The Tribune

By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

A YEAR ago when Sarone Kennedy decided to put together the Athletico Bahamas team, many felt that they were capable of competing in the New Providence Basketball Association.

Athletico Bahamas, a youthful team comprising of players still in high school and those who recently graduated, made an impact at the beginning of the season.

But after losing a couple of players, one of whom went off to college, they struggled a bit and fell short of playing for the title in the NPBA.

However, the Bahamas Basketball Federation afforded the team the opportunity to play in the B Division of its annual Bunny Levarity National Championships and Athletico Bahamas proved their worth, winning the title.

“Athletico Bahamas came about as a result of what we saw, watching sports in the Bahamas,” Kennedy said.

“We saw it as a momentous opportunity for something uniquely Bahamian and athletic at the same time.

“Our name and our motto was something that was catchy and once we were formed, we knew that we would be competitive in the league. Our motto – The Losers of Today are the Champions of Tomorrow – is what we try to strive on.”

As the new kids on the block, Kennedy said they are trying to be a different brand of sports club where they will eventually branch off into other sports and produce multiple teams.

“It’s a model that we studied and using the multi-sporting bodies in Europe, we forged ahead,” Kennedy said.

“We worked hard on the project. But it wasn’t easy because we were turned down by a number of players whom we approached.”

At the end of the day, Kennedy said they compiled a list of players who bought into the new programme that they presented and although they were undersized, he said they got a crew that was willing to go for it.

The team was anchored around Adam Johnson in the middle and Shakwon Lewis as the floor general. And they had some additional players whom they relied on like Kamaal Murphy and Dylan Musgrove.

In fact, Musgrove emerged as the most valuable player after he scored a game high 26 points with six rebounds to lead Athletico Bahamas to a 64-62 victory over the Grand Bahama Gold Rock Gym Rats as they clinched the BBF Division II title at the DW Davis Gymnasium on Saturday night.

“I was very surprised, but I knew that we had the potential to win as a first year club,” Kennedy said.

“We ended up with a 25-6 record overall after starting out as a laughing stock when we played our first game in the Summer for Thunder.

“We were literally blew out of the gym by the visiting college teams, but the players stuck with it and now at the end of the season we can celebrate as the division II champions.”

Now that the season is over, Kennedy said he and his coaching staff that includes David Lewis and Jamal Brown will now prepare for the NPBA 2017 season and hopefully successfully defend their title at the BBF Nationals.

“We can expect to see a change in our line-up next year because we expect that one or two of our players will be heading off to school,” Kennedy said. “But we know that there are some other players out there who we can recruit to be a part of our club.”

For those interested, they can go online and view the club at www.athleticobahamas.com or email info@athleticclubbahamas.com

Kennedy is hoping that corporate Bahamas will take advantage of the opportunity to support their venture as well.

Among their sponsors this year were Victory Tabernacle, Sea Food Shack, Fergie’s Foodstore and the All Bahamian Brand.