Tomorrow, some of Belize's well known names will be on the court competing against each other. It's a part of the Sprite "Live Life" Tournament and the "celebrity" play off will feature the Commissioner of Police leading one team, and the Minister of Home Affairs leading the other.
And in their all star line up, they've got artists like Stig and YasThalia as well as city councillors like Allan Pollard and Kaya Cattouse, and even journalists like our Jules Vasquez and News 5's Isani Cayetano.
And while they're hoping for an exciting game, Minister Kareem Musa pointed out that the goal of this tournament is to quash whatever beef may be between the neighbors that the players come from. Here's how he put it:
Kareem Musa, Minister of Home Affairs
"I hear that Jules is playing against me, I don't know why he wasn't picked to play on my side but it's certainly something positive at a time when a lot of negative is happening and so we are looking forward to interacting with these young men, as you know, the Sprite Live Life Tournament is extremely positive. It allows these young men to engage on another level and to actually get to know one another so not just the players but their respective fans when they come out to support, they get to interact with each other, build camaraderie, get to know one another, and to realize there's really no such beef, like you really are fighting for no reason and so that really is the purpose of the tournament, to build that relationship between the respective communities who over the years have engaged in this continuous beef for decades long, not knowing really why they're doing it, so I think that's the purpose of it and we're hoping of course to engage with them, the commissioner will be out there participating, myself, and members of the media and some celebrities as well, we were hoping for Courtney Menzies but she declined."
Courtney Menzies:
"The tournament has been going on for some time so have you, in these past few weeks, have you seen some type of result coming out from it?"
Kareem Musa, Minister of Home Affairs
"You know, I had the opportunity to visit with the young men when they were playing over at the Mexico Center and I thought it was just to allow them to play basketball and build that camaraderie but it's so much more than that because after one of the games had ended, we were invited outside to a little gathering with the Ministry of Human Development, their personnel, the Ministry of Youth and Sports, the Department of Youth Services, they actually had counselors out there who were engaging these young men in life skills sessions and a live life skill session right after them playing ball and so they were able to say, what made you upset when you were playing, what made you angry, was it because a guy hit you or the ref made a bad call? And they were allowed to give their feedback and learn how to deal with their anger management and conflict resolution so it encompasses a lot, you can't just look at it as just a basketball tournament, it's so much more than that and we have the participation of other ministries and departments and I want to thank them as well for being a part of this."
The game starts at 10 at the Yarborough Basketball Court.
