By Neto Baptiste
Basketball coaches here will soon have an opportunity to improve their skillset and earn their level one coaching certificate.
This is according to lone presidential candidate ahead of the body’s elections, Michael Freeland, who revealed that a FIBA instructor is set to conduct a level one course here between April and May.
Freeland however explained that the course is the brainchild of outgoing president, Kebra Nanton, whose plans were thwarted by Covid-19.
“I can remember back in December that the clubs, we would have received information from the general secretary about doing a face to face FIBA level one course in January, but that got pushed back because of the timing of cricket here, and the routing of flights were difficult so they had actually pushed that back to April or May of this year; so even though I am walking into the presidency and you might hear that Freeland hit the ground running and bringing FIBA coaches here, that was already in the pipeline, so it’s not me doing that but there will be a level one coaching course in May, I believe, of this year,” he said.
Freeland is set to be the lone candidate for the position after being the only nominee following Wednesday’s deadline date.
The former player and coach promises to bring an entertainment-like atmosphere to the leagues in an attempt to merge sports and entertainment.
“I said to my team that this is something we have to do as well, because you have so much local talent, and some of them may never be seen because they probably don’t have the finances to go and cut a session, do a video and probably would never get a stage that will showcase their talent, and so I said let’s use the basketball fraternity and do that. The 3 on 3 tournament there will be entertainment and during the season when we start the leagues there will be shootouts, prizes given away, sponsors who are coming on board and they have to get some sort of mileage,” he said.
The elections, which are slated for March 22, will be held at the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium and is scheduled to start at 7:00 pm.