Basketball lives in Haiti

PORT AU PRINCE (Haiti) - Education changes lives and basketball, and basketball provides the opportunities. In countries in the global south this takes center stage and the work becomes a fundamental aspect for the development of youth in sport, in an attempt to allow them to have more and better opportunities to improve their quality of life.

The dry lands of Haiti, the heat, the power outages and the generalized scarcity govern the reality of thousands of local basketball players that dream about improving their techniques in this Caribbean land. There, sport and celebration are the same word, and the Haitian Basketball Federation (FHB, for its French acronym) does whatever is in its reach to develop programs, celebrate tournaments and build national teams whenever it’s possible. But that’s not enough.

Among the main challenges the nation faces are the lack of basketball infrastructure, particularly courts with ceilings and wooden floors — there are only four available for a population of 10.98 million inhabitants in an area of 27,000 square kilometers.

“There's a great basketball culture there, but there hasn’t been any exposure outside Haiti until now,” said to FIBA.basketball Patrick Washington, General Manager of the Haitian Basketball Federation. “There's a corporative league that runs throughout the year. They're very competitive and there are 3-5 divisions that include juvenile categories. [Basketball] is the second most practiced sport in the nation after football (soccer).”

According to Washington, the Federation's focus are the areas of “youth development, infrastructure, coaching, training and referee development.” He also pointed out that the sport’s popularity has reached its greatest level in years, as the people have seen that some local players have achieved opportunities overseas to develop.

One of the main entities responsible for exporting Haitian talents to the United States during this last decade seems to have been non-profit organization Power Forward International and its founder, Pierre Valmera. Born in Port-au-Prince, he was a professional player in Europe and played collegiate basketball in Union University in Tennessee. With the organization there are camps organized in Haiti four times a year, where apart from identifying talents, they give tennis shoes and meals to participants the weekends when the camps take place. Once the players are scouted and visas are emitted, the talents move overseas to live with volunteer host families until they graduate college.

“After playing in Europe I wanted to give something back. I've been doing this for the past 17 years. I have a total of 48 guys [playing and studying] in the United States,” said Valmera.

Among the most successful products of the program is Skal Labissiere, a Port-au-Prince native who graduated from the University of Kentucky in 2016, and has had NBA experience with the Phoenix Suns, Sacramento Kings and Portland Trail Blazers. With Valmera, the 23-year-old center that measures 6’11 and weighs 235 lbs. arrived at the United States after surviving the disastrous earthquake of 2010 when he was only 13, making him the first participant younger than 18 that attended the program.

Valmera’s work was also inspiration for a documentary titled TWO FOUR SIX, an insight on his process of taking care of his students in the United States, fundraising, and making trips to Haiti to organize camps, scout talents and facilitate their possible transfers. This is a gesture that the player nicknamed Titanic assumes as a duty to his country, more than to basketball itself.

Other Haitian talents that got to one of the highest positions in the basketball world include Olden Polynice (Supersonics, Clippers, Pistons, Kings, Jazz), Samuel Dalembert (Sixers, Kings, Rockets, Bucks, Mavericks, Knicks), and Nerlens Noel (Sixers, Mavericks and Thunder).

The 3x3 modality is also in the scope of the Federation. So much so that, according to the 3x3 Commission and Federation Vice-President Alp Pélissie Ulysse, the Haitian National 3x3 Team intends of going to the neighboring Dominican Republic to play in the second edition of La Española Cup from July 11 to 12, along trios representing Puerto Rico, Cuba and Venezuela.

“This will be a great opportunity so that our first National 3x3 Team can defend its title. However, I want to say that from an administrative standpoint, we're still not ready to participate. As we face greater financial difficulties, the Federation hopes to get the support of the private sector and the Haitian government to help with these problems,” explained Ulysse.

Also, according to its directives, the Intra-School League is well underway. The National Technical Direction oversees the process of player selection and have organized a full camp focused on implementing game concepts, competitions, basketball skills, athletic adaptation capabilities and day-to-day performance.

FIBA