The junior national basketball squad preparing to represent Guyana at the Inter Guiana Games (IGG) from November 19-21 at the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall has been reduced to 15 players.
This was disclosed by coach, Mark Agard, during a telephone interview yesterday.
The 15 players were named shortly after a three-day encampment in Kwakwani which began August 27 ended.
The training camp which was organized by the team’s manager, Chris Bowman, was attended by 30 players from Berbice, Georgetown and surrounding areas, Linden and Kwakwani and was geared at intensifying the basketball team’s preparations for the upcoming international tournmament.
The 30 selectees were primarily identified and selected based on their performance at the recently-concluded National Schools Basketball Festival along with notable players from last year’s IGG basketball events, who are still eligible to represent the junior national team this year.
From the camp, the coaching and management team identified the players they saw as best fit to represent Guyana at the junior national level and Agard described the camp yesterday as being “very successful.
“We had trials at the camp during the weekend where the players from Kwakwani, Linden and Georgetown played with their respective teams and went up against each other and I can say it was a very successful weekend,” Agard revealed.
He added that they identified “the 15 that really worked hard,” since the coaching team “put them [selectees] through a series of drills” to identify the players’ skill levels.
“This is the best 15,” Agard reiterated.
He pointed out that the coaching and management teams were looking to further reduce the squad to the final 12-man team by month end.
Agard said that they are also contemplating having organised games between local clubs and the 15-man squad in order to further prepare the team and aid their selection process by observing the players in a competition-like environment.
However, this aspect of their preparation is still in it’s planning stages and will either be done before or after the final 12 has been named, he said.
When asked what was required from the players in order for them to make the final cut, Agard replied: “We’re looking for effort… the players that make the most effort.
“A lot of the players have the skills, but they don’t fully apply it on the court, so we will be looking for the one’s that are putting in that strong effort and playing hard.”
Meanwhile, the squad’s practice sessions are scheduled for Tuesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays at the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall.
Currently the 15-man squad reads: Marlon Pollydore, Richard Mohandatt, Akeem Kanhai, Dave Plass, Linden Fraser, Dominque Vincente, Dominic Douglas, Yannick Dundas, Geoffrey Larose, Yannick Primo, Prince Giddings, Nickoloi Smith, Sheldron Noel, Cowen Gittens and Theodore Tappin.
