By: Charleston Gladden
An excellent start to the 2019 NEBL season with a 5 – 1 record that can motivate everyone who’s playing on that team, but no one is more than determined than other than All Star point guard Edgar Mitchell. In his 5th NEBL season, Mitchell has already led the league twice in assists in 2017 and 2018 and is a part of the 2017 Belmopan Bandits Championship team. However, Mitchell isn’t satisfied as yet until a championship is brought to the Dream Ballers franchise. Few weeks ago, Mitchell was a proud member of Belize’s National Team that played in the FIBA Pre-Qualifiers.
This is what Mitchell had to say about being a part of the National Team, “First of all, would like to thank the BBF for giving me the opportunity to represent my country. The experience was electric. Just to be with a great group of guys and sporting the Belizean colors was an encounter like no other.” However playing when on the international stage naturally a bit of fear and anxiety kicks in whether it was the unnatural number of fans sitting or was it something else, and this is what Mitchell had to say on the matter, “Definitely. Not because of the crowd but because of the magnitude of the game. I mean none of us wanted to let our country down by losing any of the games. But as soon as I started sweating and having a feel for the international level of play, it was all basketball.”
After speaking about the FIBA tournament, we switched and spoke on the ongoing NEBL season. Mitchell commented on losing their first game and how they’re able to bounce back and become the premier team in the league, “The first game of the season was kind of tough for us because we had couple new players coming in. Jamal [Kelly] and Delvon [Henderson] and we lost Buddy [Daniel Nolberto] and Brandon Flowers. So we were kind uptight because nobody wanted to step on each other’s toe. But knowing the type of player I am as well as DC [Daniel Conorque], we don’t care about numbers or any of that, all we want to do is win. So that mentality was voiced to everyone following our loss to the Hurricanes. From there on, we played very loosely/freely and it has been working for us.” Mitchell had this to say about his new teammate, Jamal Kelly’s performance over the course of the season. “Most Definitely. Jamal is fierce and brought his winning ways from the sharks with him. Comes to practice every day and works hard, which translates to his on court performance.” To conclude our short talk, we spoke about what it means to bring a championship to Dream Ballers and to the Griga Community? And this is what Mitchell had to say about such, “That is the only goal. Everything else doesn’t matter. Individual accolades, the hype around the regular season etc… Doesn’t matter. The mind set and goal is the bringing a chip down South to Griga. Being the captain of the team my job is to keep guys focused and hungry! I believe that if we remain focused and hungry, everything will fall into place.”
Currently Dream Ballers are standing at the number one spot going, and currently on a five game winning streak. They’ll be hosting the Belize City Defenders at home this Saturday. Will their win streak continue or will it break at home?