As you may know, three years ago I came to Belize to follow my passion for serving and working with children. Since then, I have been very blessed to be a teacher at Mount Carmel High School, one the best high schools in Belize. It is a place where the students truly become your family and where God's love is ever so present and overflows each day.
During my first year here, I became involved with the basketball team. I was not the coach that year, but another guy volunteer, Mike, put together a team consisting mostly of freshman boys. The key to the team he put together was that they were all best friends, and this without a doubt, is what made this team so great and what still makes them great today. This became very obvious over the next three years, and after Mike left, and no one else to coach them, I became the coach. I was with them at a few tournaments my first year and helped Mike coach during one of the town tournaments, so I was excited to continue to watch them grow as players and young men. Deep down, they reminded me of my high school team. They are not the tallest guys, but they certainly are the quickest, they each knew their role on the team, and they don't give up. I knew then, and I still believe to this day, that this team had the potential to be one of the top teams in Belize, if not THE best.
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| The boys with hoodies my cousin Val donated to them last year. They were so excited we did a mini photo shoot. (One of the boys here is graduating and another has moved, so two more boys make up the team) |
Not only have they grown in height over the past year, but they have grown in skill. Last year they placed second at the Junior National Tournament in Belize, giving the winners a challenging game. They were the underdogs so this of course made me proud, but it did even more for them. It helped them believe in themselves, something that can be difficult for kids here in Belize sometimes.
Since that tournament, they have played in numerous other tournaments. They made it the Regional Tournament, a first for Mount Carmel in 10 years. They met Belmopan Comprehensive in the championship game, the top team in the country, and a team they had beat by 10 one month earlier. It was a challenging game, with Comprehensive winning and eventually going on to win nationals. As difficult as the loss was, it gave the boys hope and a sense of accomplishment that one day, that could be them. The town and coaches have grown to love this team, as have I, and they have truly become like my brothers. We have had ups and downs, but through it all, they have never doubted each other, and beyond basketball, they have the potential to make Benque and Belize a better place.
Because of this, I have decide to start this blog to fundraise money for the boys to make a trip to Colorado in June to attend 2 basketball camps I attended in high school. This has been my goal for the past two years, and after a lot of thought and prayer, we have decided to go for it. They have been invited by the coach at Mesa State University and have started their fundraising efforts here. It will cost $2,000 to take each student, and there are 7 boys going. Our goal is to fundraise the amount for each student by the end of May, so I thought it would be best to find sponsors or groups of people to sponsor each student. I know that this will be a challenge, given that we only have a month and a half to do it, but through God's grace, I do believe that anything is possible.
If you would be willing to donate any amount or can get a group together to sponsor a boy, please feel free to click on the button on the right or send me an email. Know that anything is greatly appreciated and even if it's just an encouraging word, send it my way!
Every few days, I will post a message from each of the boys about what the trip means to them and update everyone on how the fundraising efforts are going, so please feel free to send me any ideas or topics you have that I can write on for this blog, and I will try to do just that! Thank you and know you are all in our prayers daily!
God bless,
Lucia and the Basketball Team
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