

Minister Home Affairs Oscar Mira will decide whether there will be a tournament next year. After witnessing two incredible games to conclude the tournament, Mira’s mind was completely made up.

 

 Shane Williams

“Minister, you came and you witness two excellent games. What’s your impression of the tournament and will it be back?

 

Oscar Mira, Minister of Home Affairs

“No, of course it’s going to be back. It is one of those things I think that we have to support. Sports on a whole bring the community together. It brings people together. It also brings the community in a way that nothing else does but sports. When you go out there and you have a team and you have young people playing the family come out to support. The community where you live comes out to support. It is something that we have to continue. These are programs that we will continue to support. As I said, it’s a community based program. And as I was told, every weekend they go into different communities and different areas of the city, and it’s around the villages to play. It brings people together, communities together, families together and that is what we want to do, give young people an alternative.”

 

Don One took home three thousand dollars for second prize while a sixteen eight run to finish the third place game earned the Warriors their fifteen-hundred-dollar prize and Class settled for one thousand dollars in fourth place.  Shane Williams for News Five.