CHARLOTTE AMALIE — The U.S. Virgin Islands Senior Women’s Basketball team has so little money in its operating budget, that it is forced to wear the men’s team uniforms in international competition.
That’s the respect the territory gives its distinguished women’s basketball team, despite the fact that it is ranked 40th in the world — just one spot behind European superpower Germany — a country of 83 million people. (The USVI has a total population of only 120,000 people.)
The Virgin Islands senior women are ranked 40th in the world. Let that sink in for a minute. 40th! Team USVI sits behind Germany (39th) and ahead of world powers Poland (42), the Netherlands (47) and rival Mexico (49).
More importantly, the teams above and the immediate teams below in the rankings have a professional women’s league. The Virgin Islands do not have a woman’s league. Our highest level of high school only plays about six games a season. The junior women’s program has been dormant since 2015.
Another amazing factor is population sizes; the smallest nation ahead of us has a 2.1 million population (Slovenia where Luka Doncic is from). We are ahead of Poland with about 40 million people and Germany has about 83 million people and a mega federation budget. Team USVI also is ranked 9th in the Americas.
Moreover, Puerto Rico which is 17th in the world, defeated the Virgin Islands by a mere four points, 73-69 at Centrobasket 2021. Despite all of our deficiencies that come with being a small island nation, for the past two years, the senior women led by local product Anisha George (Central High School) have won the silver medal at the 2021 Centrobasket, qualified for the 2021 AmeriCup where they finished 7th in an eight team field. They did this while sharing uniforms with the men’s team and little to no practice.
The coaching staff of Tajama Abraham-Ngongba and Clint Williams, both from St. Croix, has done a great job getting the ladies prepared for what is basically volunteering their time. The ladies: Imani Tate, Anisha George, Taylor Jones, Akeema Richards, Lanese Bough, Naja Ngongba, Itiana Taylor, Kadasha Barry, Natalie Day, Alexis Boston, Molina Williams and Brittney Matthew also volunteer their time while teams ahead and behind of us pay their players, have tracksuits, team sneakers, team socks, practice uniforms and team t-shirts.
The women are getting ready to play in Centrobasket 2022 that is scheduled for Chihuahua, Mexico November 22-27th. Virgin Islands, let’s rally behind a team that has won this tournament in 2017 on St. Thomas and is capable of doing it again. That gold medal led to highest ranking ever, 34th, in 2017.
—Article written by USVI Basketball and distributed exclusively to the Virgin Islands Free Press
EDITOR’S NOTE: The United States Virgin Islands athletic teams are known by the abbreviation “ISV” in international athletic competition. USVI Basketball uses the letters “ISV” as its Twitter handle.