By TENAJH SWEETING

Tribune Sports Reporter

tsweeting@tribunemedia.net

Following a coach selection process which lasted nearly a year, the Bahamas Basketball Federation (BBF) has officially announced the national team head coaches for the junior men and women’s and senior women’s team to serve for the next three years.

Grand Bahama native Yolett “Coach Yo” McPhee-McCuin will serve at the helm for the senior women’s national basketball team.

Leading the charge for the junior women’s team will be Anton Francis, who formerly served as an assistant coach of the respective team.

Sunland Baptist head coach Jay Phillipe and Tabernacle Baptist Academy head coach Kevin Clarke will be in charge of the U15 and U17 junior men’s national teams respectively.

The announcement was made yesterday at the Andre Rodgers Baseball Stadium.

The four coaches were selected by a nine-member coaches’ selection committee which included Dr Linda Davis, Kimberley Rolle, John Todd, Anthony Swaby, Felix Musgrove, James Clarke Sr, Shantell Penn, Natasha Miller and Randy Cunningham.

The coaches had to meet a specific criteria and went through a series of channels over the last few months before being ratified yesterday.

Dr Davis, who served as the chair of the coaches’ selection committee, expressed her confidence in the four coaches chosen to lead the respective national teams.

“We are pleased and I think confident that the recommendations that we would have forwarded to the federation will all go well.

“We are excited about the possibility that this is not just one year and then you come through it again — but it is for a three year period. It lends well for continuity. It allows the coaches to really get their systems in place and they have the opportunity to select a team of professionals who will work with them, their assistant coaches, managers et cetera.” she said.

The coaches selection committee was put in place in May 2023 and the application process began shortly thereafter leading up to yesterday’s big announcement. Dr Davis said the process, which included advertising, interviews and background checks, was extensive to ensure that all qualified candidates were given a fair chance.

“We wanted to be intentional and deliberate. We didn’t want to rush it, we wanted to ensure that each of the persons who were nominated or who submitted an application had a fair chance to demonstrate what they had to bring to the game. Even those who were not selected, we wanted to make sure as we have spoken to them subsequently that this is just the beginning. We want to encourage them to continue to support and be good investors and who knows what will happen in another three years or even within this year they may even be selected as one of the assistant coaches by the head coach,” she said.

National team head coaches will be afforded the opportunity to recommend potential assistant coaches and other staff members to the coaches selection committee for approval in upcoming weeks ahead of the preparations for summer basketball tournaments.

Coach Yo will return to her previous role as senior women’s national team head coach. McPhee-McCuin led the team from 2014-2017 and during this period The Bahamas won the CBC Basketball Championship in 2015.

She is excited to make her mark on the team once again.

“It is an honour to return back to my duties with the senior women’s national team as head coach. 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 that are able to, support our women’s programmes. There is no doubt in my mind that we too can represent the 242 in an outstanding way on the national scene,” she said.

Francis echoed the sentiments of the senior women’s national team head coach as he wants to put out a respectable brand of junior women’s basketball for The Bahamas.

“It is indeed a pleasure and privilege to be selected as the head coach for the junior women’s national basketball teams. It is an honour to continue to have such an amazing opportunity to be a part of the development and promotion of women’s sports while simultaneously representing our great country. I’ve had an opportunity to work and coach with many great Bahamian coaches. I look forward to returning our junior women’s programme to the dominance and winning ways of the past,” he said.

Phillipe will be making his national team coaching debut with the U17 junior men’s team. He said it is a privilege to have the opportunity.

“It is with great pleasure and excitement that I embark on this journey as the head coach of the U17 junior men’s national team. I consider this as the ultimate privilege to represent my country. I’ve been working toward this opportunity for the last ten years, through development of players and myself…I am excited to begin working with our national programme to help continue to build a better brand of basketball as the previous coaches at the national level have done,” he said.

Clarke, who has served as an assistant coach of the U15 and U17 Centrobasket basketball teams, was grateful to be selected and laid out some of his goals for the national team.

“It’s always an honour 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,” he said.

Moses Johnson, first vice president of the BBF, along with other BBF executives are excited about the selection of head coaches and are now looking forward to them putting together formidable teams.

“They have to now also go out and aggressively start to communicate with these players. We would have contacts for certain players through the federation but it is now the mandate of these coaches to ensure that they garner the support of the athletes that are out there. We have many spread out across the United States, Canada and playing in Europe…they have to now garner the contacts and stay aggressively contacting these persons so that when they are called upon we have already built that relationship and rapport with them that they are able to come home and represent the country,” he said.

The BBF is appealing to corporate Bahamas to lend their support to the junior and senior programmes as they compete in different tournaments in the future.