The Tribune

By RENALDO DORSETT

Tribune Sports Reporter

rdorsett@tribunemedia.net

THE 33rd edition of the Father Marcian Peters Basketball Classic is set to tip off in just over a week, featuring some of the top primary, junior and intermediate programmes.

Dozens of teams spread across six divisions will vie for their respective titles December 7-15 at the Kendal Isaacs Gymnasium.

To date, over 60 teams have registered for the week-long event, to be hosted by the Ministry of Youth, Sports, and Culture.

A total of 12 primary boys, five primary girls, 16 junior boys, five junior girls, 13 intermediate boys and 10 senior girls’ teams comprise the field.

In 2017, there were new champions in each division.

In the primary girls’ division, the Temple Christian Suns continued to dominate the group with another tournament title when they defeated the Catholic School champions St Thomas Moore 17-15.

On the primary boys’ side, the Teleos Cherubims defeated the St Francis and Joseph Shockers 21-17.

The Jordan Prince William Falcons junior girls had the most lopsided win of any championship title game with a 28-6 win over Freedom Baptist.

Contrastingly, the junior boys’ division had the closest finish of any title game when the DW Davis Royals got a late field goal as time expired to defeat the Falcons 36-34.

In the Senior Girls’ division, the Falcons defeated the Queen’s College Comets 30-12 and in the Intermediate Boys’ division, Akephran International claimed their first tournament title when they defeated the Doris Johnson Mystic Marlins, 30-24.

The Falcons claimed the Father Marcian Peters award for the top overall team in the tournament by virtue of scoring the most total points of any institution.

Three Falcons teams reached the championship title game in three divisions and won two.

Tournament director Scooter Reid said the goal is for as many teams as possible to chase the trophy in honour of the tournament’s namesake.

“This is the award I want all of the schools to come after, the more teams you bring to the tournament, the better your opportunity to win this trophy and be recognised as one of the top schools.”

Reid told the Tribune in previous interviews that immediate goals would include expanding the reach to have more girls’ teams.

“It is always our intention to have more girls play. Even though the games in the divisions for girls are good, we need to have more girls in the tournament. This was originally a girls tournament, so to have a decline in numbers in those divisions is a little disappointing,” he said.

Following a hiatus for the 2015 edition, the tournament had a successful in 2016.

The tournament traditionally features scores of teams from the primary girls and boys, junior girls and boys, intermediate boys and senior girls. Father Marcian Peters, who passed away in 1981, was known as a national sporting icon for his contributions to basketball and softball as tools of social development. Today the tournament stands as the largest and most popular inter-school basketball event.