Fiesta Female Basketball on Sunday in Pleasantville

SIXTY girls, aged 14 and over, will have the opportunity to showcase their basketball skills on Sunday.

The girls will be at the Pleasantvilleindoor facilities for the first Fiesta Female Basketball League competition.

One of the administrators, Roslyn George, said this is the fifth event promoted by the league, but the first in the south.

“We have been going to different courts all over the country,” she told Newsday on Thursday night. “We have been to the Woodbrook Youth Facility, Tacarigua Indoor Facility, and Pleasantville this weekend. We intend to carry the next game to Mayaro.”

George and some of the young basketballers were at Jordan’s Parlour, at the corner of Pleasantville Circular and Ken “Professor’ Philmore Street, to promote the game, on a platform created by councillor Robert Parris and Pleasantville Radio to showcase arts, culture and sporting activities.

George said Garvin Warrick of Spartans formed the league, as there were not many opportunities for girls to play.

“There were competitions for boys, and girls just fell in. This time, we have brought together girls, 14 and over, who love the sport and who train with different clubs. We have mixed them up and divided them into six different teams so they can play against each other.

“We want to show girls can play basketball too. We want girls to know through academics and sports, there are scholarship opportunities for them.

"It also promotes a healthy lifestyle. We want to encourage them to get into the habit of exercise and sports from an early age.”

There will be three games on Sunday between 1 pm and 3 pm, for medals, trophies and bragging rights.