Youth Basketball Guyana (YBG) is set to commence the much-anticipated National School Basketball Festival (NSBF) 2024, which showcases the best of high school basketball and is expected to be filled with exhilarated fans.
This tournament will see 40 schools, consisting of 56 teams within four divisions — Under-14, Under-16, Under-18 boys, and Under-18 girls — showcasing their talents at the National Gymnasium on Mandela Avenue, from Sunday, June 30.
As such, Co-Director of Youth Basketball Guyana, Chris Wayne Bowman, in an invited comment with <Guyana Times Sport, emphasised on expectations of the festival and the goal of consistently hosting basketball tournaments.
Defending champions Kwakwani Secondary
“Well, expectations, first of all, is that we could have a successful, it would be the 17th school basketball. We have had for the last 16 years; we have been able to engage student-athletes across Guyana in school basketball and that is our expectation when we had the pandemic, we just lost one year in terms of the festival, so that is the goal. The goal is to have a festival this year. We have had some challenges this year, but we are working towards a successful festival,” Bowman emphasised.
He went on to divulge the impact of partners towards the development of basketball and the hosting of this festival.
He said, “The key to the festival was always our partners. I think for basketball in particular, it’s a challenge in terms of what is needed for basketball to be played at the basic level. Basketball, like other sports, players need to be on a court year-round in terms of building skills and developing and bringing programmes and that is not always the case so it’s a challenge. A lot of resources are needed to go into the game to make that possible, so we have good partners – Edward B Beharry, and G-Boats who have been year-round partners for YBG and they have been able to bring us to this point. Basketball needs a lot of resources at the grassroots if it is going to be developed.”
The tournament has thus far received sponsorship from Edward B Beharry Ltd and G-Boats GY.
