The Belize Basketball Federation is getting ready to hose the Central American Basketball Championship at the Civic Center starting on Friday, July 20th.
It’s an important FIBA qualifier for the North American Championships.
The head coach is former national team captain and NBA players, Milton Palacio. He got in on Sunday and is making selections for the final team. He told us why he’s excited:..
Milt Palacio - National Team Coach
"This tournament is huge for us, and it’s huge for the country."
Jules Vasquez
"Where are you right now preparing a national team for this tournament?"
Milt Palacio
"Right now we've made a couple cuts, so we had a couple try outs, a 2 day try-out and right now we're at 14 guys but we're going to bring a couple guys in; a little more so we're going to cut our roster down next weekend and get ready for this tournament. I feel good I think having a guy like Charles Garcia come in, we've been waiting for him to come in, I wish he would have come in when I was playing but he's coming in Monday and having another young kid, Chatum is coming in and Devin Daily and Coupe and Dougie and Richie and those guys. I think we got a lot of good talent and we got some smart players coming in."
Reporter
"But is it enough time to have them ready for this regional match?"
Milt Palacio
"I think it's never enough time, I mean you look at last tournament we went to, talking to the Panamanian team head coach, he told me he did 3 days and he had 3 or 4 guys fly in the day of the tournament. So it’s never enough time for anything. I think a week is sufficient, we're getting enough time but its work because I'm coming in with my own system and different terminologies and guys have to learn fast and learning on the fly but its good, they're trying."
Jules Vasquez
"Have you ever coached the national team in Belize?"
Milt Palacio
"No, this will be my first time coaching in Belize and I'm excited about that and I think I'm excited about that just for the fans and just for the country to have something next weekend to come and get behind and really show their pride for the team."
Jules Vasquez
"Explain to me how this feels for you going into a competition knowing at least we're playing in a proper facility with air conditioning, a world class facility."
Milt Palacio
"It's night and day from when I played back here. The court was pretty slippery and still a little inside and outside and now it’s inside this beautiful arena with air condition, with the acoustics of how loud it can get in here and with the fans coming into support. Its good, I think its going to be good for our guys, I think we'll be a little nervous, we'll start off a little jittery but I think once they calm down and start getting into it and fans get behind they'll be fun, it will be great. That's one think I can say about these guys and one thing I've been trying to get towards, get to them these last couple days is just embrace this because sometimes it never happens again. You like at CARICOM, how crazy this country was going and it never happened again for us but I will always have those memories."
If Belize can win, it would qualify for next Summer’s games in Columbia. Costa Rica is considered the favorite in this tournament. All games will be played at the Civic.
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