Parris pays it forward with clinic for Regma Primary girls

Several primary school girls recently benefited from a golden opportunity when West Virginia State University basketball player, 21-year-old Latisha Parris last Friday afternoon conducted an introductory basketball clinic.
The interactive clinic attracted 20 pupils from the Regma Primary School at the Retrieve Hard Court in the mining town of Linden.

Parris, whose parents Lennox and Sadina Parris are from Linden, was born in the United States and has been visiting Guyana since she was five. She has always wanted to give back to the sport of basketball, in the hometown of her parents.
As such, Parris related, “I was coming to Guyana since I was five years old. So, I always wanted to give back, to just teach them the basics, to expand the sport of basketball. While I know it is not as popular as it is in the United States, as it is here in Guyana, I felt committed to help.”
Assisting Parris was founder of the Abdulla Hamid Basketball Foundation, Abdulla “Zico” Hamid, who is a past national player and coach of Guyana.
In describing the two-hour clinic, Hamid stated, “Today’s session was the beginning of the first, which we hope it can continue every year, annually for young women in Linden. Maybe, we can see professional players birthed from this programme and to me it’s a good initiative.”

The Region 10 (Upper Demerara-Berbice) Education Department was represented by one of its education officials, Dawn McCammon-Barker, who currently is President of the Linden Amateur Basketball Association (LABA), and she said, “The LABA and Department of Education are extremely grateful for this initiative. Normally, such clinics are done without any emphasis on our females, but this was one that targeted our girls and this being for our primary girls is most commendable.”
According to Parris parents Lennox and Sadina, this is expected to be an annual basketball programme to assist the sport in the bauxite mining community.