BBF names four head coaches

After a rigorous process, the Bahamas Basketball Federation (BBF) has named four head coaches for national teams for the next three years. The announcement was made at a press conference at the Andre Rodgers National Baseball Stadium on Wednesday. Collegiate head coach for the Ole Miss Rebels women’s basketball team, Bahamian Yolett ‘Coach Yo’ McPhee-McCuin was selected to coach the senior women’s national team. Anton Francis will take the helm for the junior girls national team. Kevin Clarke was named as the under-15 boys head coach, and the fourth head coach is Jay Philippe who will be coaching the under-17 boys team. The coaches were selected for the 2024-2027 period from a nine-member panel of the Coaches Selection Committee who had the task of going over the parameters for the selection process. Francis was at the press conference and spoke about his initial reaction to being selected as the junior girls coach. “I was excited and elated for the opportunity,” Francis said. “Part of my process, with the help of the coaches committee and the federation, is to select assistants and team managers who are dynamic, up-to-date with basketball and have the same kind of desire to want to represent the country. They must also be able to want to teach and train and pick the best possible 12 athletes to play for The Bahamas.” He wants for the girls to have a good showing and get the girls program back to prominence. He has been on the ground watching a lot of junior girls basketball, he said. “What I have seen throughout the high school basketball competitions is that there are not full teams,” Francis stated. “There are a lot of individual players and that has made basketball suffer a little because there will be one or two advanced players playing with players who are not on the same level. It does not look good for basketball, but it takes an eye-test and scout, and do research and see some of these players who can be a good contributing factor to The Bahamas’ basketball team.”
McPhee-McCuin was an assistant coach for the senior men’s basketball team in the summer of 2022. The Grand Bahamian said she is happy to return to the women’s team. “It is an honor to return to my duties with the senior women’s national team as head coach,” McPhee-McCuin stated. “I think this is the perfect time to revitalize women’s basketball in The Bahamas and start our journey to the 2028 Olympics. I am asking all who are able, to support our women’s program. There is no doubt in my mind that we can represent the ‘242’ in an outstanding way on the national scene.”
Philippe is no stranger to junior boys basketball, having won the Hugh Campbell Basketball Tournament in 2020 and 2023 with the Sunland Baptist Academy Stingers out of Grand Bahama. “It is with great pleasure and excitement that I embark on this journey as the head coach of the under-17 junior boys national team. I consider this as the ultimate privilege to represent my country. I’ve been working toward this opportunity for the last 10 years, through development of players and myself. I would be remiss not to acknowledge the national Coaches Selection Committee for implementing and executing the national team — coaching search, which I believe was a fair process. I am excited to begin working with our national program to help continue to build a better brand of basketball as the previous coaches at the national level have done,” Philippe said.
Clarke coaches Tabernacle Baptist Academy out of Grand Bahama. He is grateful that the committee chose him to be a national coach. “I would like to give honor and thanks to God for affording me this opportunity. I would also like to thank the national Coaches Selection Committee for selecting me as head coach of the under-15 junior boys national team. It’s always an honor to represent and wear Bahamas across your chest, whether as a coach or a player. In the next three years, I aim to mentor, develop, and coach these young men to become better athletes and better men, who will go on to represent their country with Bahamian pride,” Clarke said. The chairperson of the Coaches Selection Committee Dr. Linda Davis spoke about the process and the forward thinking of the federation of having a committee. “It was 12 long months and we grilled them. Not only did the applicants have to interview for the positions but they had to have an actual practice session where we sat down and analyzed the way they would execute a plan. We are pleased and confident that the recommendations that we would have forwarded to the federation went well. We are excited about the possibility that this is not just one year, but it is for a three-year period which speaks to continuity and allows them to have their systems in place,” Davis said.
Davis spoke about drawing talent from the entire country and not just from New Providence. “We are a family of islands. The country is not New Providence and not only in athletics, but in all that we do, we must ensure that there is fair representation. There is raw talent out there and there is a lot of talent outside the country that belongs to us, so we intend to field the best teams possible, given the resources we hope to garner,” Davis said. Davis appealed to Corporate Bahamas to help support these teams financially as they represent the country. “We cannot get anywhere without funding,” Davis stated. “We have talent in this country but for us to do what we need to do, we need everyone to hold hands and to walk with us.” The coaches will have an opportunity to select a team of professionals who will work with them such as assistant coaches and managers, once the federation approves.
McPhee-McCuin and the senior women will experience the first competition of the four squads which will be the Caribbean Basketball Championships set for June.
Courtesy of: thenassauguardian.com