2023/24 Bermuda Basketball Season - Reapers Team Outlook

Hey everyone,

Firstly, Happy Good Friday to all those who celebrate and I hope you enjoy the Easter weekend! As always before we get going, I’d like to welcome any first time readers that are here today and I invite you to subscribe to this newsletter for free below:

This post is a long time coming, and now that plans have been made and everything looks to be in-motion, I wanted to share with you all the upcoming plans for the ABSG Reapers for the 2023/24 basketball season. For those who may not know, the Reapers are a basketball team that we as a company operate and sponsor, and therefore compete in the many leagues that are put on by the Bermuda Basketball League. In our inaugural 2021/22 season we were league champions and in the recent 2022/23 season, we were eliminated in the play-in tournament, so “inconsistent” might be an understatement! There are quite a few articles about the Reapers on the dashboard which you may check out at any time.

The 2022/23 season was fun nonetheless however, and those who followed us throughout the season know we encountered our fair share of setbacks. From injuries, suspensions, and players moving back/traveling abroad, we weren’t able to capture the same consistency and team integration that made us league champions the season before. I think we all enjoyed playing together at the end of the day, and even though we were never top of the standings, we had a couple statement wins and the comradery was always visible.

The Bermuda Basketball Association has confirmed there league per year going forward, as they look to rebuild the sport in Bermuda; one “major” league which takes place from September to March, with playoffs in April, and then one or two “minor” leagues either before, during, or after the “major” league, depending on gym availability. This is to give the BBA the opportunity to push their proposed youth programs in the summer, and re-invigorate the public’s interest in the sport leading up to the beginning of the “major” league and subsequent school leagues. I thought this was a great idea and something that in my opinion, can help make the sport more competitive with more games, and exciting with increased interest from the public.

Only time will tell if the BBA is able to do this effectively, as gym availability, player interest, and general public interest could impact these plans. Hopefully they are at least able to organize a larger league, which will ideally have more teams so there are more games and therefore more buy-in from players. It seems like this summer though, the BBA will be launching Bermuda’s first 3v3 basketball league with the intent to make this part of the sport more common and accessible in Bermuda. I’m not able to share too many of the details here since nothing is official at the moment, but this could be a great move for the BBA and therefore the sport in Bermuda.

If there were to be a 3v3 tournament this summer, I think ABSG would look to sponsor at least two teams, so that way we can keep as much of our normal team together and the guys get some gametime before the start of the actual season in September. If this does become official then I’ll write up a specific post on the league, rules, teams, etc. but for now its fun to speculate on what could be a really cool and fun summer league! This would be great for the Reapers as well, we would be able to have two teams and our guys would get more playing time and keep their fitness up for the major league in September - as best as we can in the summer in Bermuda!

Thanks for checking in this week everyone, I hope you enjoyed this week’s edition of Learning the Venture, and if you are new here today, please feel free to subscribe!

Until next time!

Jason