Local basketball players have proven to be inventive when it comes to staying in shape during their off-season. The latest endeavour to feature members of Cayman’s hoops fraternity is the Cayman Islands Marathon.
The Cayman Islands Basketball Association has entered a side in the upcoming Cayman Marathon taking place Sunday 5 December. Four male players will take part in Chad Leslie, Kerry Hunte, Stephen Shaw and Jace Ebanks. Leslie is a stalwart of the national team, starring in last year’s Island Games.
Hunte, 20, recently came through the ranks of the Appleby Under-19 Basketball League, which Ebanks is currently part of with the Esso Blazers. Shaw also took part in the U19 League in years past and finished his first campaign in the national men’s league this year.
The young men are running the Cayman Marathon to raise funds for the national mens team’s participation in next year’s Island Games in the Isle of Wight sometime in June. The Island Games are a warm-up event in preparation for the Caribbean Basketball Confederation Senior Championship next year.
National men’s coach Daniel Augustine organised the marathon team and spoke about the association’s goals for this endeavour.
“I chose two seniors and two relatively junior players to run,” Augustine said. “The reason being is I’m working with both age groups so I figure why not cater to them. In addition they are the ones I’ve seen running long distance in the past and with that experience they were naturally getting first choice.
“This is the first time it has happened where the association has been represented in the Cayman Marathon. In fact it’s the first time in the association’s history where basketball has officially been represented in another sporting event.
“One of the goals is for people to understand that the athletes are training constantly, year-round. Secondly the funds are always limited in any tournament we go to. Starting the fund-raising form now makes it a lot easier because we know what our needs are.”
The marathon is the latest sporting event to feature local basketball players. This summer saw a number of players in the national flag football league and over the last two months hoopsters have played in the national mixed netball league.
Augustine states a number of training sessions are planned for the players ahead of the marathon.
“To be clear the national team has not been selected it yet but serious training will begin in April and I will make my final selections from there. At this point though it feels very good that the association is getting involved with the marathon.
“It’s all about getting fit, which is just as important as anything else. By and large to be successful you have to be fit and endurance is really important in basketball. Sprinting may play a part but to sustain the amount of time you get on the court you need endurance.
“As far as training goes we’ll be doing two two-mile runs (one takes place this Saturday). From there we’ll do a four-mile run, which will take us to the marathon (where our guys will run roughly six miles each).”
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