7 News Belize

Team Belize Meets The Big Time in Venezuela
posted (July 1, 2010)
Tonight at the City Center, Belize's National Basketball team will face Venezuela in its first warm up match. Venezuela's national team is a powerhouse, and has been ranked twenty-third in the world.

So how will Belize's team fare against this world class team which ahs both size and speed?

That's what we asked today when they arrived. Here's the word form their Spanish speaking coach:....

Nestor Salazar, Coach - Venezuelan National Team
"We were in panama playing two games for preparation. Now we are here in Belize, we don't know anything about Belize's team but we were training since 20 days so we can be ready for this tournament that will be played 26th. July in Colombia."

Monica Bodden
"You played against panama last night - do you think you will be victorious tonight?"

Nestor Salazar
"Like how it's preparatory games, more than just the results of the game, we are looking at the performance of the team. Technically speaking my philosophy is speed and defense and the principle is from a good defense will come the attack."

Keenan Jourdan, Forward - Team Belize
"I'm looking forward to having a good game. I think we been practicing hard it's going to be a good measuring stick, we will play them two nights in a row so it would be good to see how the guys play, maybe we will be a little bit anxious, I expect us to play strong and play hard."

Jules Vasquez
"How is the chemistry on the Belize squad right now, we know that you guys everyone is coming from a different background, everyone's coming off their own league. How is the team? Are you guys starting to gel?"

Keenan Jourdan
"Well until you play a game you really don't know, but we have the core guys back from last year, we got Marlon, Milt, myself, Alex Carcamo so the main pretty much the core guys are back and that's the focus of the team. We got some young guys who we are going to take a look at tonight to see how they are and we'll see how it goes. I know we are going to play hard and it will be a good game, we'll play them two nights in a row so make we will make adjustments after tonight."

Jules Vasquez
"In the last tournament Belize distinguished itself as more an offensive a team that runs and its fast and uses its speed to exploit its opponents slowness."

Keenan Jourdan
"We are a running team and we have to use our quickness because we are small. A lot of teams that we are going to play against are bigger than us at the small forward, power forward and center positions but you make adjustments and as far as defense is concern I think we have been practicing a lot. We'll see how is goes tonight and if we need to we will make adjustments tomorrow."

Jules Vasquez
"There's been a lot of talk about the change in coaches. How is the team adapting to it? Is it a distraction? How are you all dealing with it?"

Keenan Jourdan
"We all love Kevin Seroki, he is a good man, and he did a great job with us last year. The Belize Basketball Federation decide to bring in Mr. Marques Johnson, I don't have a problem with him as a person per se you know but we would be in this situation that we are in now if it wasn't for Kevin so I'm thankful that he decide to stay on the staff and I am not going to let those outside things bother play on the court. It's about Belize, it's about the pride for the country and doing our best over in Dominican Republic."

The Venezuelans beat panama 82 to 79 last night.

The Under 15 national team starts their game 7 o'clock tonight and the senior male team's game against Venezuela will begin after that. Tickets are 10 dollars for general admission.

We'll have highlights of the game in tomorrow's newscast....

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