By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

DESPITE her handicap that has been limited to her wheelchair since 2019, Bonnie Basden continues to make an impact on the Sunland Baptist Stingers senior boys’ basketball programme.

The former female national team basketball player turned coach, for the past year and-a-half, has been forced to use an oxygen system full time, but it has in no way deterred her from honouring her commitment to helping as many young boys through her House of Hoops and Dreams in the Royal Bahama Estates in Grand Bahama.

“My life has changed because I’ve always been a very independent person and a go-getter,” she said. “I’ve always been very aggressive and a very physical person, having played basketball on the Bahamas women’s national basketball team in the early 80s.”

Basden, 62, played up until the age of 55. She followed in the footsteps of her parents, Elaine Turner- Sands and Basil Sands Sr and her big brother Basil ‘the Kid’ Sands, who all played basketball with her other brother Desmond Sands.

The mother of one biological son, 34-year-old Anthony Basden, who resides in Florida and adopted son, Darnell Basden, 19, who attends college in California where he is playing basketball, said being around the sport is what keeps her going.

“You can’t keep a good woman down and I thank God because I could have been a lot worse,” said Basden, who is still trying to get an explanation as to what went wrong medically to put her in the position she’s in.

“I thank God because I’m still able to do the things that I love and I enjoy being around sports and I’m still able to do a lot of things that I’ve been doing for the last 25 years,” she added.

Like head coach Jay Philippe and his assistant Marco Cooper, Basden has been responsible for hosting 10 of the boys from last year’s championship team who stayed with her and this year.

They either occupy two of the three bedroom houses or a bunk house that can facilitate from eight to 14 players at a time in the two complexes combined.

“I tutor them, help them with their school work and teach them life skills as I mentor them,” said Basden, who coached at Sunland from 1998.

“I was never employed at Sunland. I also served as the PTA president from 1996 to 2020, but I have also helped the athletic programme.

“My first under-17 championship was in 1999 when we beat the Catholic High Crusaders. I didn’t win a senior boys’ championship at Sunland until coach Philippe and Cooper came in 2015.”

Before the Stingers shined in 2015, Basden said she remembered coming to the prestigious Hugh Campbell Basketball Classic on a Wednesday each year and by Friday, they were on the plane heading back home after being eliminated.

“I never gave up. We kept coming every year,” she stated. “We took our licking and kept on ticking. Now we’re the two-time champions. So it’s all about the development of the programme and never giving up.

“The programme we have made under coaches Philippe and Cooper is just amazing. It’s awesome. It’s wonderful. They used to call us “sizzy land” because we were always at the bottom of the chart when it came to winning, but now we’re winning in volleyball, soccer, basketball and we’re doing very well in track and field. We’re a well-rounded school with a well-rounded programme, so we’re grateful.”

Basden, according to Philippe, has been more of a “stepmother” to him.

“Coach Bonnie is an angel on earth, not just because of what she did for me, but there were more than 40 players from the islands, whom she recruited and let them stay in house.”