By Rawle Toney
The fifth annual Victory Valley Royals (VVR) inter-school basketball tournament was officially launched yesterday at the Mackenzie Sports Club hard court in Linden and  six secondary schools from the mining town are vying for prizes and bragging rights.

Ministry of Sport Parliamentary Secretary Steve Ninvalle addressing the opening of the tournament.

Attending the day’s proceedings, which included the smartly attired participating schools on display was Parliamentary Secretary attached to the Ministry of Sport Steve Ninvalle who called on  the schools to let discipline prevail.

He said that he was impressed with the magnitude of the tournament and the spectacle of all the schools being properly attired. He said that the credit should go to the Victory Valley Royals basketball club.

“I think we should all give much credit to the organizers since based on what I’ve seen here today, it goes to show their commitment to the tournament. This is probably the first school tournament that I’m seeing everyone properly uniformed and the only way you can pay them back is by playing hard and being disciplined,” said Ninvalle.

Participating schools in this year’s Victory Valley Royals Inter-Schools Basketball Tournament. (Rawle Toney photo)

He further stated that his ministry this year would be paying much attention to youths and in that regard would be promoting an inter-community basketball tournament but it is hoped that next year they can play a bigger part in the VVR inter-school tournament.

In the meantime, Ninvalle said,  as part of his support to the competition he would present a special prize to the Most Valuable Player (MVP) of the tournament.

The idea of the championship was generated from the observation that there was a lack of  sporting leagues in the schools and the Linden community as a whole.

Then the  club with its commitment to the development of basketball took up the mantle and produced a schools’ tournament of enviable proportions.

The prizes and equipment furnished annually make it second to none in basketball tournaments at any level in Guyana.

The initial championship saw the participation of the five secondary schools, namely Mackenzie High, Linden Foundation, Wismar/Christianburg Secondary, Silver City Secondary, and Wisburg Secondary along with the Linden Technical Institute competing for the right to be named the number one basketball school in the mining town.
First, second and third place trophies with replicas, a lien trophy, and a fourth place trophy plus twelve individual awards are up for grabs. Each school was presented with one dozen tournament t-shirts along with basketballs to assist in their pre-tournament preparations.

The tournament is organized and coordinated solely by the Victory Valley Royals Basketball Club and it is sanctioned by the Linden Amateur Basketball Association (LABA).