Coach credits JC’s basketball surge to summer camp
Jamaica College’s (JC) coach, Duane Cunningham, credits an integral basketball summer programme at the institution as the catalyst for their success after they defeated Wolmer’s Boys’ School 69-63 in the decisive match of the ISSA Urban Area Under-19 best-of-three final.
Cunningham also concluded that a pivotal discussion he had with the players after they lost game one 56-44 helped turn the tables in their favour, although in the second match, they found themselves behind by 21 points, which they recovered to win and eventually take the series 2-1.
He hailed the summer programme as an excellent initiative that assisted their basketball resurgence after not winning the trophy for 15 years.
According to Cunningham, the coaching staff is tasked with helping students understand basketball at the school, especially with a lack of interest in the sport, with students keen to lean towards JC’s excellent football and track and field programmes. He argued that the summer camps are integral building blocks for the basketball programme.
“Our basketball programme is one where we take on guys that cannot play. Every summer, we run a beginners’ camp, and we (coaches) get them to develop an interest in the sport from there.
“We have to do that because there’s no basketball being played in the primary and preparatory schools. So every player is coming in with raw talent or might not have played basketball before, and we also have to compete with excellent track and field and football programmes,” Cunningham explained.
He argued that the discussion after the loss in game one helped to change the narrative in the other two matches, while he forced Wolmer’s to use their bench, which also worked in JC’s favour.
“I broke down game one and explained what we were not doing well. I told them we gave every player equal attention and needed to focus on the guys hurting us. The other thing was that we were turning over the ball too much, and we missed a lot of free throws, which cost us about 20 points,” he noted.
“Wolmer’s defeated us in the quarter-final and in the first game of the final. They were leading us by 20 points in game two, so, for me to say they weren’t competitive would be crazy.
“The problem is that they aren’t a team with depth, and when you can get into their bench, you’ll have a good chance of beating them as their starting five is as good as any starting five that play schoolboy basketball,” Cunningham opined.
orane.buchanan@gleanerjm.com