The Tribune

By RENALDO DORSETT

Tribune Sports Reporter

rdorsett@tribunemedia.net

THE Hoopfest in Paradise initiative seeks to bring elite programmes from the American prep basketball circuit to The Bahamas over the upcoming winter holiday.

Event stakeholders, which include the Ministry of Youth, Sports and Culture along with Offshore Sports Group, and Hoopfest Basketball, officially announced plans for the inaugural event at a press conference yesterday.

Local All-Star teams from both New Providence and Grand Bahama will compete against several nationally ranked visiting programmes from the United States, December 16-17 at the Kendal Isaacs Gymnasium.

Confirmed participants thus far include the Duncanville Panthers (Duncanville, Texas) and Sunrise Christian Academy Buffaloes (Bel Aire, Kansas).

The Buffaloes are ranked No.1 and the Panthers are at No.3 in the latest edition of ESPN’s SCNext Top 25 - which ranks the top high school basketball programmes in America.

Glenn Smith, the founder and president of Hoopfest, created his brand in the Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas area as a recruiting analyst, a talent evaluator and a tournament director.

His organisation hosts the Thanksgiving Hoopfest in Dallas and the Holiday Hoopfest in Miami, Florida. Both showcases feature elite prep basketball talent.

“It’s always been a dream of mine to do something in a beautiful place like [The Bahamas]. For the past 14 years we have done the Thanksgiving Hoopfest, we’ve added two other events. In each year the talent has gotten better,” Smith said. “Pre-COVID we set a record for high school basketball in the state of Texas where we put about 13,000 people in the arena to watch four high school games. I’ve always wanted to do something different like this. I know The Bahamas has had collegiate events but I think it’s time to focus on the youth basketball and high school events because, in my opinion, that’s the foundation of sports, where they learn character and skill development.”

Smith said that in addition to showcasing the incoming talent, it will also provide exposure and opportunities for local Bahamian talent.

“I have four really good teams that are going to be here as well as two Bahamian teams and I really would like to give the Bahamian players an opportunity to not only compete but to also be scouted by a lot of the people that will be here,” Smith said.

“Traditionally at my events I have not only media, but collegiate and NBA scouts as well.”

To date, Hoopfesst has featured over 50 McDonald All-American players, 60 state champions and 23 current NBA players, including Trae Young, De’Aaron Fox, Julius Randle, Marcus Smart, PJ Washington, Jaylen Brown, RJ Hampton, Tyrese Maxey, Emmanuel Mudiay, Terrance Ferguson, Jahmi’us Ramsey and Damyean Dotson.

Local high school basketball has not been played since the pandemic began in March 2020, but despite these struggles, Minister of Youth, Sports and Culture Mario Bowleg said The Bahamas will field the best competition possible.

“The tournament is expected to be extremely competitive,” Bowleg said. “We are looking forward to bringing the best talent from around The Bahamas to represent the country to ensure that we give them the proper exposure and experience at this time.

“There will be scouts in attendance, who I am sure will be looking for talent to play at the collegiate level. This is definitely an awesome opportunity for our young basketball players. This is the best of the best of the US and for that reason we must find the best of the best in The Bahamas.”

Varel Davis, the president of the Government Secondary School Sports Association, said her organisation is committed to participation.

“The GSSSA is very excited to be asked to participate in this event.

“I can assure you that we will field the best senior boys’ all-star teams from across the government schools,” she said.

“This year my theme is opportunity, we want to give our kids every opportunity to get some type of scholarships to help them along the way. We know how big sports is for our kids looking for a way for higher education or to find their career path.”

Jerome Gomez, president of Offshore Sports Group, said Hoopfest in Paradise plans to become a mainstay of the Bahamian sporting calendar.

“Hoopfest in Paradise is expected to be an annual event in The Bahamas. So we welcome the support of the government,” he said.

“As we have seen in the past we have a number of college tournaments, the Battle 4 Atlantis, Baha Mar Hoops, but no high school events so we are looking to make sure we have a premier high school event in this country with the anticipation that Bahamian athletes will have any number of opportunities.”