The Bermuda Basketball Association (BBA) announced the 1st Annual Bermuda Thanksgiving Classic on November 26th and 27th 2010. Allen Walker the BBA President said, “The BBA is committed to the development of basketball in Bermuda and this will be the biggest tournament in the history of the association. Thanks to the support of Youth and Sport, the BBA is able to have an 8 team tournament comprised of 6 teams from overseas and 2 local teams. Teams include Durango High and Chaparral High out of Las Vegas and Francis Parker High from San Diego California, Georgetown Prep from Maryland, Metro Prep from Toronto, and Georgetown District High from Ontario. We are proud to announce that Grotto Bay Beach Resort will be the Host hotel for this year’s tournament.”
Tournament Chairman Chris Crumpler said, “The tournament will start on Friday November 26th with pool play with an opening ceremony; Saturday the 27th will be tournament play with Championship night! Each team will play 4 games with 2 games per day. The BBA is also excited that each team will be visiting schools for a special assembly to reinforce the importance of being a student athlete, with emphasis on student. The BBA will be partnering with Bermuda Sports Network for exclusive video footage and with www.Islandstats.com for game to game updates. Other partnerships include the Department of Tourism, the Department of Education, and David Bascombe with Hope 4 Life.”
The BBA is also seeking volunteers for the following committees: hospitality, transport, game setup, media, promotion, stats, boosters, and referees. If interested, we are asking that you please submit your name with contact information to Bermudabasketball@gmail.com.
Crumpler went on to say, “I would like to make two Special Announcements today. I will be stepping down as the Head Coach of the Under 18 team and the new Head Coach will be the Bermuda National Team Captain Steven Simons. Coach Simons has won a championship on every level as a player in Bermuda both locally and internally. He has also coached Warwick Academy to back-to-back BSSF Championships.”
“The other announcement is that Tejour Riley has received an $18,000 dollar scholarship to attend Metro Prep this upcoming school year, and the BBA is excited that we will be having Metro Prep in this year’s Thanksgiving Classic,” continued Crumpler.
Riley said, “I am looking forward to this new challenge of playing Basketball aboard, I am also looking forward to playing against the Bermuda Team during the Tournament”.
Simons said, “I am hoping the Bermuda public come out to watch these young men play during this tournament, I think they would be pleasantly surprised by the talent that we have in this country at this age group.”
Bermuda is known for its great hospitality to its guests and by recognizing this US Holiday to give thanks it is a great way to help bring families together both Bermudian and non-Bermudian, as Bermudians have strong ties to the American culture!
