BELIZE CITY, Thurs. July 13, 2023
The Belize Basketball Federation has announced that Belize is hosting the FIBA U17 Centrobasket Championship at the Belize City Civic Centre, July 26-30, for the very first time in our history.
Teams from Costa Rica, El Salvador, Panama, Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Jamaica, Mexico are the expected competitors to join Belize, with the top 3 teams qualifying for the U18 Americas Championship next year.
The team will be coached by Bernie Tarr, coach of the BEBL Belmopan Red Taigaz’, that tournament’s youngest team. He will be joined on the bench by Darwin “Puppy” Leslie, recently a player coach of the BEBL Defenders, and by assistant coach Stephen “Muerte” Williams who just retired from active playing after a 20-year career.
Workouts and assessments of local players were held on May 28-29, and workouts started in Belize City 2 weeks ago.
Four Belizean born players are expected to arrive in Belize and join the team this weekend.
Dangriga born 6’10″ 230 lbs, sixteen-year-old Douglas Langford, a power forward, has been rated as a top 5 player. He recently graduated from high school in California.
Unverified reports are that he will be playing for NBA superstar LeBron James’ Nike team this summer and has college scholarship offers from Duke, Gonzaga, UCLA, and North Carolina.
He is reportedly flying into Belize from the 16-21st July for national practice, but will return to Memphis, Georgia, for a super camp attended by D1 coaches and NBA scouts only, before returning to Belize for the tournament.
6’5″, 180 lbs, swingman Meshach Flowers was born in Belmopan but left there 2 years ago to attend high school in Houston. He is the son of the BEBL 2023 champion Benny’s Belize Hurricanes General Manager, Paul Flowers.
6’3″ Roger Favela, Jr., a two-way guard, was born in Corozal. He is the son of Roger Favela, who played for the Belize National Team that won a gold medal at the CARICOM tournament, and who won 2 semi-pro championships with the 5-time champions Kremandala Raiders.
6’5″ swingman Ian Parham, Jr., a high schooler at Calvary Christian Academy, Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and was recently seen working out with Olin Simplis, aka “The Guard Whisperer”, who is renowned for training NBA guards. He may reportedly enroll in Jacksonville University and play college ball for its NCAA Division 1 team.
Olin Simplis played for Belize’s gold medal CARICOM team.