TT teams in Guadeloupe for 3x3 Hoops

TWO TT representative teams left on Thursday to participate in the third edition of the Antilles International Basketball Foundation 3x3 Hoops tournament in Pointe-à-Pitre, Guadeloupe.

The TT contingent consists of nine members including youth leader Fendi Phillips and team coordinator Arnold Thomas.

The four Under-18 boys are Maloney Pacers Basketball Club and Youth Development Programme trio Jadon Daniel, Jael Lewis and Jelani Blackett, along with Dante Hazzard from Spartans TT. Girls Can Hoop’s Breanna Charles and Nikiya Baptiste, will join forces with Pacers Jillisa Briggs to form the Under-18 girls team.

Fifteen countries are expected to participate over the weekend in the event that also encompasses a youth leadership and life skills workshop.

The competing teams are Antigua/Barbuda, Aruba, Barbados, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, French Guiana, Montserrat, St Kitts/Nevis, St Lucia, St Vincent/Grenadines, Guadeloupe, Martinique, St Maarten and TT.

The games were organised and managed in partnership with the Caribbean Basketball Confederation and the Guadeloupe Regional Basketball League. In this year’s tournament, a new mixed nations format will be introduced to enhance the interaction between participating countries.

Another modification of this year’s event is the inclusion of a youth leader along with the usual coordinator. The leaders were selected following nominations by all partaking national federations.

The life skills workshop will be led by 3x3 Unites, a foundation that promotes the use of basketball and sports to teach personal and social skills that can be applied to everyday life.

To qualify for the event each national federation was required to host a national tournament to select participating players and teams. The National Basketball Federation of TT hosted its 3x3 National Under-18 Championships from October 19 to November 30 where the top performing players were selected by the federation’s board of directors.

An article published on the International Basketball Federation’s website about the Antilles competition stated, “A total of 200 teams and almost 1,000 players will take part in these events which is a huge increase from last year (120 teams) and speaks to the hard work of the national federations of encouraging youths to play.”