Development Bank sponsors Newton Ground junior basketball team

BASSETERRE ST. KITTS (May 12, 2009) -- When the St. Kitts Amateur Basket Association (SKABA) League opened at the Basketball City on Sunday April 26, the junior league, which had opened a week earlier, had a new team and new colours.
 
Presenting an old team that donned a new outfit and a new name to boot was Newton Ground queen of basketball Enist Parris. Her team, previously named Newton Ground Rockers, had received a deserved makeover courtesy of the Development Bank of Saint Kitts and Nevis.
 
The enthusiastic young men from Newton Ground reported under the new name, Development Bank Ballers donning uniform bearing the bank’s colours – green and white with gold stripes. According to their coach, the makeover has inspired her boys to work extra hard.
 
Enist Parris, whose personal career as a basketball player ground to a halt due to injury, formed the team in 2007 so as to keep young men in Newton Ground constructively occupied. Getting a sponsor was an uphill task and she noted that she had to use her personal savings to buy the youngsters their first set of uniform.
 
Her prayers were answered when earlier this year she approached the Development Bank of Saint Kitts and Nevis for sponsorship who readily offered to step in as sponsors. To show appreciation to their sponsor, the team was renamed Development Bank Newton Ground Ballers.
 
Explaining why the bank undertook to sponsor the junior team from Newton Ground, Marva Burroughs, the manager for marketing said that the sponsorship was in keeping with the institution’s mandate of nation building and developing all facets of the nation.
 
“Whether it is education, sports, agriculture, or business,” Burroughs noted, “sports is just one of the facets under nation building that we undertake to develop so as to comprise the entire package. As a bank we are building a rounded individual in our people, so we do not just concentrate on one aspect because we want our youth to be well rounded, be it in health, sports or education.”
 
She pointed out that when they were approached by the coach, the bank’s response was spontaneous as “our youth are our future and we know right now that we have to make an added investment in our youth based on the trend by which things are going. We have to make that full circle, a roundabout turn to save our youth and so we are making the added effort in investing in them..”
 
Since the league opened, the team has played five matches, winning two and losing two. The fate of one that they lost narrowly (62-64) to Blue Devils will have to be determined after Parris challenged an on-court decision that was to their disadvantage. They beat Cayon and Verchilds High School but lost to Hitters and Sandy Point’s Fruta Falcons.
 
The young men are coached by Parris who is ably assisted by Eustace Hodge. With the sponsorship that has come their way, there is an air of confidence that the team will make it to the finals in the SKABA junior division of the league.
 
“So far our most outstanding player is Dion Harris who is the team captain who usually scores the most points and assists in every game,” said the coach. “He is a young man who is still a student at the CFB College and I bet come next year he will be a force to be reckoned with.
 
“Joshua Robin who is known as a ‘monster on the boards’ is a great shot blocker and scores a fairly good amount of points per game. Jeremiah Locker, another CFBC student, and Chelston Mills who is presently working as a mason specialising in tiles, are both veteran players. Locker is the point guard of the team and both players are usually great scorers.”
 
The team’s next game will be on Saturday 23rd May, 2009 against Dieppe Bay.