2 months ago
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A STRONG performance is expected from Jamaica’s team to the Caribbean Women’s Basketball Championship (CBC) in Guyana despite an interruption in their training camp due to Hurricane Melissa. At least that’s the view of their coach, Oneil Brown.
Jamaica will compete at the CBC, set to be hosted in Guyana from November 12 through to November 16.
The JamRockerz will take on Suriname, The Bahamas, the US Virgin Islands, and Guyana for one of the three qualifying spots to the 2026 CentroBasket Women’s Championships.
In preparation for the championship, 22 players were selected for a local training camp, where Brown said he oversaw a talented pool of players.
Despite a disruption in the camp due to the passage of Hurricane Melissa, Brown said the players are back in the correct mindset and are ready to compete at the regional stage.
“I know we are gonna do well,” Brown stated.
“Before Melissa, we were flowing the right way on the court and off the court; things were looking good.
“After the hurricane and all, the first thing was to get the girls back in the right mental state of mind to play basketball. We are in a good spirit now, and we’re going to do good well.”
Twenty of the players selected for the training camp were from the local Women’s National Basketball League (WNBL), with two overseas-based players, one of whom is a naturalised player.
Brown has since selected his final roster for the CBC and said the squad will be announced by the Jamaica Basketball Association in the coming days.
He praised the WNBL as a quality stomping ground for Jamaica’s basketball players, and said it has provided a strong core of local-based players they can rely one.
This comes as several of Jamaica’s players who compete in the US collegiate system were unavailable for selection.
“With availability, no college is going to let go of all of those players to come and represent the national team so the core must come from Jamaica and the more we develop them, the more we’ll find avenues and leagues to play in.”
The national team lifted the CBC in 2014, when it was hosted in the US Virgin Islands.
However, with the impact of the coronavirus and a lack of international games, they had a poor showing in the previous tournament, finishing at the foot of the table without a win.
Brown said Jamaica would not have been the only team impacted by the pandemic, and expects similar setbacks for Suriname, Bahamas, and Guyana.
He said in the case of the US Virgin Islands, by virtue of being a US territory, they are able to draw on US-based players and would have been less affected by the lack of games.
“All the countries have not played in a while, and all the countries, apart from US Virgin Island, as US Virgin Island is from the US, so they can use US-based players,” Brown said.
“Whatever affects us will affect Suriname, will affect Bahamas, and will affect Guyana; but we have to understand that it does not affect US Virgin Islands.”
He added, “We just have to go in there and get better in the tournament.”
Jamaica will begin their campaign against Suriname on November 12 at the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall.
English (US) ·