The Cayman Islands are sending for the very first time a national Under-15 boys and girls teams to participate in the CentroBasket Championships.

CentroBasket is an International Basketball Federation (FIBA)-sponsored basketball tournament featuring Central American and Caribbean countries in the Central American and Caribbean Confederation. The top four teams earn berths to the FIBA America Championships, which leads up to the FIBA World Championships and the Olympics.

This year the female segment of the tournament is taking place at Mexico City, Mexico until Sunday 19^th Aug. The male segment takes place at San Salvador, El Salvador on 23-31 Aug.

The Cayman Islands qualified for CentroBasket through their participation in the Caribbean Basketball Confederation U15 Youth Championships. Only three countries were able to send a team to that tournament, which meant Cayman earned an automatic place.

The girls team compise Melissa Bridgemohan, Alyssa Connor, Rochel Gardener, Alessandra Hawkins, Khadijah Lewin, Yolanni Manzanares, La-Torae Nixon (vice-captain), Khailan O’Connor, Hannah Parchment (team captain), Chloe Powery, Amanda Stone and Jade Wheeler.

Victor ‘Voot’ O’Garro serves is head coach, Wendy Manzanares is the assistant coach and Latasha Nixon is the team manager. The girls, whose uniforms are being provided by Sports Port Ltd, have been training since the start of the year at the First Baptist Church.

The boys side will leave Monday, 20 August, and return on 3 September. Angela O’Garro, will be the team manager with Duran ‘Trini’ Whittaker serving as head coach and Erwin ‘Bong’ Blancaflor as assistant coach.

Local referee Gregory Hamilton, one of three FIBA-certified officials in Cayman, will join the teams in Mexico and El Salvador, according to FIBA mandates.

We wish everybody the very best of luck.

The Cayman Islands Basketball Association is a non-profit company whose membership currently consists of the clubs and teams that participate in the Men’s and Women’s National Leagues.  The objects for which the Basketball Association was formed include the development and promotion of the sport of basketball in the Cayman Islands and in any given year the Association attempts to meet its objectives by, among other things, developing and promoting basketball leagues, camps and other events and by arranging for teams representing the Cayman Islands to participate in regional and international competitions.

CIBA Board Members