Basketball had become a fast rising sport in Jamaica for the last 10 years.
It was ranked top five for the participation of the citizens and popularity of the game. It is played nationally by five different regions which are considered as an aspect of the success of the game in the island.
Each region is managed by a president who works as a Vice President in the national body.
Northern, Eastern, Central, Southern, and Western conferences are the five regions in the island. Each of the five conferences has at least two parishes that are helping in the development of sport with the permission of the National Association body.Eastern Conference is the youngest established conference and possibly the weakest in the island.
Since there are only few who participated in the club league, the conference wasn’t able to sustain it. Port Antonio High was the only school active in the conference that’s why it is required to them to compete with the Northern Conference teams.
Central Conference is considered as the second strongest conference in the island. Michael Stephenson is the president of the conference; he is finds it difficult to create an established club league and program for development. Under-16, under 19 and school girl level are the stable school league in the conference.
The Conference is always a finalist of the National Schools Championship and is involved at various levels of the league. The top school teams from the region are the Manchester High school, Knox High school, Old Harbour High school, Munro High school and Glenmuir Highschool.
Northern Basketball Conference is presided over by Courtney Wallace. The under 19 and under 16 are the categories where the conference participates. In terms of their performance the conference development weakens since its top two teams, Buckfield United and Mammee Magic’s transferred to the National Basketball League.
The reappearance of Buckfield is hoped to get the league start again. Several players that are from the conference are presently on scholarships abroad. They are Michael Stewastson Daniel Rose and Hugh Robinson.
Western Conference was led by Barrington Flemming, the president and the host of mini league. The mini league is a division one club league and a high school league. It started in 2003 and twelve schools in Montego Bay zone participated in the event. Since then it expanded to 14 schools.
The most competitive teams are Cornwell College, Anchovy High, St. James High, Muschette high, MereleneOttey High and Green Island High. The conference has created players meeting the national team standards. Some of the players are Samada Samuels and Orlando Brown they also received overseas scholarships from different institutions.
The club league is struggling in financial constraints recently but still has top club teams such as Sunrise Blazers and Catherine Hall All Stars.
Southern Conference president is Calvin Martin. He is the host of all the platforms that JABA has proposed making them a well established conference. The top teams at present are the Dupont Primary and the Holy Family. The conference organizes different leagues and program like high school and mini programme, business league, the NBL and the Division League.
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