The ExxonMobil National School Basketball Festival: BOWMAN HAILS SBF AS SUCCESSFUL

…says plethora of activities on YBG calendar for 2022

By Timothy Jaikarran

The ExxonMobil National School Basketball Festival concluded on Sunday with Kwakwani winning the Girls division, President’s College the U16 division, and Aroaima the U18 division of the competition.

And Co-Founder of the Youth Basketball Guyana (YBG), Chris Bowman, has hailed the festival as great and competitive, while giving insight into the YBG agenda for 2022. Speaking with this publication, he had the following to say on the conclusion of the finale: “It was a great competition overall, it was competitive for sure. The pandemic or lay-off for the two years definitely affected the competitiveness in terms of outcome or results, but the competition was definitely good.
“The tournament was great! We were definitely excited for our students from across Guyana who are inclined and love to play basketball, as they had the opportunity this year. So, this was really a tremendous success for Youth Basketball Guyana and for youth basketball in general; so, we are very pleased with the outcome overall.”

Speaking about the grand finale in the three respective categories, Bowman posited that there were some good matchups for the finals. He opined that Queen’s College getting to their first finals against Kwakwani in the Girls division was always going to be a challenge for the developmental group that Queen’s College is nurturing, as compared to the more experienced Kwakwani unit.
He predicted that despite the result, the Girls’ basketball division would continue to improve as time progresses because, come 2023, there would be much tighter competition in that category.
For the Under-16 category, Bowman said it is his belief that the best crop of players could be found there, as they are competitive and have lots of talent, and thus YBG is very pleased with what the under-16 division has produced.
As it relates to the Under-18 category, Bowman opined that there clearly was one team that was far above everyone else in the competition. He was referring to Aroaima Secondary, who dominated President’s College 103-52. He pointed out that four players from the Aroaima team got double-digit scores, which showed the fluency, efficiency and excitement they brought to the game.
Asked to comment on the crowd support, Bowman said, “We are excited about the type of community that Youth Basketball is building. We introduced, a few years ago, ‘best fan-support award’ and President’s College has won that title two years in a row. It was very close, as both Queen’s College and Bishops’ High School had good fan support.

“The unique thing is that the out-of-town teams such as Linden, when they come to play, supporters come all the way from Kwakwani to support them, and this says that the community of…is very responsive to the quality of basketball that Youth Basketball Guyana is putting out on the basketball court.”
The YBG Co-Founder explained that this makes the organisation very proud, as fans can come to a basketball game and be engaged, have a good time, and have something to take home, compliments of the sponsors. Bowman relayed that there were lots of giveaways from ExxonMobil throughout the tournament, and even from Edward B Beharry and G-Boat, among other sponsors.
Regarding what is next, Bowman related that the YBG would continue to focus on basketball at the grassroots level, and the YBG Academy will continue, as would a number of summer basketball camps in several regions.
“Later this year, in partnership with ExxonMobil, we will be completing a tertiary knockout tournament. We have had the Tertiary League earlier this year, and later in the year, (we will have) the Knockout League. We also plan to host, later this year, a Student Athlete Pathway Conference,” Bowman explained.
He also said there are plans in the works to roll out a Youth Basketball Curriculum, which would then be followed by the Youth Basketball Guyana Titan Bowl at the end of the year. The Titan Bowl will be YBG’s final tournament for 2022, and while the National School Basketball Festival has been YBG’s main event for the year, Bowman touted that there will be other activities and programmes in which the children would be involved as the year progresses.