Emotional Team Belize Regroups to Make History in Guatemala

Belize’s U-19 basketball team is on the road home from Guatemala City after making history with a medal win at the 2025 Central American Games. Without their four best players, the young Jaguars turned in a four and one record by blowing out El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala twice. After a gut wrenching lost to Panama, Coaches Stephen Williams and Jacob Leslie had to gather an emotional team of teenagers to reset their focus on bringing a medal back home to Belize.

 

Jacob Leslie, President, Basketball Federation

“I think in the Panama game, down the stretch. We were right there, but we just ran out of legs. And when your body fails you sometimes make mental errors. But I’m proud. Like I tell the kids I’m proud of them. Anybody who watched the game knew that these kids were playing with heart, and I think that’s what Belizean want when you bring a team to represent, they want to make sure we go out there and represent them well and I think these kids did that.”

 

Stephen Williams, Head Coach

“It was hard to sit down in the locker room and see these kids’ tears falling. Some of these kids even said that they’ve never cried like this for basketball, that brought tears to my eyes. But as a coaching staff, me, Jacob, and kareem, we knew that we had to keep them focused. Let them know the importance of taking home a medal from a tournament like this, and then what was easy to it as well we had Guatemala to play in the bronze medal game.”

 

Devin Moody, Point Guard

“My mindset was to lead the guys to a gold. Obviously, we failed on that behalf but we’re still grateful for the opportunity to bring back the bronze medal to Belize.”

 

Jason Orozco, Lead Scorer

“We just stick together as a team, even though it was a tough loss. We can’t come here to represent our country, going home back with nothing. So I mean, it’s best we play it all out still and win the bronze medal to take home back with us.”

 

Tevaughn Dawson, Wing Player

“Keep believing in us. Help us with resources. Help us with access to the gyms to get us prepared for our next battle and that can help other people, like the kids below us, motivate themselves because they see what we do. So it’s really just like something to pass on to another generation to build Belize basketball.”