The Tribune

By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

IT has been 10 years since the Freedom Baptist Academy began its high school basketball programme in Palmdale. Since then, head coach Josiah Major said the Warriors have been a force to reckon with.

“Within that 10 years, I am very proud of what we have accomplished,” Major said. “We have a new generation of players and we’re looking forward to building on what we have accomplished over the next 7-10 years.

“I strongly believe that we could do it. We have the players who have been performing very well and so we feel we will have a team to reckon with in the future.”

As one of the small schools registered in the Bahamas Scholastic Athletic Association, the Warriors have played well in the primary and high school divisions for boys and girls.

The Warriors’ latest performance came last week when their primary girls advanced to the final of the Temple Christian Academy’s tenth annual Basketball Tournament at their gymnasium at Temple Christian.

Freedom Baptist got shut out 10-0 by Temple Christian, but Major said it gave him a good indication of what he has to work on with his new young Warriors’ team as they prepare for the rest of the season.

“We made it to the championship, but even though we lost, I feel we still have one of the best primary girls’ teams in the country,” Major said. “We make it to the championship in just about every tournament we go to. So the rest of the teams better watch out.”

Having started as a player development trainer in 2009, Major took over as the head coach in 2016 and he has seen the youth and improvement of the team over the years.

He commended his sister, Tabatha, Norleen Henfield, a former coach and Garth Moncur, who is still there as a trainer and advisor, for the role they all played in the past. Major, however, noted that he has brought on two more young former players, Kevonne McCkulsky and Nehemiah Bain, who are both assisting him with the team’s future progress.

The Warriors are now preparing to participate in the Cybots Thanksgiving Tournament in November. He’s hoping that the Ministry of Youth, Sports and Culture will still hold the Father Marcian Peters Invitational, even though it may have to move to another location if the Kendal Isaacs Gymnasium is not available.

In January, Freedom Baptist will once again stage their tournament at Anatol Rodgers Gymnasium and there is another tournament that they attend in Grand Bahama.

All of these, Major hopes will be able to inspire and motivate their Warriors’ teams as they prepare to compete in the BSAA basketball season.

In the past, Freedom Baptist has emerged as the primary and both junior girls and boys champions.

“We hope that we have a pretty good run with that,” he summed up. “This year, I have players who came back to our school to help coach our teams, so I am pretty pleased with that.

“We might be a small school, but we have made our presence felt in all of the tournaments that we have played in over the past 10 years. We just hope that we can continue to have success as we move forward.”

The Warriors are here and Major said they intend to continue to make their presence felt.