By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

THE Lucayan Basketball Club, one of the fastest growing basketball and volleyball organisations for high school boys and girls players, is off to Florida to participate in another tour.

Ricardo Lees and Tamaro Butler founded the youth Christian organisation in 2017 to help train and mentor young people from different public and private schools.

“We’ve been doing a great job because every year since we got started, we’ve been able to assist members get scholarships to go abroad,” Lees said. “But more importantly, we have been able to see them develop into productive citizens.”

Lucayan Basketball Club has a 40-member team in Orlando, Florida where they just participated in a tour of Southeastern University, Rollins College and Tampa University from April 19-21.

Now the team is preparing to play in a three-day tournament in Winter Park, Orlando where their girls team, junior boys and two senior boys teams will play against different schools in the Florida area. Franco Moncur is assisting Lees and Butler in coaching the teams in the tournament that will run from Friday to Sunday before they return home on Tuesday, April 26.

“Last year, we won the summer tournament and so we want to go back and successfully defend our title,” Lees said. “With the college tour, we want to be able to sensitise our players to what it takes to be able to go to college and compete.

“Hopefully from our performances in the tournament, some of our players would be able to secure athletic scholarships, if not this year, at least be considered for next year. We want them to understand what it takes to be able to compete at the college level.”

In the summer, Less said coach Justin Taylor will head the Lucayan Volleyball Club’s boys and girls teams when they travel to Florida to compete in a series of events.