There were not a lot of the 1990’s Belize semi-pro basketball games at the old Belize City auditorium that brought to my view the mad basketball skills of Raymond “Footie” Gongora — but the ones that did grab my fancy during the 1992-1993 years of the basketball tournament, were the ones that the high-energy and talented basketball team, Raiders, played to sold out Belizean audiences on Friday nights.
During the 1990’s, when I was making monthly visits to Belize from Los Angeles, California, Belize’s semi-pro basketball was in rare form. For me it was like the 1970s Belizean basketball explosion at the fabulous basketball sporting arena Birds Isle, and the 90s basketball games had their stars like Gongora and his renegade band of roots ballers coming straight out of the Belize City Southside ‘hoods.
Raymond Footie Gongora
Since it was known to me that the best ballplayers and athletes had always come from the culturally deprived neighborhoods of Belize City, the images of those like Raymond “Footie” Gongora, Kirk “Shabba” Smith, Keith Acosta, Evan “Duck” Garnett, Bart Sanchez, Claude “Too Tall” Jones, and many others impressed me because of their toughness, which the game of basketball calls for. But what was also impressive was that many of these brothers made something of themselves and made the transition from boys to men all on their own.
Thus this remarkable story of the captain of the 1993 semi-pro basketball champions, Raymond “Footie” Gongora, who led the Kremandala Raiders basketball team through a formidable series of matchups, is an example of the fine principles and discipline which he had to develop himself on the mean streets of Belize City during the 1980s and 90s. Helping to build the Raiders from bottom up as one of the products of the Kremandala grassroots foundation, Gongora took on the challenge and the calling made to him by the team’s owner, Evan X Hyde, who had always believed that sports for Belizean young people was an alternative to crime.
It would have been one of the best choices X Hyde, who understood how to develop the challenging Belizean youth culture of the time, would have made in a young man. Crime was destroying many Belizean black men on the Southside of Belize City through an insidious, low-intensity gang war. And Gongora, having beaten the lifestyle to emerge as one of Belize’s multitalented athletes, brought along his ball skills and smarts to nurture the Raiders basketball organization into one of the best Belizean basketball teams of all time.
Pushing his boys to work hard at the game through conditioning and practice, he became a sort of player-coach and the right-hand man for the two brilliant Belizean basketball coaches of the team, the late Wilton “Cama” Cumberbatch and Marshall Nunez. His team-player approach to the coaches gained their trust, and the Raiders were whipped into top shape scarcely seen anymore by any Belizean basketball club today. And the results showed in their superb performances that won them the 1993 to 1996 semi-pro basketball championships, back-to back-to back-to back. They later repeated in 1999, winning another basketball championship as one of Belize’s legendary sporting organizations. Then Gongora retired from the game to move on with the rest of his life.
The intriguing momentum of a talented Belizean athlete like Raymond “Footie” Gongora depicts the unorthodox development of a student athlete who played both football and basketball from primary to secondary school in Belize City. It was something that those like him were born with, and it solidified him as the skillful athlete he became, during a period when he was forced to live the street life while earning an education. His genes are connected to the lineage of the legendary 1970s Belizean footballer, Ricky Gongora, and a whole line of popular Belizean athletes who are uncles and relatives who showed him the path, the hard way.
With a basketball skill set and brain power that were molded by the legendary Belizean basketball phenom Clinton “Pulu” Lightburn, Gongora had to make a choice between playing football or basketball, and basketball it was that he chose. He speaks about the fact that the Raiders were so good that their talented guard, Evan “Duck” Garnett, with his 6 feet 4 inches frame, could see over the opponents’ defense while executing some of the most penetrating plays, which they had run so many times in practice. Garnett, he felt, became one of the best guards of the 1990s basketball league.
The Raymond “Footie” Gongora chapter to Belize’s historical semi-pro basketball championships of the 1990s actually covers volumes. He was also the Most Valuable Player (MVP) in the 1993 semi-pro basketball championships. His was an amazing eye-opener in terms of what actually goes into the development of Belizean basketball athletes who were not fortunate to make some of the best choices in their lives. It is a Belizean humanistic story of triumph, regardless of the odds. He has become one of those Belizean role models who are badly needed today as Belize struggles to find its way back.
(Photos through the courtesy of Raymond “Footie” Gongora and the book, Sports, Sin & Subversion, by Evan X Hyde)