The Tribune

By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

It was a special day on Saturday as inmates of Her Majesty’s Prison came together to participate in their annual basketball tournament.

This year’s event, featuring teams from the maximum, medium and minimum security units, was held in honour of Rev Leonard Clarke, the new prison chaplain. Clarke heads the prison’s Chaplaincy Department that organised the tournament.

About 100 inmates watched as Kevin ‘K-Man’ Robinson coached the Medium team to an impressive 52-42 victory over the Maximum team, coached by Ian ‘Joe Boy’ Hutchinson. Medium just simply had too much height as they controlled the tempo of the game in the paint.

John Smith, one of their big men who was unstoppable, was named the most valuable player. Smith also carted off the most rebounds, most points scored and most assists awards in a dominating performance for Medium.

Robinson, who decided to coach the team instead of playing as Philip ‘Bulla’ Clarke assisted from the sidelines, said it reminded him of when he was outside playing with the Kentucky Colonels and they won numerous titles.

Marlin Armbrister won the most three-point shooting award.

“It’s good to win this one. This is the fourth straight time that I played on the championship team here,” he said. “Last year, I won the MVP and championship title, but this time I decided to let my prot�g�s take over.

“I also want to thank our sponsor Elliott Lightbourne. Our team just went out there and did what we had to do to win.”

The Medium team took over from the first half and they never relinquished the lead, although at one point in the second half, Maximum made a gallant effort to come back, only to fall short of coming under the double figures.

“I felt if we had much more time to prepare, we would have done much better,” Hutchinson said. “We did the best that we could, but it was obvious that Maximum wanted it more than we did. Much respect. “We gave it all we had.”

Hutchinson gave a lot of credit to the members of the Chaplaincy Department for organising the tournament, which had its own commentator in Shelton ‘Notty’ Moss, a tournament commissioner, a statistician crew at the table and three referees, including prison officer Colebrooke, who worked with inmates Kirk Storr and Jerry Dames.

Bishop Randy Fraser, an inmate in medium security, also assisted.

Clarke, who has been elevated to become the first prison officer to emerge as chaplain since he took office in October, 2009, said he was thrilled to have been honoured in such fashion.

“It’s a privilege and an honour to have been recognised,” Clarke said. “The tournament was awesome. Everyone was super. Of course the team that won, Medium, made me a winner too. I was glad to see them perform.”

Clarke watched the game under a tent with his wife, Rev Paula Clarke, their daughter Leonette, adopted son Noel Richards and niece Tyler Cooper.

At the end of the tournament after the players received their championship and runners-up trophies, Clarke was presented with a plaque as the patron of the tournament. The organisers also honoured ASP Wilfred Ferguson, the director of Maximum Unit, for his contribution to the tournament.

Assistant chaplain, Rev George Bodie, who organised the tournament along with Eric Josey from Medium and Angel Rolle from Remand, said he was delighted to use the skills he gained from his leadership role in the Baptist Sports Council to spearhead the organising committee.

“Seeing that the inmates are basically shut down 24/7, I wanted to lift their spirits and change their course as we try to transform their minds,” Bodie said. “We were able to do that with the tournament and now they will have bragging rights until we do it again, or we try to find some other way to challenge them.”

Bodie thanked Prison Superintendent Elliston Rahming for allowing their committee to provide the avenue for the inmates to display their skills. He said they intend to put on similar events in the future to keep challenging the inmates from both a spiritual and social point of view.