Belize Global Elite Academy Elevates Belizean Basketball

Good evening, I am Paul Lopez here with this week’s installment of Sports Monday. We begin tonight with a quick overview of this weekend in the National Elite Basketball League. Three games were slated to play over the weekend, and only two materialized. On Friday night, the Corozal Spartans hosted the Belize City Defenders in the north. The Spartans were unable to defend home turf and lost the game by a whopping forty-two points.

The Defenders finished with ninety-two, while the Spartans secured fifty points. In Belmopan, the Trojans hosted Cayo Western Ballaz and again it was another road victory. Western Ballaz defeated the Trojans ninety-eight to seventy-seven points. In Dangriga, the Dream Ballers were set to host the San Pedro Tigersharks. But moments after both teams lined up, the Dream Ballers walked off the court in protest. Reports to News Five indicate that Dream Ballers’ management were not agreement with Tigershark’s decision to play its new signee, Takiin Ross, that night. The Dream Ballers protested the legitimacy of his appearance on the roster. We await an official announcement from the league on whether the match will replay, but fans were certainly left disappointed.

 

And from league basketball to upskilling coaches, over the weekend the Belize Global Elite Academy hosted a room full of basketball coaches for a coaching clinic. We stopped by the session at the Hub Resource Center where we found out how the facilitators plan to elevate the game of basketball in Belize.

 

Roscoe Rhys, Coach, Belize Global Elite Academy

“What we are having today is a coaching clinic for all coaches, whether you are beginner, coaching in the youth program, p[primary school, high school, elite level, it is just a basketball clinic to better your knowledge of coaching in general.

 

Ron Day, Coach, Belize Global Elite Academy

“What we are trying to do with the academy is to develop coaches not just on x and o and offences and defenses. We are trying teach them how plan, how to create standards and culture for their team. We want to develop the coaches of Belize.”

 

Sakenah Lopez, Coach, Belize Global Elite Academy

“Most people know me as a football coach but now I am going into basketball. And I am always advocating for females getting involved in sports. So for today I will be presenting on conduct of coaches, so I am privileged that I will be doing that today.”

 

And finally, we have been closely following the Future’s Football League, and the tournament finally came to a close over the weekend. Several weeks of games were played and champions were crowned in the under ten and under thirteen categories. First place in the under-ten category went to Future Football Club. And, the club also secured first place in the under-thirteen category. Ebony F.C. secured second place in both categories., while Belize United won third in the under-ten and Leaders of Tomorrow won third place in the under-thirteen category. We spoke with the organizer of the event,

 

Edon Rowley, Organizer, Future’s Football League

“We started this tournament on the fourteenth of March and we are concluding today. I have been doing this from 2017, so it is the only tournament that has been in and out every year. For me we know we have a lot of these kids throughout the country, and it is not only about football. We want them to come mingle with the different kids and engage in positivity of football we are promoting.”

 

Well folks, that is all we have for you in tonight’s coverage of Sports Monday. Catch you in the next one.

 

Attention readers: This online newscast is a direct transcript of our evening television broadcast. When speakers use Kriol, we have carefully rendered their words using a standard spelling system.

 

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