Cayman Re-Peat at Island Games
Cayman’s National Men’s team have repeated GOLD at the Natwest Island Games after defeating powerhouse Sareema in the Championship match.
This mean’s that the men’s program has medaled 6 out of the total ten appearances at the Islands games, racking up 4 silver and now 2 straight Gold Medals. What has been the difference? College Experience!
The Current Cayman national Men’s team comprise of 12 players: 11 of which have played either in College and/or high school in the United States and 1 player that has played professionally in Germany, as opposed to previous silver medal teams that had 3-5 players with such experience. This exposure has no doubt better equipped the team to compete at higher levels. Cayman’s focus this year was defensive domination; Cayman played all of their opponents a full-court man-to-man defense. Cayman’s defense was intense, aggressive and suffocating, resulting in them winning only one game of their 5 by less than 20 points.
Cayman was strong off the bench as well, young players like Arin Taylor, Juawon Ebanks, Joshua O’Garro and Kai Robinson all came in and also put on stellar performances. Overall it was a fantastic performance by the men’s team who will now focus their attention on the next Caribbean Championships tournament and an invitational tournament next Easter.
Head Coach Ed Pellot-Rosa and assistant Coach Duran Whittaker did a fantastic job preparing the team to defend their title.
The Cayman Team: Deandre Simpson, Kwei General, Shaad O’Garro, Arin Taylor, Samuel O’Garro, Jake Whittaker, Philip Webb, Davion Cotterell, Kai Robinson, Joshua O’Garro, Tikko Moore, Juawon Ebanks.
