Coaches, Referees and student teams gathered on the basketball court in Governor’s Harbour on Wednesday, April 1st, 2015 for the High School Basketball Championship matchups.
(Eleuthera, Bahamas) – Andrew Johnson, a volunteer coach at the Harbour Island All Age School raised alarm bells recently, about the state of sport on the island, with special concern for the future of basketball.
He explained, saying, “The way I see basketball and sports in general in Eleuthera – it’s dying. The people who should be involved in making this thing happen are not living up to what they are supposed to be doing. It’s terrible. I think we need younger people getting involved in what’s happening with sports, especially basketball. This year, even with the night league, we had only four teams.”
Commenting on interschool play during the basketball season, Johnson described it as almost non-existent, “High school basketball is out of control, we only play two or three games per season, and they call it a Championship.”
As a volunteer coach with the Harbour Island All Age School since 1996, Mr. Johnson shared that he felt more participation in giving back and mentoring was needed, saying, “People in the community need to come out and get involved with the kids, because we are losing this generation.
“When they plan a party, or a regatta, or something like that, they are all for it. We have hundreds of people out to the parties. But when it comes to the kids , we have a big problem. If you look around Eleuthera, kids are bringing up kids.”
“I’ve been doing this for quite some time and I’ve seen Hatchet Bay collapse, I see Gregory Town collapsing, now it looks like Governor’s Harbour is collapsing. Every where I turn now, throughout Eleuthera, everything is falling apart, – I don’t know what’s going on. It seems like everybody is now all about themselves – they’re not giving back .
“I run a program, where the kids involved play basketball 96 days out of the year – every Friday and Saturday, and they look forward to that. Instead of them just dressing up on a Saturday and walking around the street, they come out to the basketball court and play from 5pm until 10pm. When they leave, the only place left to go is home and to sleep – instead of getting into trouble. If we don’t help to groom our young people, we are going to have trouble on our hands.
Coach Johnson, whose volunteer work at the school began when his son who is now 34 years old was enrolled there, shared that he was immensely proud of five very special young ladies on his girls basketball team, all starters, who were recognized earlier this year by the Harbour Island All Age School for achieving the Honour Roll. He currently has 17 girls participating in his basketball program.
On Monday, April 30th, Mr. Johnson’s night league team, the Harbour Island Panthers won their 15th Eleuthera Basketball Association (EBA) Championship in a best of five series. The 2015 EBA Championships series began on March 24th and wrapped up after game three, with the Panthers winning the series three to zero against the Anchor Bay Fish Fry Crusaders of Governor’s Harbour in a hard fought match up that went overtime, but in the end the Panthers snatched victory finishing with 94 points to 89.
“They gave us a good push”, said Mr. Johnson, and continued,”They are coming. They are young and if they stick together they can be there, but they need more help”. Mr. Johnson expressed grave concern for the future of the night league, stating that this year, only four teams participated from Governor’s Harbour, Tarpum Bay and Harbour Island, compared to last year’s approximately ten team count.
He commented that he was looking forward to accompanying an ALL-STAR team (including selected Panther and Crusaders players) to compete in the 2015 Bahamas Basketball Federation’s National Round Robin Basketball Championship series, slated to start on April 16th, this year in Bimini. Ultimately, the Pumpers and Saints teams of Grand Bahama took home the winning titles in the A and B divisions of those National Championships.
Coach Andrew Johnson, stands proudly with seven young ladies who participate in his basketball program in Harbour Island. Five of them, (His starting five) were recognized by the Harbour Island All Age School for achieving the Honour Roll earlier this year, including; Shantia Black, Lachante Johnson, Breontae Bullard, Laurente Johnson, and Michelle Delien.
The High School basketball ‘championships’ which were recently held in Governor’s Harbour on Wednesday, April 1st, 2015 featured Junior Girls teams from Harbour Island All Age (HIAAS) and Preston Albury High (PHAHS) ; Junior Boys teams from Preston Albury High and Harbour Island All Age; and Senior Boys teams from Central Eleuthera High (CEHS) and North Eleuthera High (NEHS). PHAHS also featured a Senior Girls team, which won by default with NEHS not sending a Senior Girls team on the day.
The day began with HIAAS Jr. Girls defeating the PHAHS Jr. Girls in a brutally one sided match up, resulting in a 54 to 4 win by HIAAS. In game two, PHAHS returned the favour in the Jr. Boys match up against HIAAS, defeating them 52 to 26. In Sr. Boys action during the final game on the Wednesday, CEHS took down the NEHS team in a 52 to 46 win.
