The Tribune

By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

WITH a resounding vote of confidence, president Eugene Horton and his entire slate of officers were returned to office as the Bahamas Basketball Federation’s executives for the next four years to complete the job they started.

Horton, a former president of the New Providence Basketball Association, had taken over during the mid-term of the last executive board when president Mario Bowleg was elected as the Member of Parliament for Garden Hills and subsequently named the Minister of Youth, Sports and Culture.

Now he’s been mandated to serve for a full four-year term during the federation’s annual general meeting and the election of officers on Saturday in the Ministry of Education’s Conference Room.

Horton, challenged by Grand Bahama’s junior national boys team coach Quentin ‘Three Ounce’ Hall, won with a landslide 18-1 victory as read by Bahamas Olympic Committee’s president Rommel Knowles, who presided over the elections.

Joining him on the board are Moses Johnson as first vice president; Freddie Brown as second vice president; Andros’ Brian Cleare as third vice president; Latoya Silver as secretary general, assisted by John Marc Nutt and Simone Beneby as the treasurer with Natsha Miller as her assistant. The other members making up the team are Joemond Jones, Caraon Mitchell, Dereck Smith and Rodney Wilson as officers and Dominique Fernander as the public relations officer.

Immediately following the elections, Horton said he was delighted to be able to get the process out of the way and now they can get on with the unfinished business that they started.

“As anticipated, it went smoothly, no major hiccups and we expected these results,” Horton said.

In the interim, Horton said the focus will be placed on getting his executives together so that they can chart the way forward.

“We want to be proactive and begin with the end in mind,” Horton said. “To get to the end, we now have to get the national teams together, contact the Family Islands and put figures to make everything happen.

“Once we get those final figures, we can go out and source some funding.

While the men’s national basketball team is now on the verge of becoming the first team sport to advance to the Olympic Games, Horton said their focus will be on trying to get the women as well as the junior boys and girls teams to the level that they can be a formidable force on the international scene as well.

“That’s one of the things we want to put in place,” Horton said.

“The coaches selection committee is going to be important to put the right people in place for our national teams. Once we have everything that’s needed, we hope to ride this wave of the men’s national team and contact sponsors and try to get everybody on board.”

National Team Success

Johnson, who serves as an assistant coach on the men’s national team, thanked the delegates, who expressed their faith in voting for him to return to the board. He said he’s very thrilled to be back.

“There’s no rest for the wary. We want to meet urgently,” he said. “I think one of the biggest things for us is to build synergy among all of the associations, seek out talent. Also to get our national teams moving, dealing with the coaching selection committee, get that rolling and get the coaches for several junior teams as well as senior women.

“We want to balance the scale now. The men have started to excel, but we don’t want to leave anybody behind, so the balancing act will commence and we hope that we are able to bring everybody up to a level of supremacy.”

With the men having advanced as the champions of the Pre-Olympic Qualifying Tournament last month in Argentina, Johnson said they are now preparing the team for the Qualifying Tournament in July for the Olympic Games in August in Paris, France.

“The team hasn’t stopped celebrating since,” Johnson pointed out. “But they know that the preparation has begun, players have started to play in their leagues (in Europe) and the NBA players are getting ready.

“We’re thrilled to see where we’re at. We’re going to try to see how best we can add a few pieces. Information will come a little later. But I think we’re good where we’re at. We have a good nucleus. Putting one or two more pieces in there could really mean something special for the Bahamas in having a team sport in the Olympics. So we’re looking forward to making things happen.”

Since the success of the men’s team, coached by Chris DeMarco and led by NBA players Buddy Hield, DeAndre Ayton and newly acquired Eric Gordon in Argentina, Johnson said they have been seeking the assistance of so many other players with ties to The Bahamas, but the federation knows they won’t be able to acquire all of their services, but they will go after those they can include.

As for the other national teams, Johnson said the executives will announce shortly their plans for the other national teams in their quest to get them the best opportunity to follow the men on the global stage.

Family Island Development

Cleare, the lone Family Islander selected, said he’s just as elated to be back to continue to help in the development of the Family Islands.

“One of my goals is to make sure that the Family Islands get assistance, especially technical assistance,” he said.

“I would like to see the coaches and referees in the Family Islands become certified, so that when the national teams are chosen in the future, we can get coaches from the Family Islands to be on the teams.

“The coaches on the Family Islands may not be able to deal with the Xs and Os, but they can get the opportunity to sit on the bench and get the exposure with teams travelling abroad and they can bring that to the Family Islands and share with their counterparts.”

As the chairman of the Andros Sports Council for the sixth Bahamas Games in July, Cleare said he was extremely proud of how Horton managed the basketball competition and he was even more impressed with the financial report presented.

“We need some basketball clinics on the Family Islands,” said Horton when asked how they can get more exposure for his counterparts on the islands.

“The basketball clinics on the Family Islands need to be structured.

“So we’re going to seek professional help in setting up those clinics, making sure that the proper fundamentals are given to the kids on the Family Islands. I always thought that the Family Islands have the best athletes.

“We’re bigger and stronger and once we get the technical assistance that is needed, we will produce some high quality players.”

At the end of the Annual General Meeting, Horton presented Jurell Nairn with a token of appreciation for the role she played in assisting the federation in the past.