The Tribune

By BRENT STUBBS

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

It’s not how you start, nor how you get there. Most importantly, it’s how you finish.

• The Finish Line, a weekly column, seeks to comment on the state of affairs in the local sports scene, highlighting the highs and the lows, the thrills and the spills and the successes and failures.

The Week That Was

Let’s tip our hats off to coach Mario Bowleg and the CC Sweeting Cobras for repeating as the Hugh Campbell Basketball Classic champions.

In a keenly contested match-up, the Cobras held off the Sunland Lutheran Stingers to earn a 55-54 victory at the Kendal Isaacs Gymnasium on Monday night.

The tournament turned out to be one for the records for more reasons than one.

• It was the first time this decade that all eight schools from Grand Bahama came to town to compete in the week-long double elimination tournament.

That was certainly gratifying for the fans because a year ago, not one of the teams came from Grand Bahama. A dispute with the officials over the way they were placed in their respective pools resulted in all of them taking a stance and boycotting the tournament. It was the first time that none of the schools from Grand Bahama competed since the first year when the tournament got started in 1982 and it was limited to just the New Providence teams.

Reggie Forbes, who put the pools together, should be commended. There were no complaints from Grand Bahama, which meant that they were all pleased with what they saw.

• The final had a coach playing against his alma mater for the first time as former CC Sweeting player turned Sunland Lutheran coach Jay Phillipe was hoping to take the title back to Grand Bahama.

Phillipe and the Stingers came to town as the defending champions of the Grand Bahama high school title and many could only wonder if they had participated last year how they would have feared. While it was disappointing that they didn’t make the trek here last year, it was good to see them compete for the crown this year.

The Stingers performed exceptionally well, despite falling behind in a hole from the start of the game. They never folded under the pressure, but rather rebounded and made a gallant turnaround to push the Cobras to the limit. It was truly one of the most exciting championship games in the history of the tournament.

• The Cobras struck again for the fifth time in hoisting the floating trophy in the air as they celebrated their second back-to-back feat.

CC Sweeting, under Bowleg, won their first consecutive championships in 2012 and 2013 before losing to the CI Gibson Rattlers, coached by Kevin ‘KJ’ Johnson, in 2013. After winning it again last year, the Cobras posted their second two straight for their fifth tournament victory.

Their first came in 2007 when the Cobras was coached by Ian ‘Wire’ Pinder.

CC Sweeting tied the previous record set by the Tabernacle Baptist Falcons. But Falcons’ coach Norris Bain still holds the winningest record, having coached Tabernacle Baptist to all five victories. Bowleg now sits tied for second with Jimmy Clarke earned their record five, who won the first three-peat from 1991-1994 with the Hawksbill High Hawks before coming back to Nassau to win another with the CR Walker Knights in 1997.

Clarke, however, also has some history on his side as he also served as the assistant coach to Doug Collins when the host AF Adderley Fighting Tigers (a senior high school then) clinched the first two straight feat in 1987 and 1988 behind two former most valuable players in Locksley Collie and Dexter Cambridge respectively, who went on to star in college and played briefly in the National Basketball Association.

• While the focus was primarily on the much anticipated match-up between New Providence and Grand Bahama, not too many people paid attention to the rise to the final four by the Jordan Prince Williams Falcons, the first private school out of New Providence to reach that lofty goal.

The Falcons, coached by Ernest Saunders, were coming off their high as the Bahamas Association of Independent Secondary Schools’ champions and they played extremely well as one of the underdogs in the 30-team field that started the journey a week before.

A shot here or there could have made the difference as the Falcons secured their own destiny. They proved that the private schools do have the ability to play well against the government schools. In the past, there’s always been the notion that the private schools in New Providence were just “too soft” to contend with the more physical government schools.

The Falcons certainly defied that.

Now the focus switches to the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology’s National High School Basketball Championships that will be played in Grand Bahama next week. A press conference is scheduled for today to outline the plans.

With all of the top teams expected to participate, fans will get a chance to see some of the match-ups all over again, this time in another location.

Track and Field Honours

While the spotlight was here in New Providence, there were some Bahamians holding their own in Geneva, Ohio, at the Big Ten Conference Championships and they should be commended for their efforts on the track and in the field events over the weekend.

Let’s start with Devynne Charlton, who continues to wrack up the top collegiate honours, this time lowering her Bahamas national record by winning the women’s 60 metres hurdles in 7.97 seconds to erase the previous mark of 8.08 that she set last year. In the process, she has posted one of the top performances in the world.

She has qualified to participate in the IAAF World Indoor Championships next weekend in Portland, Oregon, but she has opted to stay at Purdue University and concentrate on the remainder of her junior season with the NCAA Championships March 11-12 at the City of Birmingham/Samford University.

I’m sure her Bahamian coaches Rolando Greene and Norbert Elliott will make sure that she is ready to go out and duplicate that feat at NCAAs.

Also pulling off a win at the Big Ten Championships was Kaiwan Culmer. The University of Nebraska sophomore took the victory with 15.76 metres or 51-feet, 8 1/2-inches in the men’s triple jump. He was joined by Danielle Gibson, a junior at Penn State, who was second in the women’s triple jump with her leap of 13.10m (44-11 3/4).

Mention must also go to twin brothers Latario and Lathone Minns, who got third and fifth with leaps of 16.23m (53-3) and 15-95 (52-4) at the SEC Championships in Fayetteville, Arkansas.

Athletes qualified for the NCAA championships are Charlton (60m hurdles), Gibson (triple jump), Purdue’s Carmiesha Cox (4 x 400m relay), Purdue’s Kinard Rolle (4 x 400m relay) and Latario Minns (triple jump).

Evans Earns Mention Too

Not to be left out of all of the hoopla over the weekend was Joanna Evans in her freshman year at the University of Texas.

Competing in the Big 12 Swimming and Diving Championships, Evans captured the women’s 500m free in 4:39.97 for the eighth fastest time ever by a Longhorn. The 19-year-old Grand Bahamian also got her second victory when she touched the wall in 16:13.39 in the 1,650 free.

She also got a second place in the 200m free in 1:46.95 and was named the Women’s Newcomer of the Meet and will now be preparing for the NCAA Division 1 Women’s Swimming Championships, March 16-19 at the McAuley Aquatic Center in Atlanta, Georgia.

So while basketball standouts Chavano ‘Buddy’ Hield and Jonquel Jones are holding court in the men’s and women’s basketball leagues, there are others making a name for themselves in the other sports like athletics and swimming.

We should be proud of all of our collegiate and high school athletes, especially those not mentioned above, for representing the country as well as they are.

Bahamas Sets The Pace

The IAAF has announced some changes to its format for the World Indoor Championships in Eugene in about two weeks.

One of the changes is that athletes in all semi-finals and finals will be introduced on to the field of play one by one, in much the same way that teams are presented at the past two IAAF World Relays.

So the Bahamas’ organising committee must be commended for setting a trend that now has the IAAF making the necessary adjustments to bring more awareness to the athletes as they compete. At least the IAAF is paying attention to what we do here in the Bahamas.