SAN NICOLAAS (Aruba) – After two years of hard work to foster the development of basketball in the island, the Aruba Amateur Basketball Association is getting everything ready for the elections that will decide a new committee and President for the 2019-2023 cycle.

In general, the terms in the Association would last two years, but in keeping with FIBA recommendations, now positions will last four years. The objective of this extension is to establish better communications channels between the national federations and the international governing body of basketball. It also grants the organization more time to work on its long-term projects and justly evaluate its performance.

Exiting president Valeska Milton, who was elected in 2017, sees this change as a positive opportunity to establish better a better relationship with FIBA in the future. “In my opinion, there are changes every two years, the new board will have to start from scratch their communication with FIBA, making it more difficult,” said Milton to FIBA.basketball.

The Association's President shared her satisfaction with the work that has been done and made a commitment to continue working with the organization from the position of Secretary-General.

“I would've liked to meet more of my goals,” Milton commented. “One of them was to get a scholarship so that an athlete can study and play the sport they like. On the other hand, I can't complain about the national tournaments. They were great and we even added a club to the Federation.”

To this moment, current Vice-President Kenneth Vrolijk is the only candidate in the election for the President position. It is expected that he takes on the role starting next month. “We want to give the opportunity to someone else. He's the only one to have entered his name. I’ll stay by his side to help him,” stated Milton.

Each one of the five basketball clubs in the island will have three votes during the process. Likewise, each current board member has the right to one vote.

Among the projects that the Association expects to set in motion during the next term is to be hosts of international events in the Caribbean region, starting with the FIBA Americas Youth Development Camp.

“[We want to] keep growing, of course,” said Milton. “In the most recent CONCECABA assembly I met with the President and it could be that we host the Youth Development Camp for the Caribbean here in Aruba. I have my fingers crossed for it to happen.”

“We also expect to participate in a CBC Youth Tournament in 2020. Fingers crossed so that a country requests to host the event and these young players can compete at a higher level,” concluded Milton.

FIBA