Christo­pher Jack­son Charles re­turns as na­tion­al coach for the up­com­ing FI­BA 3x3 Amer­iCup in San Juan, Puer­to Ri­co, from De­cem­ber 13-15.

This was an­nounced by the Na­tion­al Bas­ket­ball Fed­er­a­tion of T&T (NBFTT) via a re­lease on Mon­day.

Charles will be aim­ing to build on his pre­vi­ous suc­cess­es. His most re­cent, lead­ing T&T to the bronze medal at the Pan Amer­i­can Games in San­ti­a­go, Chile, last year.

As per the NBFTT coach­es se­lec­tion pol­i­cy, ac­cord­ing to the re­lease, a na­tion­al coach is se­lect­ed per tour­na­ment. Charles ac­knowl­edged as much say­ing: “Not be­cause we won bronze it's au­to­mat­ic that I would be se­lect­ed again. I’m glad for the trans­par­ent and rig­or­ous process and I proved that I’m still the best coach for the role."

He added that he is ready to com­mence train­ing and se­lect the best play­ers for the Amer­iCup tour­na­ment – "con­fi­dent that we can re­turn home cham­pi­ons again".

The re­leas­es stat­ed that the NBFTT Board of Di­rec­tors were im­pressed with the qual­i­ty and in­ter­est in the coach­ing po­si­tion and the time and en­er­gy in­vest­ed in the ap­pli­ca­tions and in­ter­views.

“We al­so had a great in­ter­est from our for­eign-based play­ers this tour­na­ment and re­gret­ful­ly we just don’t have the fi­nances to bring them home,” said NBFTT pres­i­dent Lt. Col. Hills Ja­son Hills.

The 2024 FI­BA 3x3 Amer­iCup is more than just a con­ti­nen­tal com­pe­ti­tion; it is an es­sen­tial qual­i­fi­er on the path to the 2027 Bas­ket­ball World Cup in Qatar and the 2028 Olympics in Los An­ge­les.

Prepa­ra­tions are al­ready in mo­tion, with in­vi­ta­tions sent to se­lect play­ers for team screen­ings.

Among those in­vit­ed are mem­bers of the Pan Am bronze-medal win­ning team, twin broth­ers Ah­keel and Ah­keem Boyd, Mori­ba de Fre­itas and Chike Au­gus­tine and Pro-Bas­ket­ballers in Spain Zeke Moore and John­ny Hamil­ton.

The fed­er­a­tion is ac­tive­ly seek­ing di­rect spon­sor­ship for uni­forms, equip­ment, nu­tri­tion and play­er well­ness for the FI­BA Men’s 3x3 Amer­iCup tour­na­ment.

"See­ing what we are up against in terms of readi­ness and play­er sup­port in­ter­na­tion­al­ly there is a big gap when we play the likes of USA who are pro­fes­sion­al play­ers, we are not even se­mi-pro­fes­sion­al and the more sup­port we can get the bet­ter pre­pared we can be” said coach Charles.

The re­lease added that the NBFTT aims to bring T&T's best tal­ent for­ward and hopes to fund fu­ture screen­ings for for­eign-based play­ers. In­ter­est­ed spon­sors can reach out at nbfttmar­ketingand­comms@gmail.com for part­ner­ship op­por­tu­ni­ties to help bol­ster the team’s prepa­ra­tion for the 2024 Amer­iCup and be­yond.

“We had an out­stand­ing lev­el of in­ter­est from play­ers based abroad, and while we re­gret­ful­ly can’t fund their trav­el this time, we’re ex­plor­ing spon­sor­ships to cov­er uni­forms, equip­ment, nu­tri­tion, and well­ness sup­port. Com­pet­ing against teams with pro­fes­sion­al play­ers like the USA high­lights the need for ro­bust re­sources. Every bit of sup­port makes a dif­fer­ence,” said Hills, en­cour­ag­ing po­ten­tial spon­sors to reach out.

Train­ing squad

Aiden Aisee, Mikey Eve, Tyrik Singh, Le­shawn Al­fred, John How­ell, Chike Au­gus­tine, Je­lani Val­ley, Jael Lewis, Is­rael Sylvester, Ah­keel Boyd, Ja­son Fri­day, Sim­ba Ed­wards, Ja­mal Pol­ly­dore, Mori­ba De­Fritas, Naython Lewis, Adri­an Joseph, Mikhail Phillips, Tyrese Fields, Kern Pe­ter Alex­is, Adam Salazar, Ar­i­on Ed­wards, Ah­keem Boyd, Mikial Phillip, Kevon Williams, Bran­don Gar­rett, Laquan Dy­er, Mikial Williams, Josi­ah James, Che Pen­nis­ton Miller, Zion Nicholas, Amari Toney, An­tho­ny Am­bris, Fab­rice Fish­er, Tris­ton Ben­jamin, Je­lani Black­et, Zeke Moore, Malique Lewis, John­ny Hamil­ton, Corey Joseph, Shakiel Bertrand, Ha­keem Mor­gan.