Unlike the 1980s and 1990s, the team has of recent years become somewhat dormant, primarily because the regional competitions that once occupied their attention, have not been staged, due to financial and organizational problems confronting the sport especially in the Leeward Islands.
Already the SKABA management has taken one of the critical first steps by appointing a National Coach, who is to be mandated with the difficult task of pulling the best pool of players together and to have them transformed into a team that is ready for any possible competition.
The last time a National team had any championship experience was six years ago, when in 2006 they participated in the Caribbean Basketball Confederation tournament in Jamaica. Since then, no formal National Squad has been assembled.
Then in 2011 a SKABA All Star team was assembled to play the Dominica National Team in the 1st annual Sugar Creole Festival.
The SKABA All Stars defeated the Dominica National Team quite comfortably, despite the presence of a 7 foot former NBA player, in Garth Joseph.
The performance of the all Star team gave the SKABA executive the motivation to begin the revitalization of the Senior National Basketball Team.
Therefore, SKABA has now appointed Dave “Doc” Sutton as the National Basketball Coach.
Sutton is a former member of the National Team as a player. He is currently the coach of the 2011 SKABA champions the Ghaut Bucs and was also recently qualified as a FIBA Level 1 certified coach.
Sutton will be responsible for leading the National Team program over the next year and will also lead a selection panel which will decide the practice squad and oversee the training program and the team itself.
Sutton’s National Basketball Team’s first engagement will be in Dominica with the 2nd annual Sugar Creole Festival. The SC Festival is a weekend long tournament that will feature National teams from Dominica, Martinique and St. Kitts-Nevis. The tournament will be held from October 11th to October 14th.
The practice squad is expected to begin training shortly with the final 12 man roster expected to be known by October 4th.
The team is expected to continue training after the Dominica tournament, with a view to participating in future sub-regional tournaments including an OECS Basketball Invitational Tournament which the local SKABA executive will be attempting to host and organize in early 2013.