Bath Estate's Wolverines

Part I of this article presented on Wolverines II and III, as well as on Bath Estate's basketball facility. The article concludes below.

Enter Adult Wolverines: Bath Estate's third basketball team, Wolverines I, debuted in the national league in 1990, the third year of the participation of the community in competitive basketball. The team competed in Division I for eight consecutive seasons, then scurried away at the end of the 1997 basketball season.

Wolverines I entered DABA's League together with another rookie, Hoyas I from Pottersville. That year the boys from Bath Estate completed the league competition with a 4-5 Win-Loss record, with victories over Pros, Flames, Owls and Lions. They were reasonably competitive because four of their five defeats suffered that year (to Harks, Clouds, Killer Bees and Hoyas) were by relatively small margins of between 5 and 12 Points. However, they were subjected to 'baptism by fire' by Cardinals who blew them out, 95-63!

In their first Knockout competition, they defeated Lions and Hoyas I, but were again defeated by Cardinals, 89-67.

1991 was Wolverines' best season. Besides capturing the Ball-o-Rama title at the season-opener, according to The Chronicle of 4th September 1991 they "fought the odds to win the 1991 DABA Knock-out Basketball Competition…" Wolverines emphatically knocked out defending1990 Knockout champs Cardinals, restricting them to under 50 points (71-47), then denied Harks yet another championship when those two teams met in the finals, comfortably winning 69-60! Harks, Cardinals and Raiders, who had all brushed Wolverines aside in the League felt the true force of Wolverines' bite in that Knockout competition.

Wolverines had ended the 1991 League with a 4-6 Win-Loss record, with victories over Lions, Clouds, Flames and Owls, scoring an aggregate of 738 points to 768 against.

1992 was not a very good year for Wolverines. Although early in the season they were described as the team "with the tightest defence on show" (The New Chronicle 18Mar92), on three subsequent occasions the same newspaper described them as "struggling". They ended the League with 2 Wins, 8 Loses, scored an aggregate of 696 pts and conceded 760. Interestingly, their two victories in the League were blow-outs, and by near identical scores: 83-60 vs Police and 83-63 vs Raiders.

Wolverines, however, were able to bring home one piece of silverware that year, viz. the President's Trophy, for winning the 1992 Ball-o-rama championship.

Wolverines' Final Year: Wolverines I last competed in 1997, and that year ten (10) teams participated in the Premier Division League. However, from their four available match scores they had lost to Marigot Sonics 54-69 but enjoyed sweet victories against Venoms, Tigers (65-63) and Hoyas (74-58) before vanishing.

Calling The Plays: Two individuals served as coach of the Wolverines I. First, Carlton Bernard held the clipboard even as a player, and he was succeeded by Lindon "Morals" Graham.

Wolverines' Championships: Between the three Bath Estate teams only Wolverines I managed to bring home silverware. As noted above, in 1991 they won both the Ball-o-rama and Knockout Championships, and then hoisted the Ball-o-rama trophy in 1992.

Getting Wolverines' Baskets: Some of the Wolverines I players who led the team's scoring over the years include Carlton Bernard, Cornel Bethel, M. Elie, Brian Francis, Anthony Green, Carlisle Green, Erskin Hypolite, Mervin Jno. Baptiste, Kevin John, Kenneth Johnson and Davis Joseph.

Also contributing were Danny Joseph, Jeffrey Joseph, Ivon Languedoc, Kervin Linton, Phillip McDougal, Tyrone Payne, Peter Pemberton, Ivor Peter, Peter Seraphine, Michael Younis and others.

Wolverines' Opponents: During the eight seasons of Wolverines I's existence, they enjoyed victories and suffered defeats against 16 teams collectively. They met Blazers, Cardinals, Clouds, Flames, Harks, Hoyas, Killer Bees, Knicks, Lions, Marigot Sonics, Owls, Police, Pros, Rebels, Tigers and Venoms.

Wolverines Players Representing Dominica: Four members of Wolverines, viz. Carlton Bernard (deceased), Carlisle Green, Kevin John and Jeffrey Joseph proudly represented Dominica on the national basketball team.

Wolverines in Fund-Raiser And Other League: In 1991 Wolverines participated in a fund-raising Top Four Basketball Championship organized by Cardinals for the Marinor High Tech Trophy. In that competition Wolverines defeated Killer Bees by the slimmest of margins (76-75), but lost to Hoyas 47-66 and Cardinals 67-85.

Six years later they participated in the 1997 Trafon (Roseau Valley) Basketball League at Trafalgar, and did their community proud.

Wolverines' Sponsors: Two of the Wolverines teams were sponsored by A.C. Shillingford & Co.: Wolverines I for the duration of their existence (1990 to 1997) and Wolverines II for their final appearance (1997-98).

Remarks: Jump Ball wishes all the retired players from the three Wolverines teams the best in their endeavours. Statistical information sourced mainly from archived newspapers. Special Thanks to Lindon Graham and Yannick Bethel.