Belize Basketball NT

[JGX]

Seattle U gave Garcia the nickname "The Belizean Baller" so I am going to guess that he can play for Belize.

[CKR13]

BBF Wants More Homegrown Talent on Men’s National Team

BBF Wants More Homegrown Talent on Men’s National Team

The Belize Basketball Federation held a press conference on Wednesday, April 13, to explain a controversial decision that it had recently made. The BBF issued a press release which states “that it has made a decision to forgo Belize’s participation in the upcoming COCABA championship games for men… to focus on participating in the Junior National Team categories.” They cited their reason for the decision as an effort to develop our younger players.

According to the BBF, they want to change the make up of the team because the current national team has more Belizeans from the Diaspora than homegrown players. The demands of the players from the Diaspora are extremely costly; therefore, it is extremely expensive to organize the men’s team. The federation said that financing the Men’s National Team “would have a greater impact on the Federation’s efforts to develop our younger players” in an effort to change the balance on the senior team.

Belize won silver under the leadership of Kevin Siroki in the last COCABA Championship and many believe we were robbed of the gold medal. The next COCABA Championship is scheduled for April 29 to May 1 but the team will not have the chance to prove its gritt. Therefore the next scheduled hoops tournaments for Belize are the U16 Centro Basket tournament and the U14 COCABA Championship. The U16 tournament is scheduled to be held in Mexico City June 15-19. If the team finishes in the top three they will qualify for the FIBA Americas Tournament in Guanajuato, Mexico June 22-27, 2011. The U14 COCABA Championship will be held from July 26 to August 2 in Nicaragua.

While developing our younger players sounds promising, the people affected most by the decision are those over 18. One individual spoke to the Guardian Newspaper about his discontent with the decision. He said that the Federation only came to such conclusion because players like Milt Palacio and Alex Carcamo have already said they would not play anymore. He believe that the Federation is only looking past the senior team because the foreign players are either retiring or not coming back because of a bad taste left from the last tournament in Trinidad and Tobago.

Similar to the decision to recruit as many as 12 players from the Diaspora, this decision will once again neglect the interest of our best local players over the age of 18. One would hope that the comments being made from veteran ball players are untrue. That is, “the federation will only be dedicated to the development of those young players until they discover a group of new talent in the diaspora that is willing to come play ball in the homeland.”

-Belize Guardian