The Tribune

By RENALDO DORSETT

Tribune Sports Reporter

rdorsett@tribunemedia.net

THE best high school basketball players in the island nation are set to showcase their skills at the fourth edition of the National High School Basketball Championships.

The Ministry of Education, in conjunction with the Ministry of Youth, Sports and Culture and Bahamas Basketball Federation are all set to host the Nationals from March 27 to April 1 in Grand Bahama.

The teams have been named, the opening round schedule is set and the country’s top high school basketball programmes are set to vie for the national title in Grand Bahama.

These championships will showcase top teams from various school leagues for the senior boys and girls divisions.

Basketball Nationals will have a new look this year as the boys’ division will now solely include a single division for senior boys with the suspension of the Family Island division due to expenses and budgetary constraints.

Twenty teams will qualify outright with the expected addition of several wild card teams. The senior girls’ division will feature 11-12 teams.

The teams have been named, the opening round schedule is set and the country’s top high school basketball programmes are set to vie for the national title in Grand Bahama.

For boys, the various league champions earn automatic bids into the 18-team field which includes nine teams from New Providence, six teams from Grand Bahama, two from Abaco and one from Bimini. The Government Secondary Schools Sports Association will be represented by the reigning league and Hugh Campbell champions Doris Johnson Mystic Marlins, CC Sweeting Cobras, CI Gibson Rattlers, Anatol Rodgers Timberwolves and Government High School Magic.

The Bahamas Association of Independent Secondary Schools will be represented by league champions St John’s College Giants, Queen’s College Comets, Temple Christian Suns and Jordan Prince William Falcons.

The Teleos Cherubims will be the lone school from the Bahamas Scholastic Athletic Association.

Teams out of Grand Bahama will include the league champions St George’s Jaguars, Eight Mile Rock Blue Jays, Tabernacle Baptist Academy Falcons, Sunland Baptist Academy Stingers and Jack Hayward Wildcats. Agape Christian and Patrick J Bethel High School out of Abaco, and Gateway Christian out of Bimini round out the field.

The senior girls will feature 10 teams from New Providence and Grand Bahama. New Providence schools will once again include St John’s College and St Augustine’s College from the BAISS, Teleos Christian from the BSAA, Anatol Rodgers, CI Gibson, and CV Bethel from the GSSSA, Eight Mile Rock, Tabernacle, Bishop Michael Eldon and St Georges High School out of Grand Bahama.

Games will be played at the St George’s and Jack Hayward gymnasiums.

Evon Wisdom, senior education officer in the Ministry of Education, said the development of the championship series within the school system has become paramount.

Event organisers said the tournament will solely include a single division for senior boys with the suspension of the Family Island division due to expenses and budgetary constraints.

Last year in Grand Bahama, the Tabernacle Baptist Falcons clinched the Division I title over the Jack Hayward Wildcats, the Doris Johnson Mystic Marlins emerged as the senior girls’ champions over the Jordan Prince Williams Falcons and the Gateway Eagles secured the now defunct Family Island divisional crown.

In 2017, the St George’s Jaguars emerged as the story as they protected home court in their gymnasium by claiming the Division I title over Tabernacle. In the Family Island division, the Gateway Eagles won the national title and, in the senior girls’ division, the Jordan Prince William Falcons won the national title.

The CC Sweeting Cobras won the inaugural Division I national title in 2016 while the Doris Johnson Mystic Marlins won the girls’ title and Eight Mile Rock won the Family Island division.