Exhibition basketball at charity event delights crowd

Hundreds of spectators were delightfully entertained by the high calibre of basketball demonstrated by the four participating teams — comprised of high school students — during last weekend’s fundraiser at Somersfield Academy.

Hands of Love, coached by national team player Steven Simons, won the inaugural tournament after prevailing 11-10 in overtime against the Coalition for the Protection of Children.

Somersfield Academy’s Lucas Barbey led the Hands of Love scoring with seven points in the final.

Summing up his team’s wonderful achievement, Hands of Love coach Simons commented: “We started off slow by losing our first game (to Salvation Army), but after that I just reminded the boys to go out there and enjoy the event.

And they played more relaxed and took us to the final where Lucas had a great game and brought us out on top.”

Bermuda Basketball Association (BBA) has gone to great lengths in recent years to promote the sport at the grassroots level and Simons hopes last weekend’s tournament will have aided the association’s cause.

He added: “We are putting a lot of emphasis on youth development because being in the basketball community you can see there’s a big gap between national team level players and that next set of guys pushing for national team spots.

“We are really emphasizing the youth development stage and Chris Crumpler (past BBA youth development coordinator) has really put in a lot of work, and we are starting to see the benefits of that.”

As for the charitable cause, Simons said: “We had representatives from all the charities and you could see the joy of the lady’s face (Fern Wade) from Hands of Love.

“She was celebrating and clapping and you could tell the money meant a lot to them, so it was a good day all around.”

Rounding off the top three was Sunshine League, who got past Home School 11-9 in another contest that was decided in overtime.

Last weekend’s event was organized by Butterfield’s 2010 Management Trainees.

Trainee Michael Paynter explained: “The purpose of the event was to promote charitable giving and youth development — both physically and socially. We wanted to emphasize the importance of giving back while at the same time having some fun.

“BYO3 stood for ‘Banking on Your Opportunities 3-on-3’, but also promoted making the most of your opportunities — no matter what your present circumstances.”

On hand to present a cheque to each of the participating team’s chosen charity, based on their final placement, was Butterfield president and CEO Brad Kopp.

The total amount donated was $2,500 while participating students received various prizes.

The inaugural Butterfield BYO3 Tournament also featured a match pitting Butterfield management against BBA members Ryan Rabain, Dean Jones and Simons who eventually prevailed 11-9 despite being outnumbered on court.

“We couldn’t lose because we would have to hear about it everyday,” Simons smiled. “It was fun, but we had to fight hard at the end to make sure we won.”