Kyle By­noe of Spar­tans TT and Joelle Best of were the named the boys’ and girls’ “Most Valu­able Play­er” in the Un­der-19 Di­vi­sion when the sev­enth edi­tion of the Bas­ket­ball Fi­es­ta end­ed on Sun­day (Ju­ly20).

It was an elec­tri­fy­ing week­end in Cou­va as the pre­mier youth bas­ket­ball tour­na­ment in the Caribbean, pow­ered by Re­pub­lic Bank through its Pow­er to Make a Dif­fer­ence Pro­gramme, brought to­geth­er the top youth bas­ket­ball clubs across T&T for a thrilling dis­play of ath­let­ic ex­cel­lence, fierce com­pe­ti­tion, and com­mu­ni­ty spir­it.

Host­ed at the Cy­cling Velo­drome in Bal­main, Cou­va, the event saw some 40 teams com­pet­ing across four oth­er di­vi­sions–U-11, U-13, U-15 and U-17. The 2025 edi­tion proved just as com­pet­i­tive and ac­tion-packed as pre­vi­ous years, de­liv­er­ing un­for­get­table mo­ments on and off the court.

“Each year we try to do it big­ger and bet­ter,” said Garvin War­wick, Tour­na­ment Or­gan­is­er. “This year we in­tro­duced more off-court ac­tiv­i­ties for the Fi­es­ta Kids, and it was beau­ti­ful to see young ath­letes en­joy­ing them­selves be­tween games. For many, Fi­es­ta is the high­light of their bas­ket­ball cal­en­dar, and we take that re­spon­si­bil­i­ty se­ri­ous­ly—en­sur­ing we grow the event year af­ter year.”

By­noe and Spar­tans TT beat out Roy­al­ty and New Chap­ter Acad­e­my (NCA), re­spec­tive­ly, for the U-19 boys’ ti­tle and Cham­pi­onship Rings. By­noe’s team­mate Joshua Soes­man picked up the award for the “Most De­fen­sive Play­er”. The “Most Im­pact­ful Play­er” award went to NCA’s Samuel Ed­wards.

Best helped Roy­al­ty emerge the girls’ U-19 cham­pi­on and col­lect­ed their cham­pi­onship rings ahead of sec­ond-placed Mal­oney Pac­ers and third-placed Spar­tans TT. In oth­er in­di­vid­ual awards hand­ed out, Ju­n­isha Harp­er of Mal­oney Pac­ers re­ceived the “Most Im­pact­ful” prize while Julis­sa Danglade of Spar­tans TT col­lect­ed the “Most De­fen­sive” ho­n­our.

Ho­n­our roll

U-19 Di­vi­sion

Boys

League: 1 Spar­tans TT, 2 Roy­al­ty, 3 NCA

Most Im­pact­ful: Samuel Ed­wards (NCA)

Most De­fen­sive: Joshua Soes­man (Spar­tans TT)

MVP: Kyle By­noe (Spar­tans TT)

Girls

League: 1 Roy­al­ty, 2 Mal­oney Pac­ers, 3 Spar­tans TT

Most Im­pact­ful: Ju­n­isha Harp­er (Mal­oney Pac­ers)

Most De­fen­sive: Julis­sa Danglade (Spar­tans TT)

MVP: Joelle Best (Roy­al­ty)

U-17 Di­vi­sion

League: 1 Spar­tans TT, 2 Roy­al­ty, 3 Mal­oney Pac­ers

Most Im­pact­ful: Ja­son Best ( Roy­al­ty)

Most De­fen­sive: Idri­is Mar­tin ( Spar­tans TT)

MVP: William Fran­cis (Spar­tans TT)

U-15 Di­vi­sion

League: 1 Mal­oney Pac­ers, 2 Spar­tans TT, 3 Roy­al­ty

Most Im­pact­ful: Ja­keem King (Roy­al­ty)

Most De­fen­sive: N’Jeah Sam (Spar­tans TT)

MVP: N’Ko­bie Ince (Mal­oney Pac­ers)

U-13 Di­vi­sion

League: 1 Roy­al­ty, 2 Ed­in­burgh Bas­ket­ball Acad­e­my, 3 Matthew Pierre Bas­ket­ball Acad­e­my

Most im­pact­ful: Aron­dele ‘Frog­gy’ Al­fred (Matthew Pierre)

De­fen­sive Play­er: Kevin Julien (EBA)

MVP: Ja­keem King (Roy­al­ty)

U-11 Di­vi­sion

League: 1 Roy­al­ty, 2 Mal­oney Pac­ers, 3 New Chap­ter Acad­e­my

Most im­pact­ful: Joshua Julien (Pac­ers)

De­fen­sive play­er: Tamir Brig­gs (NCA)

MVP: Justin Thomas (Roy­al­ty)