- Simba French
- 11 hrs ago
- 0
Teams started to arrive for the 2nd Annual Hoopfest in Paradise Showcase from Wednesday, and now, all of the teams are ready to go as the two-day tournament gets underway today at the Kendal G.L. Isaacs National Gymnasium.
The eight boys teams that will be competing are Long Island Lutheran High School (Brookville, New York), Faith Family Academy (Dallas, Texas), Riviera Preparatory School (Miami, Florida), Link Academy (Branson, Missouri), Dynamic Preparatory School (Irving, Texas), Mater Dei Catholic High School (Chula Vista, California), the New Providence Public Schools Select Team (The Bahamas) and the New Providence Private Schools Select Team (The Bahamas). The four girls teams are Long Island Lutheran High School (Brookville, New York), Lake Highland Preparatory School (Orlando, Florida), Etiwanda High School (Rancho Cucamonga, California) and DeSoto High School (DeSoto, Texas).
Among the girls, the Long Island Lutheran team is ranked at number one, Etiwanda is at number two and DeSoto is ranked at number 10.
This is the first time that the head coach of DeSota, Andrea Robinson, has brought her team over to The Bahamas. They are looking forward to playing at a high level.
“One of our goals is to come out to this beautiful country and experience the best high school basketball. It is amazing as these high school players get an opportunity to play internationally at their age. We are extremely excited about them being afforded this opportunity,” she said.
Robinson said she is ready for the challenge.
“We have a tough schedule as we play against the number one and number two teams in the country. We have our work cut out for us. We are expecting some very good matchups against the best teams in the country. We are expecting two very good games,” Robinson said.
Among the boys, Mater Dei were in London and Paris playing in Europe last year, according to their coach Gary McKnight. McKnight said he asked to come here and see these trips as a bonding experience for his players.
“We compete against high level teams and, hopefully, it helps us to win a championship at the end of the year. We are looking forward to playing against the best competition as possible. I am looking forward to some good competition. We have some major hurdles to overcome,” said McKnight. His team will play against Edgecombe and his squad in the featured game at 6:30 p.m. tonight and against Faith Family on Saturday.https://5a616d061b6877982b932ac8a1f6f92f.safeframe.googlesyndication.com/safeframe/1-0-40/html/container.html
“They (Long Island Lutheran) are extremely talented and ranked high in the country. It will be a tough game, and they have a Bahamian on the team. They have a lot of weapons and a lot of ways to score. They are balanced,” said McKnight, acknowledging that it will be a tough challenge for his team.
Faith Family Head Coach Brandon Thomas likes to give his players opportunities like this as he said it provides avenues for them to be seen.
“Playing at events like this one is what we want for our kids because it gives them an opportunity to play against top competition,” Thomas said. “The preparation has to go into overtime because these teams you are playing against are very good, but more importantly it is a platform for these kids. We are playing here as one of eight teams and it is almost like the national spotlight is on them. We want these kids to be seen,” he added.
This season has not been the best for Thomas and his squad as they struggle to rebuild.
“We want to compete. We are coming off a great four years at Faith Family which is arguably the best four years for a team out of Texas. This year is a rough start for us as we won five and lost six. We have been competitive, but we have work to do. We want our kids to compete,” Thomas said.
They will play against Riviera Prep in the first game of the showcase at 12:30 p.m. today and against Mater Dei on Saturday at 2 p.m. Thomas said he got to see Riviera play in Texas so he knows what they are about and Mater Dei beat him by one point last year.
Games get underway at 11 a.m. on Saturday.