GABA names squad to participate in GABF national evaluation

The Georgetown Amateur Basketball Association (GABA) has named 25 players to prepare for the Guyana Amateur Basket-ball Federation (GABF) Caribbean Basketball Confederation (CBC) Championship squad evaluation trials.

The squad features representatives from seven clubs under the GABA umbrella.

The players shortlisted are Rodwell Fortune, Dominic Vicente, Dave Causway, Travis Burnett, Ryan Stephney, Shelroy Thomas, Nikolai Smith, Mortimer Williams, Jason Squires, Ryan Gullen, Akeem Kanhai, Yannick December, Stephan Gillis, Enoch Matthews, Niko Fraser, Ron Campbell, Collis Pluck, Randy Richardson, Joslyn Crawford, Earl O’Neil, Royston Siland, Fabian Johnson, Jermaine Slater, Rudy James and Haslyn Hooper.

The clubs represented include Dynas Ravens, Colts, Trinity Grid Holdings (TGH) Pace-setters, Panthers, Pepsi Sonics, Plaisance Guard-ians and Republic Bank Nets while the coaches are Mark Agard (Pepsi Sonics), Darcel Harris (Dynas Ravens), Junior Hercules (Plaisance Guardians) and Brian Carter (Guyana Defence Force). The manager, fitness trainer and statistician positions will be announced shortly.

The abovementioned team will battle the Linden Amateur Basketball Association (LABA) and Berbice Amateur Basket-ball Association (BABA) representative teams during the month of May as part of the national evaluation process.

These series of matches will be used to determine the 12 man Guyana national team squad that will compete in the upcoming championships in July in Tortola, British Virgin Islands.

Training for the trials commenced on Friday at the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall (CASH) on Home-stretch Avenue and will continue every Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday until further notice. LABA and BABA are expected to release their respective elite 25 man squads shortly. The CBC Champion-ship or Caribebasket is a FIBA-sponsored basketball tournament where national teams from the Caribbean participate. These countries make up Caribbean Basketball Confederation (CBC).

The top three or four teams typically earn berths to Centrobasket where they compete for spots in the FIBA Americas Champ-ionship, from which they can qualify for the FIBA World Championship or Olympics.

There are currently 24 Caribbean countries that may compete in this event. Guyana’s best finish in the event was a silver medal showing in the 1994 edition as the tourney’s host.