The Cayman Islands Basketball Association, along with the Bring Back the Glory Basketball Tournament are set to relaunch competition after a prolonged break, due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
This year, the tournament will be split into two separate sessions, the first of which will take place in Port Arthur, Texas and will feature Cayman’s under-17 National Team against under-15 rivals, mostly from the Port Arthur area.
The last time the boys met was in 2019 and the Cayman team were said to have given their counterparts a huge fight; performing much better than anticipated.
The games, referred to as the, “Bring Back the Glory Tournament”, are comprised of two sessions, which are dubbed, “Feel the Heat” - the portion that will take place in Port Arthur from 15th June to 17th June and “The Cayman Basketball Festival,” which will kick off in Grand Cayman from 11th to 13th of July.
President of the Cayman Islands Basketball Association, Mr. Collin Anglin noted that the ‘Bringing Back the Glory Tournament’ will be building on the initiative to create International exposure for Cayman’s athletes.
“We want to build their athletic ‘CV’ and with continuous exposure to solid competition and the goal is to have 5 to 6 international games per years,” said Mr. Anglin.
He added that the hospitality the Cayman athletes had experienced in Port Arthur and the level of care and respect our athletes receive when they travel is further proof that great things can come out small places.
“We have National Team Tryouts going on right now and the Basketball Association elected a new Board this year. So far we have had a great response and folks like the direction. We have a new mission and a new vision,” added the President, who explained that part of the thrust behind the new Board’s initiatives going forward was to positively impact lives through basketball.
“We have already hosted a coaching certification course and 9 of our local coaches have benefited from that. We view the coaches sort of like the trees and the players are the fruits, so we have to nourish the trees,” Mr. Anglin remarked.
Officials on hand at the press conference to announce the Bring Back the Glory Tournament said the state of basketball in the Cayman Islands is on the right track and added that they are looking forward to the competition.
“This tournament will do a lot for basketball in our country,” said Mr. Omari Corbin, Vice President of the Cayman Islands Basketball Association.
“The results are important but what is even more important is the exposure to top talent, as some of the players we have competed with have even gone on to the National Basketball Association (NBA),” he added.
The representatives noted that the tournament also gives Caymanian youngsters the structure handle success.
They added that it takes time to build talent and explained that the Cayman Islands lost its first 13 international competitions, before going on to sweep countries like Jamaica in international competition.
“It’s hard to do that in team sports. These programmes are to the benefit of our youth and we eventually want to go to the International Basketball World Cup.,” they added.
The Bring Back the Glory Basketball Tournament spawned from a league created by Wanda Bodden, an African American woman, who is married to a Caymanian whose family has shipping ties to Port Arthur, Texas from the days when Caymanian Seafarers frequented such Ports.
Mrs. Bodden has been coming to the Cayman Islands for over 40 years and noted that she is a strong advocate of the youth.
After meeting Mr. Anglin, they decided to create a tournament that would allow Caymanian players to compete with the top talent in America.
There will be at least three other regional competitors in the Bringing Back the Glory tournament, whom will be announced at a later date.
Comments (0)
We appreciate your feedback. You can comment here with your pseudonym or real name. You can leave a comment with or without entering an email address. All comments will be reviewed before they are published.