Kwesi Mugisa, Staff Reporter

Nattie

Young, gifted and enthusiastic, the Jamaica Basketball Association (JABA) Under-18 team have their eyes firmly set on securing the top spot when the Modern Rubber Stamp (JABA) women's league resumes on Wednesday.

In an effort to continue the development of the sport at the basic level, JABA came up with the idea of picking a youth team to compete in the island's top women's league from some of the nation's most talented girls.

It appears, to be a solid plan which already seems to be reaping some positive results as the team is now all the way at the semi-final stage of the women's competition.

"Things have really been going great so far in this respect. Everyone that has seen the team has been impressed with their talent and cohesiveness," said JABA president, Marland Nattie.

Quality

"They have a lot of quality and are gaining a lot of experience by playing against girls not only older but more experienced than themselves," he added.

"In fact, we intend to use it as model programme to set up a similar thing for our men's teams," Nattie pointed out.

After seven games so far this season, the JABA Under-18 team, which consists of girls from Queen's High School, Old Harbour, Camperdown and the University of Technology (UTech), have a 5-2 record. But according to assistant coach, Laurel Meikle, their first two losses were due more to inexperience than anything else.

"I think the girls were intimid-ated going up against older competition in the first couple of games, but they have certainly got over that now," he said.

In fact, the coach and his team are brimming with confidence going up against the Braves Chiefs for a spot in the final.

"We have beaten them once this season, it was a tough game. But we have the same team, they are healthy and there is no reason that we should not be able to repeat that," he stated.

Meikle believes that the creation of the team has not only helped with the development of the girls' basketball talent, but as individuals on a whole in terms of building self-confidence and discipline.

The coach, however, regrets the fact that they have been unable to do more in regard to including girls from the rural area into the programme.

Rural games

"Right now we don't have anybody in the rural areas and it is hard to get down there and see all of the players during their respective season," he remarked.

"We might be missing out on some talent and if we want to have the best possible national Under-18 team, we will need to see everyone," he pointed out.

"However, in the coming year, if I am still working with the programme, I will travel to look at some of these players and hope-fully we will be able to get some more support," he said.

In Wednesday's other semi-finals, the defending champions Waulgrovian Bullets will face the Metrobelles in a repeat of last year's finals. The Bullets, who beat the Metrobelles in the Best-of-Three finals last year, have been one of two teams to get the better of the JABA Under-18 team this season.