A four-day basketball camp to sharpen the raw skills of some of the Turks and Caicos Islands youth kickstarted at the Gustarvus Lightbourne in Providenciales on Wednesday.
Trevor Cooke, Secretary General for Turks and Caicos Islands Basketball Federation, said the Elite Under 15 Camp is geared to prepare the budding talent for the 2022 regional qualifiers to worldwide FIBA-sanctioned Tournaments.
He said the country in which the qualifiers will be held is yet to be named.
The camp makes accommodation for 15 participants. He said similar camps would be held leading up to that tournament.
“This is the beginning of the activities that we would be having over a period of time that leads up to the 2022 qualifiers. The country where they are going to have it has not yet been identified, but we are getting ready to have a good showing when the event takes place,” Cooke Asserted.
He added: “We will have two teams getting ready for the qualifiers, the Under 15 and the Under 17 teams, and so, that will help us with what we need to do to get ready for that event.”
Ira Taylor, Chairman for the Sports Commission, and whose influence made the event possible, was on hand to address the young athletes.
Taylor, who normally took his son to California to the camp in order to get him the necessary skills and endurance development. However, he used his connection to have a camp staged in the Turks and Caicos this year.
He reminded the young athletes to remain focused, train hard and always prepare to meet the right opportunity when it presents itself. Taylor also encouraged them to make the most of the international training that they would get over the period of the camp.
Education Minister Hon. Rachel Taylor, who was accompanied by Member of Parliament for Wheeland Hon. Kyle Knowles and All Island Candidate Hon. Shaun Malcolm, reminded the participants that not only should they prepare for a sporting career, but an academic one also.
According to Taylor, many times when an athlete is denied government scholarships to study overseas has to do with the lack of academic achievement on the athlete’s part. She urged the budding basketballers to not let such lack of preparation befall them.
In the meantime, Cooke expressed his gratitude to Tayor for landing an international basketball camp for the youth of the Turks and Caicos Islands. He expressed confidence that they would garner much from it.