JUAN DOLIO, Dominican Republic – The FIBA Americas Zone became the first FIBA Zone to implement the restructured Election Process mandated by the FIBA’s New Governance System.

The process began in the Central American Basketball Confederation (COCABA) Assembly on January 29th in San Salvador, El Salvador, where the member National Federations elected Mario Mendez Realpozo of Mexico, President; Paul Thompson of Belize, Vice-President; and Alvaro Calvo of Costa Rica, Secretary. Participating in the Assembly were six (6) representatives of the eight (8) member Federations, namely, Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Mexico and Nicaragua. The newly elected COCABA Executive laid the groundwork for the establishment of the Central American and Caribbean Basketball Confederation (CONCENCABA) Executive by nominating Alvaro Calvo and Modesto Robledo from Mexico, as their representatives.

The Dominican Republic National Federation hosted COCABA’s sister organization, the Caribbean Basketball Confederation (CBC) Elective Assembly this past Saturday in the municipality of Juan Dolio, in San Pedro de Macorís, Dominican Republic. Twenty-two (22) of the twenty-three (23) member National Federations were in attendance, namely, Antigua & Barbuda, Aruba, Bahamas, Barbados, Bermuda, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Grenada, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, Montserrat, Puerto Rico, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago, Turks and Caicos, and the Virgin Islands.

In addition to reporting on development and technical programs the CBC conducted the election of officers for the 2019 to 2023 quadrennial.

The CBC members elected Glyne Clarke of Barbados, President; Daryll Matthew of Antigua and Barbuda, Vice-President of Marketing and Finance; Fredrick Browne of Bahamas, Technical Vice-President; Marland Nattie of Jamaica, Vice-President for Programs and Development; Kebra Nanton of Antigua and Barbuda, Treasurer; Sabrina Mitchell of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Secretary; and Vocals Guy Malone of the British Virgin Islands and Victor O’Garro of the Cayman Islands.

The CBC Executive issued awards to the Suriname and Guyana Federations for their successful implementation of the FIBA Caribbean 2021 World Cup Qualifiers and CBC Senior Women Championship; and IBF Antilles 3X3 Championship, respectively. FIBA President Horacio Muratore received a recognition award from the CBC Executive for his tireless support of basketball in the Caribbean, while FIBA Americas President, Usie Richards was named Honorary President of the CBC.

Richards who served as Secretary General and President of the CBC stated, “It is indeed an honour and privilege to be recognized by my colleagues in the region and I welcome the opportunity to continue contributing to the development of the sport in the Caribbean”.

The Assembly came to an end with the CBC Executive nominations of Sabrina Mitchell and Yum Ramos of Puerto Rico, as their representatives to the Central American and Caribbean Basketball Confederation (CONCENCABA) Executive.

FEDOMBAL (Dominican Republic Basketball Federation) on Sunday also hosted the Elective Assembly of the Central American and Caribbean Basketball Confederation (CONCENCABA), a Sub-Zone of FIBA Americas, composed of the COCABA and CBC National Federations. Yamil Bukele from El Salvador, and Patrick Haynes, from Guyana, were elected President and Secretary, respectively, for the 2019-2023 term. The Assembly ratified the nominations of Glyne Clarke, CBC President, as 1st Vice-President; Mario Mendez Realpozo, COCABA President, as 2nd Vice-President; CBC Vocals Sabrina Mitchell and Yum Ramos; and COCABA Vocals Alvaro Calvo and Modesto Robledo.

In attendance at the Sub-Zone Assembly were the National Federations of Antigua & Barbuda, Aruba, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, Mexico, Montserrat, Nicaragua, Puerto Rico, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago, Turks and Caicos, and the Virgin Islands.

Present at the CBC and CONCENCABA Assemblies were FIBA President Horacio Muratore, FIBA Secretary General Andreas Zagklis, FIBA Americas President Usie Richards, and FIBA Americas Executive Director Carlos Alves and former CONCENCABA President and Cuban Federation President Ruperto Herrera, alongside Rafael Uribe, president of the host country's basketball federation.

The FIBA Secretary General after making his presentation on the subject matter of development in FIBA, was pleased to remind the national member federations that FIBA is a federation of federations and that the new governance structure is important to FIBA’s expectations to their participation of providing and attaining the mission of International Basketball Federation. The Secretary General also stated that it was a pleasure to be in the CONCENCABA region for the first time, as it brings familiarity with the discussion he had in the past regarding the existence of Sub-Zone an Sub Sub-Zones, with CONCENCABA as the larger Sub-Zone in FIBA World.

After assuming the CONCENCABA Presidency, Bukele stated, “First of all, I thank my family, my basketball family in El Salvador, and each one of the member federations of the Central American and Caribbean Basketball Confederation for trusting me with this election. This is a great challenge that we hope to take on. It is an enormous responsibility to bolster basketball in Central America and the Caribbean. The experience in COCABA was very enriching and it allows us to take the wheel, not just excited to do so, but also with the interest of putting CONCENCABA in the highest place. We are committed to working with each national federation to accomplish their goals for the benefit of basketball and the zone.” Bukele also serves as President of the El Salvador Federation (FESABAL).

The new CONCENCABA Executive also honoured Horacio Muratore, Usie Richards, and outgoing President Ruperto Herrera. Mr. Herrera was also bestowed the title of Honorary President of CONCENCABA.

Muratore, FIBA President and former Argentine President stated, “I'm very grateful to all, I wasn’t expecting this honour and I've been given a great satisfaction, the great satisfaction of having done the job. I know that with the work of the people coming in, we’ll reach our goal of developing the region's basketball more and more. It has the potential and we need to work together, but we must do it with passion and hard work. Together we’ll reach all our objectives. FIBA has made an incredible change in their new qualifying system. The objective was to be even closer to our national federations. We had to start from scratch, and it was a great risk. That's why we asked for everyone's support.”

He added, “I'm being honoured and that makes me proud. Basketball is my life and passion. We want to help all national federations. That's something that we’ve been working on for a lot of years and we must do it together and that all countries help. With this new qualifying system, we want everyone to play at home.”

FIBA Americas President Richards, concluded, “These three Assemblies demonstrated the interest of these National Federations to assume their roles as contributors to the development of basketball in our Zone, and their commitment to democracy and transparency throughout FIBA”.

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