BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – CELEBRATION of its Golden Anniversary, among other events, is one of the significant objectives of the St. Kitts-Nevis Amateur Basketball Association (SKNABA) in 2014.
Though no plans for their 50th anniversary celebration have been confirmed as yet, SKNABA President Kenroy Tobias told SKNVibes Sports that a committee was charged with the planning of activities to celebrate the milestone.
“We have decided to put a committee in place so that they could come up with whatever activities so that we could celebrate 50 years. It is a milestone for basketball, and activities will be announced shortly.”
He also spoke about other plans the association has for the year.
“We also have several other goals to pursue and one will be to make certain to increase the expectations at our games, because we are looking to go out in the communities around the island with more games outside Basseterre.
“We also want to try to reach out more to coroporate entities to contribute towards sponsorship and other things.”
Tobias also said that they are aiming to further develop basketball by targeting the grassroots players and expanding the National Youth Camp introduced in 2013.
“We are also seeking to have a larger involvement in the National Youth Camp and, for the first time, we will be instituting a grass root programme because we feel basketball needs to have a growth process.”
In response to the association’s attendance at the Caribbean Basketball Confederation’s (CBC) Annual General Meeting and its Tournament, Tobias said: “I may not be attending the CBC AGM but the association will have someone present.
“We were unable to register on time for the CBC Tournament to be held in June but, hopefully, in the next tournament you could see St. Kitts and Nevis.”
Tobias also reflected on basketball in 2013
“Last year, basketball was more or less a continuation of what we started in 2012 and 2011. We continued our efforts in terms of discipline and trying to push for the encouragement of discipline.
“We continued our efforts in trying to maintain the grounds in such a way that people can feel comfortable, and we also tried to reach out to the general public in terms of carrying games outside of Basketball City.”
He added that the association was successful in attaining its objectives for 2012, which included retaining all of its member clubs.
“I do believe that we achieved the goals we set out to achieve because we did maintain all 24 clubs, and that is something we looked forward to for years to increase membership.
“We continue to get assistance from the National Olympic Committee, which has always been there for us in the past and moving forward.”
The SKNABA President also highlighted what their most significant achievement was in 2013.
“The greatest achievement was that we were able to pull off the first ever National Youth Camp with 110 children from St. Kitts and 75 on Nevis. This was a collaborative effort between the National Olympic Committee and the St. Kitts-Nevis Amateur Basketball Association. And I believe that would have been our greatest achievement because it was never done before...and the large turnout made it a success.”
The 2014 basketball season is scheduled to commence in April.
