Suns Shine in Grand Bahama Tournament

The Temple Christian Suns swept to victory in winning both the boys and girls basketball championships at the HOYTES “Moon” McPhee/Cecil Thompson Primary School Basketball Classic in Freeport, Grand Bahamas this past weekend. In the final, the boys overcame Tabernacle Baptist Academy 20-18. In the girls encounter, the Suns defeated Martin town Pirmary 11-8, to reclaim the championship lost last year. Theon Missick and Denika Lightbourne were crowned tournament Most Valuable Players for the boys and girls teams respectively.

MEMBERS OF THE TEMPLE CHRISTIAN SCHOOL BOYS TOURNAMENT-WINNING BASKETBALL TEAM. Kneeling (left-right) are Taj Stubbs, Markai Pinder, and Shalako Moxey. Standing (left-right) are Coach Nekeno Demeritte, Zavier Sweeting, Lawren Neymour, Frankey Moree, Richawn Harvey, Justin Burrows, Peter Francis Jr., Shariq Mitchell and Theon Missick. (Photo provided by Coach Nekeno Demeritte)

Sixth grader Justin Burrows recalled that “it was an exciting trip, and we also had good games in the first 3 games, but the last 2 were kind of nervous because they were the games before the championship and the championship. We were nervous because in the last game we were down 7 [points] and we came back to win the game. This comeback was achieved, according to Burrows, by playing good basketball, passing the ball to each other, and playing as a team.

Boys tournament MVP Theon Missick has been playing on the team for 2 years, and agreed with Burrows, affirming that “it was nervous in the 2 last games because we were going into the championship, and we were down by 7 and it was difficult to get back into it because they were playing hard defense. We had to pass the ball and play good basketball.”

Zavier Sweeting echoed similar sentiments, saying that “the trip was excellent. We had study time. We had to help each other with homework. As [my teammates] said, we got in the pool. The last 2 games were tough, and the first was easy. Our second to the last game was tough. People got injured and hurt and everything like that, and the last game was the hardest because we were down by 7, and had to come back.”

MEMBERS OF THE TEMPLE CHRISTIAN SCHOOL GIRLS TOURNAMENT-WINNING BASKETBALL TEAM. Kneeling in front (left-right) are Terrell Dawkins, Gabrielle Murphy and tournament MVP, Denika Lightbourne. Kneeling in back (left-right) are Shedinah Gaitor Danielle McCoy, Raynae Thurston, Mallia Gibson and Danuneka Cargill. (Photo provided by Coach Nekeno Demeritte)

Mallia Gibson (grade 6) stated that” the [trip] was fun, we got [to go] into the pool, studied, played basketball, and came first.” Fellow sixth grader Gabrielle Murphy declared that “although the trip was fun, we had to stay focused. We had to play smart ball. A couple of times we almost lost but we had to bounce back from that experience and overall it was good.” She elaborated some more, recalling how “we weren’t playing as good as we should have, and there were some really close games – especially in the championship.”

HOYTES CLASSIC MOST VALUABLE PLAYERS. Pictured from left to right are Temple Christian’s Theon Missick and Denika Lightbourne. (Photo by Dr. Samuel L. Rutherford)

In describing the trip, girls tournament MVP Denika Lightbourne said that the “it was a lot of fun, and that we also studied.” She described working hard and scoring a lot of points as some of the reasons that she was chosen as MVP, even though she has only been playing basketball for 1 year.

According to Coach Nekeno Demeritte, “for the boys, this is their third year of winning the championship. We had a lay off on the girls. Basically we are starting over on the girls with their championship here in Freeport. It was a good experience. Most of the games weren’t that hard. The more challenging games were basically the championship games.” When prompted about having to come from behind in the final, Demeritte noted that “in the [boys] championship game, we were down 7 points with 1:30 left. It was all faith and good defense. They stepped up on their defense. It was a buzzer beating shot by Justin Burrows that actually was the game winning shot. We came back and tied the game 18-18, and we had 7 seconds left on the clock so I told them to try to run most of the 7 seconds off and just go for the last shot…and it dropped.”

When asked whether or not he was pleased with the levels of sportsmanship and types of attitude displayed by our athletes, he indicated that he was [pleased], noting that “that’s just Temple Christian.” He went on to describe how “Temple Christian athletes would, if other kids fell on the ground, we actually picked them up, and that was the time of game we taught. We teach them that it’s not just about basketball, but that it’s also about building friendships which are going to last for a lifetime. And that’s something that, they forged friendships with the other schools that travelled from Nassau, and it was a good experience all around.”

Quite a few of the students mentioned that they studied on the trip. To this end, Coach Demeritte revealed that “every year that we travel to Grand Bahama, I would get their notes…basically ask the teachers to provide them with their work for that week so they would have about a 2 hour study session where they would, after practice in the morning, they would come and just study for 2 hours so that they wouldn’t be far behind in their school work, so when they come back they would still be on par with the others.” He further established how “we have seen the success in that throughout the years. At graduation we have seen… that they all basically graduated with honors. When asked to comment on the level of parental support for the teams, Demeritte was quick to point out that “the level of parental involvement was high. We had 19 children that actually [travelled], and we had about 25-30 parents. With the kids seeing their parents there, it was a boost with them staying on top, and even the parents that did not travel sent messages back and forth in the group chat so the parents [that did not travel] knew all about what was going on from start to finish.”

We salute everyone who helped to make this trip a success, and wish to especially thank all of our players and their parents, Coach Demeritte and the administration of the elementary school for organizing and taking part in such a memorable trip. A special thank you is extended to Mr. Armbrister, our high school Dean of Students for attending the tournament with the teams. Go Suns!