The man who spent the last four years reviving lower division basketball is now in charge of a greater resurrection.
Former organising secretary Derrick Garrett has taken over the helm of the Barbados Amateur Basketball Association (BABA) following the body’s general elections during Saturday night’s annual general meeting at the Wildey Gymnasium.
Garrett predictably became the third new president in as many terms after running unopposed when outgoing head Carlos Moore failed to seek re-election.
Credited for the revival of second and third division basketball, Garrett now leads a sport which has struggled through a decade-long fall from grace both locally and regionally.
But Garrett has grown accustomed to breathing life into new projects.
“The main thing is that I told the general body this will start as a one-year term focused on restructuring the association,” said the 46-year-old manager of employee benefits distribution.
“One of the first things we are going to do is put a committee in place to review the constitution with a lawyer. My view is that we move the annual general meeting to October instead of January so as to make changes to put the new executive in place before the New Year.
”In a surprisingly low-key general meeting, the post of president was one of six positions where candidates ran unopposed, as none of the previous 13 council members sought re-election for their prior posts.
Current president of the officials’ body, Mark Harding, defeated St John’s Sonics coach Charles Griffith for the post of first vice-president, before Griffith returned to beat his name-sake Dexter to become the association’s new second vice-president.
Challengers’ women’s player Charlene Leacock ran unopposed as secretary while Marjorie Thorne did likewise for the post as Leacock’s assistant.
FIBA referee and former floor member Richard Waldron replaced Garrett as the organising secretary while Sophia Thorpe moved up one spot to become the new treasurer.
Communications and marketing specialist Sydney Robertson and referee Dexter Griffith also ran unopposed for public relations officer and assistant treasurer, respectively.
“We plan to operate in a different mode from past executives,” said Garrett in his first interview as president.
“I saw previous executives fall into trouble by trying to do everything, so my way will see us setting up various committees and then have them come back to us. We will then meet every month to ratify those decisions.”
And no decision threatens to be bigger than the direction Garrett and his committee chooses to take following December’s fallout from the BABA’s failed raffle.
Two months ago, an inside source revealed the BABA could be on the hook for over $10 000 after the executive council were forced to abandon a $480 000 raffle for a fully-furnished house and car at The Villages, Coverley, in Christ Church.
The fallout could see Garrett’s new executive already starting tip-off facing a huge deficit.
“We definitely need to look at our finances and look at doing some major fund-raising,” Garrett said of tackling the possible deficit.
The new president anticipated the start of the season to come around the last week in March this year.
