Eagles Go Premier

The Youth and Sports Eagles Basketball team out of Nevis, has soared its way into the Premier division of the St. Kitts-Nevis Basketball Association league.
On Tuesday 22nd July, Head Coach/player Jeffrey Lewis and longstanding Manager, Miss Jackeeda Thomas, faced the media, in an exclusive interview with Nevis Television Sports page.
They indicated that it was a long and arduous journey. As a matter of fact, they have been trying out in the A division of the SKABA league, for this the third year now.
Jeffrey Lewis for his part, has a love affair with the SKABA league. He knows that for Basketballers in Nevis to truly excel, they must be able to demonstrate their skills, not only during the local leagues, but that exposure to the St. Kitts league was also key.
So, he has been a part of the CG Rebels bid for major success in the league and pointed out that CG Rebels did fairly well.
They too won the A division and were also promoted to the Premier league and even got to the finals of the Premier league, but unfortunately never won.
They were later demoted from the Premier league.
He was also a part of the PJ’S team, which also went from the A Division to the Premier league but failed to carry on.
Then he took his youthful guards, sponsored by the Youth and Sports Department of Nevis and now in the third year, they have made him truly proud.
Miss Thomas indicated that it was truly tough going. The afternoons of journeying to St. Kitts via one of the small boats and the late night trips back, took some sacrifice.
She also pointed out that even as the team was taking part in the St. Kitts league, they still had matches in the Malcolm Guishard league to take care of.
Thomas and Lewis praised the team and singled out the players for special praise, noting that during each game, one or two different individual players, stood out as star players.
They stated that they only lost three games from regular season through to the playoffs and were committed to closing out the best of five series in that game four, which was played on the evening of Saturday 20th July.
The Jay Hawks team had other ideas and that final game was intense.
It actually went into double over time!
They were also happy that a fair sized Nevisian contingent, went over by boat to support them and were also happy for some Kittitian support that they have earned during the course of the league.
Despite the tension and the mounting excitement, they are happy that their players maintained their cool and eventually prevailed to take the impressive trophy.
What’s next for the team?
They plan to take a break and enjoy the moment. Some of the guys are injured and really tired.
After that, they will go back into serious training in preparation for the Premier league.
The intention? They plan to be the first Nevis team to go to St. Kitts and win the Premier league.
They know that it will be a monumental task, but they believe that the guys are up to the challenge.
They concluded by thanking their main sponsor and Director of Sports Mr. Jamir Claxton profusely, for all the assistance they have received thus far and had a word of thanks for their supporters as well.