National Schools’ Basketball Festival: Bowman commends partners for successful tournament

Youth Basketball Guyana (YBG) Co-Director Chris Wayne Bowman has declared the 17th edition of the National Schools Basketball Festival a success. Activities in this regard were wrapped up this past Sunday at the National Gymnasium, following weeks of competition.
The Bishops’ High School Under-18 Boys, Queen’s College Under-14 Boys, and Kwakwani Secondary Under-18 Girls all won championship crowns by demonstrating their perseverance and tenacity.
Bowman discussed the difficulties faced in finding, and significance of, collaborations to the festival in an interview with Guyana Times Sport.

“…that says it all! I mean, there are certain things necessary to run off successful tournaments: facilities and teams, but the bottom line is that you need the resources. And (had it not been for) the support this year, quite frankly, of ExxonMobil at the last minute, it (would have) put us in a difficult spot. But what I can say is that we are happy that other sponsors reached out and responded positively. This has been one of the most challenging years we have had, and one of the things this year is we have had to cut some of the features in the tournament. We have had to move the All-star to a different one; we have had to forgo the U16 version, instead of four divisions (to) just three divisions. So, there have been a lot of challenges, but we have (had) a successful tournament. I think how we measure success this year is the fact we were able to complete the NATIONAL Schools Basketball Festival,” Bowman expounded.
He continued by saying the calibre of basketball played in the U14 category has astonished him. Bowman disclosed, “We are impressed with the quality at the U14 level. The U14 players, I don’t know if because of Youtube, they are watching more ball, they are more engaged, they are more polished, they have a higher level of IQ, they play more together as a team much more than the older divisions. So, we like what we see coming up from the U14.”
The YBG Co-Director has thanked the Guyana Amateur Basketball Association for regularly holding competitions that have increased the amount of playing time for student athletes. Bowman expressed, “Now with more tournaments, both at the GABA level, because GABA is having a good year and we are very happy about that, we are very happy that school players have something to look forward to, so they have the tertiary then they know that they are going to play when they go to club level; So, we are very happy about that.”
This tournament saw 40 schools, consisting of 56 teams within four divisions — Under-14, Under-16, Under-18 boys, and Under-18 girls — showcasing their talents. (Omar McKenzie)