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Deloitte Player Of the Week

Amaya Linwood is the the player of the week for her performance in 1st round action of the Deloitte Under 19 Girls Basketball League.

The league takes on a fast and furious format this year, as game time is slightly shortened but each team plays two games per day.  After 4 games of non stop action, Linwood emerged the most outstanding this week as she filled the stat sheets:

She averaged 12.5 points, 4 assists, 8.5 rebounds, 3.5 steals and 1 block per game. Did we mention that she is one of the youngest players in the league (14)?

Linwood also finished with the highest free throw percentage, 2nd in scoring, 1st in rebounds, 1st in assists, 3rd in steals, 1st in blocks.  Her team is the “Women of Valor Fearless”.

 Action continues this Sunday at 3 pm for the girls the John Gray High School Gymnasium.  

Basketball Standout O’Garro Commits to Oklahoma

By: Kevin Morales.

Caymanian Joshua O’Garro is making history.

O’Garro this week verbally committed to play basketball at the University of Oklahoma, which would make him the first Caymanian to play the sport at the NCAA Division I level.

“It’s a great day,” Cayman Islands basketball technical director Voot O’Garro told the Cayman Compass on Friday.

Joshua O’Garro this year wrapped up his junior season at Santa Clarita High School, in California. He caught the attention of several Division I men’s basketball programmes while moving up recruiting site rankings. He’s considered a three-star recruit by Rivals.com – one of the United States’ most recognised recruiting news services – which rates players on a five-star system. He was ranked a four-star recruit by 247Sports.com.

“It is a great program,” O’Garro told Rivals.com’s Corey Evans of OU. “They make great players and that’s what I want to be and I feel that Coach (Lon) Kruger and the staff are all invested in me as a person on and off the court. They believe in me and my abilities and I won’t let their belief go to waste.”

Evans tweeted a graphic illustration on Thursday showing O’Garro in a Sooners jersey. Oklahoma’s official men’s basketball Twitter account retweeted it.

O’Garro had planned on playing one more year of high school basketball. He reclassified to the class of 2020, however, because he met college academic requirements between his time at Santa Clarita and another prep school he previously attended, according to Voot O’Garro.

NCAA Division I is the top level of college sports in the US. The Sooners play in the Big 12 Conference, which is one of the most prestigious conferences in the US in terms of athletics success.

“The Cayman Islands native is one of the more gifted athletes we’ve had at BTI in 23 years,” tweeted BTI, O’Garro’s club team.

The Sooners have four players that currently play in the National Basketball Association, including the Detroit Pistons four-time All-Star Blake Griffin, Atlanta Hawks All-Star point guard Trey Young and Sacramento Kings guard Buddy Hield, who won the 3-point shootout competition at the 2020 NBA All-Star Weekend.

Oklahoma had made the NCAA Men’s Basketball National Championship tournament in five of the last six years before the 2020 tournament was called off due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Sooners had put together a 19-12 record before the 2020 season was cancelled.

Joshua O’Garro has given a verbal commitment but has not yet signed his National Letter of Intent to attend the school, which would make the announcement official. He plans to redshirt next year, Voot O’Garro said. If a player is ‘redshirted’ it means the athlete is enrolled at the school and remains a member of the team but will not play that season. The player therefore does not begin his or her four years of eligibility to play until the following academic year.

As for the young athlete heading to Oklahoma, “This is going to take Cayman Islands basketball to the next level,” Caymanian basketball coach Corey McGee said.

Career Spotlight – Cory Thompson

He was arguably the best rebounder the Cayman Islands has ever seen, one of the country’s top defenders and possibly one of the greatest shot blockers in Cayman’s history.

Cayman Basketball built its foundation around this 6’3 versatile player who represented the three island nation at the very first NatWest Island Games and came away with a silver medal.

Got your attention? Good!

Now let’s read about 41 year old Cory Thompson who has paved the way for several young Cayman basketball players to take their talents overseas.

Ireland:

Cory Thompson signed his first professional contract in the Super league with a team called Neptune from Cork. While staying in Ireland for a few months which happened to be the same time as pre-season tryouts, Thompson was invited to train with the team for a few months and played the first few games with the them before returning to study at Hillsbourough County in Tampa, Florida.

Tampa:

In Tampa, this power forward and center played in a few local leagues and won 3 championships in which he was selected to play in the NBA Hoop It Up 3on3 challenge where he won the Men’s 1st Division B for the entire tournament.

United Kingdom:

In 1999 Thompson and his Cayman teammate Erdmon McCoy were offered contracts for 2 different teams. They both travelled to Cardiff to tryout with the Clippers and Coventry Tigers which they both got offered contracts.

According to Thompson, both he and McCoy returned home to Cayman to decide on which contract to take but unfortunately McCoy had broken his instep in a pre-season game where they both competed before heading back home….This prevented McCoy’s chance at the pro leagues. Thompson then however, decided not to return as well but to continue his studies in Florida.

After finishing College, Thompson returned to the UK and signed with the Southampton Trial Blazers in the 4th national league. His very first professional team. That season, Thompson and the Blazers went 15-0 to win the Southern Division.

A few seasons after, Thompson went onto play for Chichester Thunder where he also won the 4th Southern Division that year. Thompson was the 2nd top scorer on the team averaging a double in every game with 20+ points.

France:

Later on Thompson and most of his teammates from the Chichester squad joined the 1st division Worthing Thunder where they placed 2nd in the national division that year.

Thompson was also selected 3 years in a row to play in the Quartier Quest, a tournament held in Northern France which is the home town of the NBA’s Nicolas Batum of the Charlotte Hornets.

Thompson said, “he was fortunate to meet and play alongside Batum once as the Hornets did not make the NBA playoffs that year so Batum returned to France for competition.”

Members of the team consisted of top BBL players, England and Nigerian national team players.

However, Thompson said, “what was most important for me during that time playing and travelling around the UK was that I found time to obtain my Bacholer and Masters degrees in Communication Design along with my level 1 and 2 City and Guilds certificate in Web design.” He said he also became a level 1 coach and began coaching kids in a few camps in the UK and 1 in Norway.”

Finland:

When Thompson migrated to Finland he found a new passion in coaching but he also played in the men 2nd division. The first year he was the assistant coach for the U16 Boys 1st division. Thompson said the head coach allowed him to coach and change up his system because he wanted to mentor him to become the head coach for Masu Basket….in which he did.

This same year Masu won the U16 1st division where Thompson also coached the team in an invitational tournament held in Finland where they won a gold medal with the team also setting a tournament record by remaining undefeated throughout the season.

That year, Thompson played and coached for the same basketball club. He played 3 seasons and coached for 4 seasons.

Clubs in Finland are a big deal with teams starting as young as U10 straight to men’s professional level league with the biggest club in Finland having over 1500 players.

Officiating:

Thompson also dabbled in Officiating throughout his extended career. He stepped away from coaching for a while to become a professional referee. Thompson currently holds a level 1 certificate which allows him to referee in the Women’s 1st division which is televised; Men 2nd division and all national and U19 league games.

Thompson said, “he has enjoyed refereeing so far because it has allowed him to travel all over Europe and officiate various tournaments in places such as Sweden, Hungry, Spain and Norway.

After Thompson stopped playing in the men’s 2nd division he then transferred to another club NMKY to play in a higher league in the Men’s 35 Senior National league where he and his team finished 5th the very first season.

Next season, Thompson will be playing in the Senior league once again and also tournaments around Finland. The winners of the Senior national league will go on to represent Finland in the FIMBA world championship.

Local Teams:

Thompson has shared his talents with several local teams in the Men’s National league throughout the years. Most notably

The Island Pharmacy Huskies where he has won a championship with the Huskies being the first team in Cayman to go through the entire season undefeated. Thompson also represented local teams CNB; Coconut Car Rental (championship); Harlem Bulls; Police (championship)
DHL Wolverines (championship) and Shaolin Warriors.

Islands Games:

The 6’3 center also represented the Cayman Islands at 4 NatWest Island Games in Gotland, Sweeden where Cayman won Silver; Guernsey where Cayman won Silver once again; Aland and Isle of Wight.

Caricom/CBC Games:

Thompson also led the Cayman Islands to 5th place out of 13 Caribbean countries in the 1999 Junior Caricom Basketball tournament held in Jamaica.

RBMF:

Thompson also founded the Rodney Bodden Memorial Foundation in 2006 in which he organizes a weekend of fun basketball competition in the Cayman Islands in honour of his former National teammate who passed away in 1998. It started as a one day 3 on 3 tournament and evolved into a 3 day weekend which now includes an all star night and 3 point shootout.

Thompson now resides in Finland where he continues to play and give back to the sport he loves ever so passionately.

Career Spotlight – Lloyd Samuels

Former Cayman Islands National Basketball player Lloyd Stevenson Samuels is now the Head Coach of the Dulwich Panthers AKA Drip Squad in Shanghai China.

Coaching in Shanghai:

In the 2018-2019 season, Samuels’ Varsity girls team placed 2nd in the ACAMIS tournament in Beijing.

In the 2019-2020 season, his Boys varsity team went undefeated throughout the season and were champions of the East Division. The team had a 3rd place finish in the SISAC tournament. Samuels and his Drip squad were going into the ACAMIS tournament as a favorite to win this year but the tournament was cancelled due to the Coronavirus.

Professional Basketball Overseas:

Samuels also played semi-professionally with the Teesvalley Mohawks English Basketball Club for 3 years. Mohawks head coach Steve Butler was quoted as saying, “Samuels struggled in his first season at the club as he came to terms with the new experience of playing basketball overseas but last term he earned the Most Improved Player award and played a big part in the squad’s push for a play-off place.”

Representing Cayman Internationally:

Samuels’ has represented the Cayman Islands at the Aland, Sweden NatWest Islands Games in 2009 and Rhodes, Greece in 2007 where Cayman won Silver; and the 2017 Bahamas CBC Games.

Local Basketball:

Samuels has played for three teams overall: most successfully the George Town Sports Club dynasty winning six titles consecutively; Wendy’s Tarheels and one title with the Shoalin Warriors in Cayman’s local men’s National league.

Cayman Delegation at 2020 CBC Meeting

Federal International Basketball Association (FIBA) General Secretary Andreas Zagklis with CIBA President Mr. Richard Parchment and Technical Director Coach Victor Voot O’Garro at the CBC General Assembly in Dominica.

Honouring Women’s Month Profile

Today’s Honouring Women’s Month profile is on FIBA Certified Referee Bobeth O’Garro.O’Garro is the second female CIBA Referee in the Cayman Islands but first FIBA certified.

She has been refereeing for a total of 13 years and FIBA Certified for 10 years. Apart from refereeing locally, O’Garro has also taken her talents internationally where she has travelled the world doing what she loves.This includes:-The Women’s Caribbean Championships in Bahamas 2011;-U16 Women’s FIBA Americas/Pre-Olympic Qualifiers in Mexico 2015 and U18 Women at Puerto Rico in 2012, refereeing the Gold medal game USA vs. Brazil;-In 2013 O’Garro was invited to the U19 Women’s World Championships in Lithuania, CENTROBASKET u15 Boys in Panama 2014 and U18 Girls in Puerto Rico 2011;-Caribbean Cup Men and Women in Suriname 2018.

O’Garro says, “thank you to Former Senior Official Edward “PROUDY” Ebanks and Former CIBA Vice President Courtney Wisdom for encouraging me to become the referee that I am today and a special thank you to CIBA for supporting my nominations.”(Cayman’s 1st female Referee was Zena Davis.)

Cayman vs Port Arthur – Game 1 – Girls
Port Arthur vs Cayman – Game 2
Cayman Gets Revenge on Texas

In their first matchup, The Texas Elite Squad were able to get the better of the Cayman team, defeating them by 10 points in a very competitive and exciting matchup. It was obvious that champions of the tournament would emerge from these two teams. In Game 1, Texas was able to pull away in the dying minutes of the game, taking advantage of their physical strength as a team which seemed to wear down the Cayman defense. Texas had a slight edge in rebounds, Cayman shot slightly better from the field (34.6%) vs Texas (34.5%), Both teams struggled from the free trow line, shooting less than 60%. Rebounding, turnovers, assist and blocks were nearly identical. After the final buzzer, the bitter taste of defeat was one that the Cayman team would not experience again.

The rematch came on July 20th at 7:00 pm as the final game of the Festival. Cayman would look to slow down the eventual tournament MVP – Isaac Jackson – who posted 25 points, 15 rebounds, 3 steals and 4 assists to lead the team to victory in game 1. Cayman played its classic In-your-face defense; applying full court pressure on the Texans who seemed to be up for the challenge. But as the 4th quarter came around, the pressure appeared to finally get to Cayman’s opponents as some costly turnovers came around int eh final minute of play.

Cayman was led by Joshua O’Garro’s monster game of 29 points, 16 rebounds, 8 steals and 9 assists, just shy of a quadrouple double! Teammate Joanki Espinal came out hot and stayed hot the entire game, posting his tournament best 25 points. Tareaque Simpson added a solid 15 points and 9 rebounds while Brad Lansdell added 9 points, 6 rebounds and 3 steals including the go ahead bucket in the 4th quarter from which Cayman would not look back.

Cayman made the home crowd extremely happy and it was a fitting end to the inaugural Cayman basketball festival. Cayman finished 2nd only because they defeated Texas by less points (8) than their opponents win in game 1 (10), giving the Visitors the win based on head to head result. However, Cayman was electrified by the performance of its home team and looks forward to more boys and girls action in the near future.

Technical Director Victor “Voot O’Garro, said a very special thank you to the Sponsors; Ministry of Sports, Cayman Islands Olympic Committee and Hertz Rent-A-Car for their instrumental support in making the tournament a success.

Cayman’s Historic Win in Festival Opener

The Cayman Islands U-18 team made history by recording not only their first win in the festival, but also their first win for international youth tournaments at Grand Cayman’s amazing facility.

Cayman defeated Bermuda 85-49 in the opener, due to suffocating full court defensive pressure. Cayman set the tone of the game with their in-your-face defense; forcing Bermuda to commit 34 turnovers. Both teams were evenly matched in rebounds and free throw percentage; Cayman shot 45% from the field and 25% from 3 point range; led by the hot shooting of Brad Lansdell who went 5 of 9 from behind the arc, and Kai Robinson who was 3 of 7 from 3 point range. Bermuda was only able to shoot 12.5% from behind the arc.

Cayman was led by Kai Robinson, who finished with 23 points, 4 assists and 3 steals, while Joshua O’Garro posted the best overall game with an impressive 22 points, 8 rebounds, 5 steals, 4 assists and 2 blocks. Brad Lansdell also made a massive impact with his 19 points, 8 steals, 4 rebounds and 3 assists. Tareaque Simpson was solid, pouring in 10 points to go along with his 8 rebounds, 4 steals and 3 assists.

For Bermuda: Jorel Smith led with 24 points, 6 rebounds and 2 blocks. While teammate Christian Liyanage added 8 points and 7 rebounds.