By Neto Baptiste
Head coach of the Antigua and Barbuda senior national basketball team, George Hughes, believes the future of the sport is bright.
Speaking recently on the Good Morning Jojo sports show, Hughes said a number of new players have come to the fore since the start of the new season, which is an indication of meaningful growth.
“We’ve had a big influx of youngsters so they just need more direction but the future is bright for Antigua basketball. If you come up and look at the majority of the teams, I am sure you wouldn’t recognise most of them. We need to have more training and we need to have more competition in terms of, not necessarily the league but maybe some of those short three-day tournaments like what we just did in Nicaragua. I think it would bode well to help the players to learn about nutrition, how to hydrate and how to basically take care of their body over that period of time,” he said.
Several of the country’s veteran players to include Bryan “Hollywood” Matthew, Lennox “Termite” McCoy and Marlon “Buju” Charles have, over the last few years, left the national team set-up although still featuring in various clubs teams in the domestic leagues.
However, Hughes said that despite the ushering in of new talent, there must be support from the governing body if the talent is to grow.
“The whole crux of the matter is introducing the youngsters to hard work, accountability, introducing them to that fact that we have to always have to try to improve. At some point, the people who are in charge have to find a way to give us the resources in order for us to compete or else we are not going to the results we need in the time we think we are going to get them,” the veteran coach said.
In the recent FIBA AmeriCup Pre Qualifiers in Nicaragua, Antigua and Barbuda suffered a 97-53 to Cuba while they were beaten 79-71 by host Nicaragua and 63-54 by the US Virgin Islands.
