By Neto Baptiste
Former national basketball player Mahijah Davis and his Peak Mahijah Davis Basketball Academy, will host the Bajon Ballers out of Barbados during the inaugural Under-15 Summer Basketball Splash Invitational from August 15-19 at the JSC Sports Complex.
Three local teams, the Grays Green Phoenix, GY Ballers and the Mahijah Davis Academy will also take part.
Davis said the initiative was spawned out of a need to provide unfamiliar competition to local players at an earlier stage.
“With my basketball academy, all the players have been playing against each other for so many years and they have never seen what outside talent looks like, so this will give them an idea or a chance to see what their talent level is like and I do think they get tired of playing against each other,” he said.
Speaking on the Good Morning Jojo sports show at the time, Davis added that although the camp has been running for 17 years now, the body also felt a need to build on its reputation by adding another component.
“We have been doing just the same for the youngsters and so we decided we wanted to try something new this year by inviting a team to come in and be part of a small tournament. We decided to team up with Mr Patrick over in Barbados with the Barbados Ballers; we’ve been brainstorming that for two years now and it finally came to the manifestation this year,” he said.
Action will shoot off on Friday morning with two games. The first, between Bajon Ballers and GY Ballers is slated to start at 9am and the other, between Mahijah Davis Basketball Academy and Grays Green Phoenix at 11am. Action continues on Friday evening with two games.
Davis said that although there is no entrance fee, patrons could make a donation at the gate.
“We’re just asking for a small token [at the gate] because we have future plans to go to St Vincent next year for the tournament, and so we and Patrick out of Barbados are setting up another tournament but it’s going to be in St Vincent. We will try to invite other teams like Dominica, St Kitts and so forth to join us in the tournament,” he said.
There will also be two games on Saturday evening while the championship and third place games will be contested Sunday evening.
