Female basketballers yearn for action
JBA putting plans in place to develop women’s game, re-establish league
Published:Wednesday | August 24, 2022 | 12:08 AMSharla Williams/Gleaner Writer
WOMEN’S BASKETBALL is another sport which suffers from lack of development in Jamaica, but president of the Jamaica Basketball Association (JBA), Paulton Gordon, said that the association has already begun to take action to change their position.
To ensure these plans are successful, Gordon said the association has laid out some objectives.
“First and foremost, we have to re-establish the women’s league in Jamaica. We are (also) in the process of putting together a women’s committee to coordinate that,” he said.
Gordon, while encouraging other sponsors and investors to help the development of basketball for Jamaican women, said revamping the national women’s basketball league will be costly, but they will be doing their best to get the competition started soon.
“We have already gotten some donations from a Canadian group to basically kick-start the fundraising for our local women’s club league. So we are going to talk to that group to see how quickly we can get to that point where we can start our women’s league,” he said.
Jamaica women’s national basketball team member, Sasha Dixon, one of two women who played in the celebrity match of the recent E1 Caribbean Basketball League, said she is yearning for a competitive women’s basketball tournament in Jamaica.
“I am really envious because we have never as females gotten this support (or) this platform to showcase our talents,” the national shooting guard said.
“We are craving because I can’t recall the last time competitive basketball with a referee and structured basketball was played in Jamaica (on the women’s side). I think 2014,” she recalls. “We would really love the competition, even if it is not as big as this P.H.A.S.E 1 Basketball Summer League, but even a female league in Jamaica would be appreciated.”
Apart from a competitive women’s league, Dixon said Jamaica needs to do more for young females who are interested in playing basketball.
“For the females to really step on the court at this level, it would require some inter-school programmes to get the young ladies from early to know the sport and love the sport. Then to be on this platform would be easy because it would just be to transcend from primary and high school unto this stage,” Dixon observed.
Founder of P.H.A.S.E. 1 Academy and the E1 Basketball League, Wayne Dawkins, said he is willing to continue his contributions to the development of women’s basketball in Jamaica.
“We plan to be inclusive, so integrating females into it (basketball development) is very important,” Dawkins said. “Sometimes it is necessary to establish one and then use the momentum to bring in the other. The men’s league will share our platform to help bring the women in because that’s the way it has to be.”