A pair of young Caymanian basketball players excelled in Europe this summer.
The 2014 Fédération Internationale de Basketball World Championship for Women takes place in Istanbul and Ankara, Turkey from Sept. 27 to Oct. 5. In connection with the preparations for the world championship, the Turkish Basketball Federation hosted an international children’s basketball camp called Camp PASS IT ON.
A total of 100 national federations, including the Cayman Islands, were offered the opportunity to send one 14-year-old boy, one 14-year-old girl and a young basketball coach to the camp.
The Cayman Islands Basketball Association selected players Justin Collins and Khailan O’Connor and coach Wendy Manzanares. The Cayman group had an unforgettable experience with 200 kids and 100 coaches from 87 different countries. The camp featured world-class instruction from an experienced group of Turkish and international coaches.
In addition to basketball practices, tournaments and team-building activities, players and coaches got the opportunity to tour Istanbul and attended the Turkey versus Spain men’s national team exhibition game. Spain is one of the world’s biggest basketball powers, featuring the likes of National Basketball Association stars Marc and Pau Gasol.
Manzanares said the Cayman youngsters performed well.
“We are thankful to the Cayman association and extremely proud and grateful for the opportunity to represent Cayman as ambassadors for the sport of basketball,” Manzanares said. “We embraced positive values such as passion, respect and team spirit. Justin and Khailan performed extremely well amongst the players there. Justin’s team won the boys championship in the 5-on-5 tournament.
“During the camp, Khailan was selected as the girl camper of the day from 105 girls after she was selected by coaches for displaying commitment and working extremely hard during practice. Khailan led her team in winning the girls championship in the 3-on-3 tournament that was played outdoors in downtown Istanbul.”
As part of the camp, the Turkish federation launched a new social responsibility program – called PASS IT ON – that aimed to increase the impact of basketball through projects that instill positive values from former and current players, coaches, officials and managers to the next generation of players and coaches. The program has been launched simultaneously with the campaign for the world championship.
Manzanares said the result is that the camp felt like an international celebration of basketball.
“For me, as a coach, it was a great experience to network amongst so many young and talented basketball coaches around the world. I especially enjoyed coaching practices and the tournament where I coached a team of girls from various countries including Romania, Turks and Caicos, Turkey, Uruguay and Australia.
“This international celebration of basketball showed that the values of basketball recognize no borders. Players and coaches speaking various languages were able to come together and share experiences and cultures during a week of basketball.”
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