GABA One Guyana transitions to national tournament

Georgetown Amateur Basketball Association (GABA) President Jermaine Slater, while speaking to Guyana Times Sport, has announced that the GABA One Guyana League, which was set to roll out on August 19, will be transitioned into a national tournament.
“Okay, so here’s the update on the … [One Guyana] League. The president will be sponsoring the league’s expansion from just the Georgetown Association clubs because this league was Georgetown Association’s league. It will now become a national league, meaning everybody or all the top clubs, I should say, around the country will have an opportunity to play,” Slater divulged.

“And even for the clubs that may not make the cut-off, if we’re going to go with at least 20, 15 clubs, how many clubs, if they don’t make the cutoff, part of those teams will have, some teams will be representing different areas of Guyana.”
Slater went on to expound on the countywide inclusiveness of the League’s expansion which will see teams from all the administrative regions.
He said, “For instance, there will be some East Bank All-Star team, East Coast All-Star team, there’s going to be teams from Berbice, representing Berbice, … and we’re looking to form some teams to represent Regions One, Two, and Nine. So, for players from those clubs, top players from those clubs that probably did not make the cut-off, they will be able to participate still by representing different regions, either where they came from, or adding to the players if a region is shortened a player, adding to that player pool to still be part of the tournament.”
Slater disclosed the president’s request for the inclusion of youths in the tournament and the infrastructural development to construct basketball courts in schools and communities, which is in the planning stage.
He explained, “So, it’s going to be a massive tournament, a big tournament. There will be junior players involved in the tournament, as per the request of the President. Another project that we will be piggybacking on this (that the President wants to implement, or did implement, and is now in the planning stage, how it’s going to get done is building basketball courts in each school, or rather in each school that can house a court, whether it be a half court or a full court ….he wants a basketball court in each school.
“And also, they are looking to identify areas, grounds, community grounds, and community areas, where they can actually put basketball courts for the community to be able to utilise. So that’s a project that will be big for us, because having more courts can help us do more community-based basketball games. That’s basically the gist of what’s going on.”