With the arrival of Milt Palacio, Marlon Garnette and Kenton Paulino the team that will take Belize to the Centro basket championship in the Dominican Republic next week is in place.
Today, Mark Usher - the host of BDBA Game time which airs weekly on channel 7 - spoke to sharpshooter Marlon Garnett about his expectation for this very tough tournament..
Marlon Garnett, Player
"Unlike last summer this is a much more competitive tournament as you put it. a lot of good teams, a lot of good players from all over this region. Another thing unlike last summer where we were kind of under the radar kind of surprise nobody really expected much from Belize and we eyes and shock a lot of people so now with say Puerto Rico being a favorite, Dominican Republic hosting the team, having a good team, good team on paper but we might be the team that has the target on
our back. Everybody will be out to get us so we have to try to fine tune our game, we got less than a week to get our self prepare and try to build on the chemistry that we started the last couple days with all the guys finally getting here yesterday and see what we can do. Obviously our goal is to qualify, that's the main goal to qualify for next summer but if we have a chance to win the goal, great, we will have a much bigger parade coming by with the goal medal."
Mark Usher
"We will have a holiday. Let me ask you this now, tomorrow the Venezuelans land in Belize and then we have first of the two friendly's its Thursday and Friday night. Tell all the Belizean who will see this news cast tonight what they can come out and expect and why they need to come out and give you guys the support so that you leave with the hopes and dreams of Belize on your back."
Marlon Garnett
"They were so great with the welcome that they gave us last summer with the support that we got. We need that same support plus more. So it will be fun for them to come out to see a practice game you know it's not a regular game but it is a practice game against a very good opponent and I think it will be a fun time for them to come out and enjoy some basketball."
The team is now running two a day practices.....
A Doctor's Lounge
The KHMH accident and emergency room, known as "A and E" is the country's only real trauma center. Doctors there are under serious and sustained stress. As we've told you they treat an average of 15 gunshot injuries a month and a whole lot more.
But now they will have a lounge to relax in between those difficult moments. It is donated by Dr. Lennoz Pike a Belizean doctor and former chief medical officer - who gained prestige and distinction internationally.
He's based in Detroit but told us it was important to give this back to his home:...
Dr. Lennox Pike, Benefactor
"Let me tell you the place with the greatest stress in any hospital unit is accident and emergency. The greatest stress and given that some hospitals re well equip and have enough personnel even them the stress on the emergency and accident people is tremendous. People don't understand this very often and are incline to be a little harsh and hard on the personnel. So I think a place like this that allows for those people to relax and get their thoughts in order and so is a very valuable and useful thing."
Dr. Gary Longsworth, CEO - KHMH
"So we thought that it was important that they would have a place that when they do have a little break that they could go to just to get away from the chaos and madness of the A and E as we know it can be very hectic at times. So its stressful work and we thought that our staff needed something that would help to alleviate the stress at the appropriate times."
Alfonso Noble, Reporter - Guardian Newspaper
"Now, in you opening this small lounge you have taken some space from the physiotherapy room and people like myself who are directly affected will say well what happen with that space. Will it be compensated somewhere else?"
Dr. Gary Longsworth
"We have plans yes in the future to compensate."
Dr. Lennoz Pike
"For me it is a great pleasure to do anything at all I can think about for my own people in Belize. I have done well in the medical field and that having happen I always wanted to give back and give back. I want to encourage other people to do the same thing."
The donation is valued at twenty five thousand dollars.The hospital also has plans to install a deck for its doctors in other areas.
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