Kevin Sunich

For­mer WN­BA and na­tion­al cap­tain play­er Pietra Gay-Ifill has been ap­point­ed as as­sis­tant coach of the T&T team to con­test the 2010 Cen­trobas­ket Cham­pi­onships in Puer­to Ri­co from Ju­ly 11-14. This was con­firmed at a Board of Di­rec­tors meet­ing of the Na­tion­al Bas­ket­ball Fed­er­a­tion of T&T (NBFT&T) on Thurs­day evening.

Gay-Ifill, a qual­i­fied Lev­el 2 coach, the on­ly one in T&T, will be deputy to Amer­i­can Ozzie Wells along with Trevor McLeod. Ear­le Noel, vice pres­i­dent of Or­gan­i­sa­tion and De­vel­op­ment Com­mit­tee of the NBFT&T said Gay-Ifill, who guid­ed the Uni­ver­si­ty of LSU to the NCAA Fi­nal Four back in 1996, was over­looked de­spite be­ing one of the best play­ers in the coun­try. Gay-Ifill, al­so a top net­baller said af­ter be­ing over­looked as a play­er she ap­plied for a coach­ing po­si­tion so that she could con­tin­ue to con­tribute to her coun­try and help with the de­vel­op­ment of the sport. Noel added that of the sev­en lo­cal coach­es in­ter­viewed, Gay-Ifill, a for­mer na­tion­al two-time MVP, topped in all de­part­ments. The Board mem­bers vot­ed 8-1 in her favour for the po­si­tion.

Gay-Ifill, a for­mer mem­ber of the Hous­ton Comets from 1997 -2001, helped the club to two ti­tles in 1997 and 1998. She said she was hap­py to be giv­en the op­por­tu­ni­ty to help con­tribute. "Play­ing with the na­tion­al team since 2002, I have a good un­der­stand­ing of the lev­el of bas­ket­ball be­ing played on the in­ter­na­tion­al stage. I know most of the play­ers with­in the Caribbean and Latin Amer­i­ca. "It is the ninth hour and there is not enough time now to get in much. How­ev­er, the play­ers have to go out there and put their best foot for­ward," said Gay-Ifill, who led Courts Hori­zon to two na­tion­al cham­pi­onships in 2006 and 2008 and five con­sec­u­tive North Zone ti­tles 2004 to 2008 play­ing the point-guard po­si­tion.Gay-Ifill, who guid­ed Roy­al Ex­tra Li­ons to the South Zone ti­tle back in Sep­tem­ber, said the women will have to play as a unit. "There will be no room for in­di­vid­ual stars, rather it has to be a team ef­fort, and the play­ers must adopt a "Ride or Die" at­ti­tude if the team is to have a chance of do­ing well."

The women be­gan train­ing on Wednes­day at the Jean Pierre Com­plex with coach Wells. The men will be un­der the guid­ance of Ter­ry Lay­ton, who led the team at the Caribbean Bas­ket­ball Cham­pi­onships (CBC) in the British Vir­gin Is­lands last year, with An­tho­ny Tan­nis and Lenny Guy as his as­sis­tants. The ap­point­ments were over­whelm­ing­ly ac­cept­ed by the Fed­er­a­tion's di­rec­tors. Noel al­so re­vealed that Li­ons man­ag­er Court­ney Mc­Nesh was ap­point­ed the men's team man­ag­er and Car­olyn Daniel-Smith of To­ba­go the women's man­ag­er/chap­er­one. Noel added that no oth­er ap­point­ments were made but the NBFT&T will meet again to rat­i­fy the play­ers and train­ers short­ly.

MEN'S TEAM:

Ter­ry Lay­ton (Head coach)

Lenny Guy - (As­sis­tant Coach)

An­tho­ny Tan­nis - (As­sis­tant Coach)

Court­ney Mc Nesh (Man­ag­er)

WOMEN'S TEAM:

Ozzie Well - (Head coach)

Pietra Gay - (As­sis­tant coach)

Trevor McLeod - (As­sis­tant coach)

Car­olyn Daniel-Smith (Man­ag­er/chap­er­on)