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Was the Hoop of Life Program a success?

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Offline royal

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Hoop of Life Poll
« on: February 23, 2013, 02:19:14 AM »
The Hoop of Life program was launch with much fanfare as a plan to help reduce crime in T&T.After spending millions of dollars,on the launch,players,coaches and administrators,was it a success?   
« Last Edit: February 23, 2013, 12:53:57 PM by royal »

Offline weary1969

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Re: Hoop of Life Poll
« Reply #1 on: February 24, 2013, 01:45:35 PM »
4 who playin they hv a lil change 2 get, I know sumbody playin 4 Cali and they in d final 4
Today you're the dog, tomorrow you're the hydrant - so be good to others - it comes back!"

Offline royal

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Re: Hoop of Life Poll
« Reply #2 on: March 03, 2013, 09:35:34 PM »
Laventille ends La Romaine win streak

La Romaine point guard and captain Dereck Boxill, left, faces tough defence from Orlando Mapp of Laventille during their game one semifinal match up at St Barb’s Basketball Court, Laventille on Friday night. Laventille won 92–89.
In what can only be described as the biggest match so far in the million-dollar Hoop of Life Community Basketball League, Laventille did not disappoint some 700 fans, who showed up to witness it 92–89 victory in game-one of the Big-Four semifinal match against the previously unbeaten La Romaine outfit.
 
The atmosphere at the St Barb’s Basketball Court in Laventille can only be summed up as electric. Under a star-filled sky, basketball supporters from all over the country assembled at the hill-top in Laventille and they were treated to some of the best basketball skills displayed in that community after Councillor for the Snake Valley/St Barb’s area Jason Alexander jumped the ball.
 
The home team backed by a very passionate crowd and rhythm section jumped out to a 27–16 first quarter lead, but La Romaine, one of two teams carrying the Pride of South on its backs, took control of the second quarter outscoring the host 25–16 to close the first half two points adrift 43–41. The half-time performance by pannist Daniel Best sought only to excite the spectators gathered for an even more competitive second period.
 
In the third quarter, forward Delroy Agard scored ten of his 15 in the session, which was backed up by team captain Dereck Boxill’s seven of his match-high 34 as La Romaine enjoyed a 67–65 lead. In the fourth stanza, La Romaine stretched its lead to as much as 12 points, but with six minutes to play the team ran cold offensively and failed to score for some 4.13 seconds which allowed Laventille back into the contest.
 
The final five minutes saw forward Steven “Lighter” Lewis score the team’s final seven of nine points to finish with 34 as Laventille went on to outscore its opponent 27–22 in the final session of play. Lewis, who netted his team’s first and last points, got valuable support from centre Ashton DeMurrell, who sank 18 points and guard Sheldon “Coto” Christian, who added 16 to deny the visitors a tenth consecutive victory in the League.
 
La Romaine, which got 16 points from its star guard Adrian Joseph, must win its home match against Laventille today by no less than four points if the team is to advance to the final.

guardian
 

Offline royal

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Re: Hoop of Life Poll
« Reply #3 on: March 10, 2013, 12:08:11 PM »
Hoop of Life popular but no dent in crime

By STEPHON NICHOLAS Sunday, March 10 2013

Laventille and Marabella will do battle tonight in Game One of the inaugural Hoop of Life finals at St Barb’s Basketball Court with $1 million on the line for the champion. It brings to a climax four months of competition at venues throughout the country in an anti-crime initiative conceptualised by the Ministry of National Security.

Speaking at the official launch of the tournament on October 17 last year, Minister of National Security Jack Warner explained that apart from being a positive activity for young people to participate in, what he envisioned was the removal of all border lines.

“Government is using this as one of the social interventions in our communities for the problem of crime...this programme is a chance to lift up heroes in the communities... (for) our young people to mend fences...to make friends across borderlines. You can’t play in St Barb’s, you can’t play in Plum Trace; if you in Plum Trace you can’t play in Picton; if you from Picton you can’t play in Beverly Hills — foolishness. There shall be no artificial lines whatsoever and we shall play. We shall have no more border lines,” Warner had declared.

The success of the Hoop of Life in this regard has arguably not achieved the desired result so far.

With 87 murders in 2013 including the gruesome beheading of Learie Ceballo in La Romaine last month, this country is experiencing one of the worse crime waves sweeping through the country. Just last week, three buildings in Clifton Hill, Laventille were set on fire in an apparent outbreak of gang warfare with Beverley Hills.

In a small survey with persons in Port-of-Spain yesterday, the consensus was that the Hoop of Life was not having an impact in the fight against crime.

One man who did not wish to be identified was adamant that the basketball tourney cannot stop crime.

“The fellas and them playing the basketball is not the fellas and them doing the crime. The next thing is that them seeing these players getting money and they want it too, by any means. You have to train the children from young because them fellas out there seasoned in crime. You can’t change them,” he declared.

Another individual called “Ras Frankie”, agreed and said more needs to be done when the basketball project has come to an end.

“You’re going to have a lot of police there for the final and everybody is going to be mixing with each other but when that is over, then what?” he asked.

“Half the people dying now is because they giving the police information about the criminals. It have plenty police living in Laventille, Maloney and other areas...Why they don’t say who the criminals are? They setting people up to die,” he stated.

Speaking to Sunday Newsday yesterday, Russell Ray, manager of the Laventille team in the Hoop of Life final, stopped short of stating that the competition was not helping the fight against crime but called on the Government to make a proper assessment of what it was able to achieve and to build on it.

“This is something the youths can grasp onto. This could be the catalyst that changes the mental approach of the young men (going in the wrong direction),” he said.

Ray called on parents throughout the country to be more proactive in guiding their children and showing them the right way.

He did note, however, that his team’s progress to the final has galvanise the Laventille community and he is expecting a massive turnout for the finals.

“If is one thing Laventille does support, it is sports. Anytime you have a Laventille team in a competition you will see the huge support. When we were going down to La Romaine (for the semi-finals), there were about 100 cars lined behind us with their hazard lights on going down to cheer for us. It was a beautiful sight and a unique spectacle. If it is one thing I would remember the most after this competition is over, is that,” he declared.

Malicka Aqui, manager of Marabella, is confident that the competition is helping reduce crime and noted that several young men between the ages of 13-18 in her community have come forward and asked for forms for the Ministry of Sports LIFEsport programme.

She said the biggest achievement for the team was the way they have brought the community together.

“We have a lot of fans here in Marabella. Everyone wants to watch us train and watch us play,” she said.

Minister of Sport, Anil Roberts, felt the Hoop of Life programme did realise its aim.

“The way the crowds and the community are involved, it has taken us back to decades where communities and families used to come out and support their teams. In fact, the venues we have now look quite small with the turnout we’ve gotten. This is a model we want to implement in other sports to get he community involved again,” he said.

He said he felt quite heartened to hear that young people were coming forward because of the Hoop of Life project to join the LIFEsport programme.

“I’m trying to get a report on that because there has been a cry for more (people to join). We’re in 33 communities right now and we’ve been having requests from young men who can’t read or write to join the literacy programme. Young men are getting mentored by some of our national heroes like (former national footballer) Angus Eve and Reynold Carrington. There are anger management classes as well and we’ve been trying to identify talents in people and get them into a skill,” he continued.

He did agree with Laventille coach, Ray, that parents need to play a bigger role in their children’s upbringing and noted that the country is facing a serious problem with fathers abandoning the home.

newsday

Offline royal

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Re: Hoop of Life Poll
« Reply #4 on: March 14, 2013, 05:53:28 AM »
Laventille wins Hoop of Life million
...tops Marabella 2-0 in finals

In front of a crowd of some 6,000 cheering basketball supporters, Laventille copped the $1 million first prize in the finals of the Hoop of Life Community Basketball League in Marabella on Tuesday night. South-based Marabella won the $500,000 second prize after losing their first best-of-three away game to Laventille at St Barbs on Sunday 88-71, and then following this with another loss at home in Bayshore 66-57 on Tuesday to bring to an end the season, the most lucrative basketball league in the Caribbean.
 
Steven “Lighter” Lewis of Laventille once again dominated the points, registering on the scoreboard a match-high 26 points from a number of turnovers. He was ably assisted by another of their firebrands, Kirt “Coto” Christian, with 17 points. But despite this win, coach Karim Bilal was not all that pleased with his team’s performance. Bilal said: “We knew Marabella was going to be a hard fight on their home court, so I put certain plans in place, but in the second and third quarters the defence was letting those plans go all to pieces.
 
“We moved away from the game plan due to many things but one of them I must stress was the fitness of the players,” the coach of the winning team confessed. Bilal attributed the suddenness of the Hoop of Life league as giving them little time to use the off-season to do much weight training and stamina building. Adding: “When you leave the off-season and go into the pre-season you have to do different work and time yourself to peak. “What I recognised was that during the season itself, the way it fell we were now concentrating on weight training and that is not good when you have too many tough matches,” stated Bilal
 
 
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The Laventille coach did say, however, he was thrilled with the support from the community from the beginning. “There were sometimes when we were training they (community supporters) would get in the way and impede our progress. But for the most part they stood behind the team,” he stated. Although at home, Marabella did not have a good start. In fact, it was only in the middle of the first quarter that Marabella posted their first two points on the board, 11-2 the scoreline read, to trail 21-12 in the first quarter. Most of the southerner’s problems were their poor defensive effort. Another was that they were out-rebounded thanks to six-footers Ashton Demurrel and Lewis of Laventille.
 
In the second and third quarters, Marabella seemed somewhat settled and played more confidently, so much so that they topped the Laventille team 14-6 in the second quarter to trail 27-26 at the half, eventually taking the lead by one (47-46) after again outscoring the visitors 21-19 in the third. Marabella though, began to let their lack of experience show in the fourth period, and the score went from 58-53 in Marabella’s favour with 3.04 minutes left in the match to 66-57 at the buzzer, to see Laventille walk away the victors. The top scorers for Marabella were Damian Caton with 17 points, Corey Pascall with 10 while Asfa Grant added 10 points. The jump ball was done by MP for San Fernando West Carolyn Seepersad-Bachan and the winning cheque was also handed over by the MP, Marabella West councillor Gloria Calleste and also by National Security Minister Jack Warner, under whose ministry the Hoop of Life was run.

 

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