“It was my first time out of the country playing for Belize, or any other team. I have to give credits to my whole team-mates because they were the ones who brought us through this.”
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| Channel 5 News |
Source/Credit: Channel 5 News
By 5 News | April 11, 2017
The Ahmadiyya Basketball League has been running for about three years in Belize City. This year, they were invited to play in the under-seventeen and under-nineteen categories in a basketball tournament in Campeche, Mexico. The league put together the teams with the best players from the city and around the country and travelled to Mexico to face off against a number of teams. The team played their final game on Monday in Campeche and left the tournament undefeated, bringing home trophies in both divisions. Today, we spoke with members of the Belize contingent about their big win.
Naveed Mangla, President, Ahmadiyya Muslim Community
“We are proud to announce that both of our teams not only did they win their championship, but they were undefeated throughout the tournament.
The one thing that I felt in Mexico was that they praised the effort of our youth a lot. So much so that when these kids came off the court, there were girls and guys running after them for autograph.
They were waiting in lines to spend some time with them. Then we had a little dunk competition on Saturday night and there were around 300-400 people lined up just to see our kids dunking and I think the talent that these kids brought had never been showcased in Campeche before.”
Gregory Buckley, Center, U-19 Team,
“It was my first time out of the country playing for Belize, or any other team. I have to give credits to my whole team-mates because they were the ones who brought us through this.”
Andrea Polanco
“Did you go in expecting that you guys will walk away with the trophies?”
Gregory Buckley
“Hopefully we were not going in there to lose because of all the stuff that we went through to just get there, we didn’t want to lose.”
Andrea Polanco
“Did you go in a little bit intimidated or so, no?”
Gregory Buckley
“Well, we were a little nervous at first but once it started we just went with the flow.”
Jamel Wagner, Coach, U-17 Team
“As a team we had like a week and a half to prepare. The guys, because of the talent and athleticism, they got through the tournament very easily. Most of them haven’t even been farther than Chetumal before, so being to Campeche was a huge deal for them. It was not only guys from schools; we have some of them who are not in schools right now. They are under seventeen, but not in school, and some of them don’t even have jobs, so it meant a lot for them.”
Read original post here: Belize: Ahmadiyya Basketball League Bring Home Youth Tournament Titles from Mexico
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