PSC FALCONS SOARING IN 2023

Part I of the article presented some background on the PSC Falcons teams, the overall performance of those teams during the 2023 basketball season, and the membership of the senior PSC Falcons. The article concludes below.

GLITTERING SILVERWARE & OTHER ACCOLADES: Collectively, representatives and players from the two PSC Falcons teams stepped onto the awards podium several times during the 2023 awards ceremony and brought home to Pichelin the following awards, prizes and accolades:

PSC Falcons DI:- **Division I Regular League Champions (Zone B)

**Top scorer in Division I Regular League: Yawani Régis (114 Pts in 4 matches)

**Highest player score in a Division I match: 43 Pts, by Yawani Régis

**Most Promising Players in Division I: Yawani Régis and Zack Bastien (2 of the ten selectees from that Division); both players also play on the Premier Division team.

It should also be noted firstly that PSC Falcons DI was knocked out of the Division I National Play-offs by 767 Dominators/Young Ballers. Furthermore, both Yawani and Zack were members of Team Dominica, which won the Basketball segment of the 2023 Windward Islands Schools Games.

PSC Falcons (Premier Division team):- **Pre-Season Knockout Champions, 2023: PSC Falcons (won championship trophy and $500)

**Premier Division National Play-off Champions: PSC Falcons (won championship trophy, a set of medals, a set of printed champions T-shirts and a $3,000 cash prize)

**Premier Division Regular League championship (from 8 teams)

**Lead scorer in Premier Division Regular League: Kijuan Thomas (190 pts in 7 games, @ 27.14 Pts/game)

**Most Valuable Player (MVP) of Premier Division in 2023 Premier League: Kijuan Thomas (PSC Falcons)

**Coach of the Year in Premier Division: Levi Baron (PSC Falcons)

FALCONS' PLAYERS & COACHES ON DABA ALL-STAR TEAMS: Following the completion of the 2023 season, the Dominica Amateur Basketball Association selected two All-Star teams, Team Yellow and Team Red, respectively. Six (6) players from PSC Falcons, Zack Bastien, Ramal Carbon, Keifer Francis, Yawani Régis, Peter Ricketts and Kijuan Thomas, got selected to those All-Star teams, which were coached by none other than Levi Baron and Yannick Régis, coach and captain respectively of the PSC Falcons Premier team.

SURMOUNTING CHALLENGES: Yannick Régis, who also serves as Vice-President of the Dominica Amateur Basketball Association in his role as captain of PSC Falcons (Premier) notes that the DABA 2023 come-back season was somewhat challenging for his team, having been faced with injuries, coupled with suspensions as a result of an incident which occurred during a match, and even a player walking off the team's final play-off encounter. However, in the other scale pan and with a big smile across his bearded face, he affirmed that despite those setbacks, the team is a resilient bunch that played with much determination and went on to capture the national play-off championship.

PSC Falcons was not only the first team to win a Premier Division championship in Dominica's first indoor sports facility – which was commissioned in 2022, but the team captured the first national Premier Division play-off championship since the Hurricane Maria/COVID-19 onslaught on Dominica and local basketball.

FOR INFORMATION: It should be noted that part of the story of Pichelin's two Falcons teams was presented in Jump Ball article #39, "Pichelin's Basketball Culture", which was published in The Sun newspaper in December 2018/January 2019.

Additionally, regarding modern-day 'Falconites' and basketballers in general, many may not be aware that a Falcons team participated in the national basketball league 44 years before 2012. In the early days of our Island/State League, a Roseau-based team named Falcons first took to the court in the then single-division league in 1968. The following year (1969), they were assigned to the then newly introduced Junior Division (a.k.a. Division II) and they 'performed the double' that year, capturing both league and knockout championships and becoming the first Junior Division champions. They then returned to the senior Division (Division I) in 1970 before flapping out of existence.

REMARKS: Jump Ball, which is 'coming out of retirement' briefly, wishes to sincerely thank PSC Falcons (Premier) captain and hard-working Yannick Régis for his invaluable contribution towards preparing this article. Jump Ball also takes this opportunity to CONGRATULATE the two Falcons teams and the Pichelin Sports Club for once again making their village proud.

We also wish both teams all the best and look forward to the PSC continuing to consolidate its enviable position in making Pichelin the modern-day epicentre of basketball not only in the south of Dominica but in the entire country. Way to go, guys!

Photo by Carlton Morvan/DABA Facebook Page.