About VVRBC

Gary Tim - compiled from an interview with founder Linden ‘Sancho’ Alphonso

The word royal has been described in dictionaries as: majestic, imperial and in the ‘rank of commanding a kingdom’. Similarly, the words victory and valley are termed as ‘triumph in a contest’, and ‘a gorge or basin-like land lying low between hills or mountains’. These descriptions all aptly illustrate the thought behind the birth and existence of the Victory Valley Royals Basketball Club in the town of Linden, Guyana.

The name Royals was astutely selected by Linden ‘Sancho’ Alphonso – the club’s founder and first coach, as a sort of moniker for where the club expects its status-quo in the ‘dribble and shoot’ game. The prefixes to Royals were inescapable titles, since the club’s roots are firmly planted in a ward of the same name on the western shore of Linden.

Alphonso fancied setting up the club in his environment, because he was playing for and coaching one of Royals’ eventual nemeses, the Wismar Pistons, based in another area of the town – Christianburg – some two kilometers away from his home. In time, he motivated some ‘youngsters’ ranging in ages 10 to 16 years from his ward to channel their energy and time into active sports participation, and through his association within the Pistons organization, he got some of them to join the teams. “Once an opportunity presented itself to get somewhere to play, we grabbed it,” is how Alphonso puts it.

In a few months, a team of youths was trekking along the shabby roadways and beaten alleyways accompanying their mentor to promote their ‘balling’ craft at the Pistons’ habitat. Sensing this Alphonso again challenged his young kith and kin. “Become independent.” This meant getting better organized, establishing playing team(s), creating independent facilities, participating in sanctioned competitions and mobilizing community outreach support. In essence, it was a dare to form a club.


Coach (l.) and players of an early Royals team pose after a Division III game.

At that time ‘The Valley’, as the ward is popularly known, was Linden’s carbon copy of Tiger Bay in Georgetown (Guyana’s capital), and Bushwick in New York’s Brooklyn borough; a community shaped by society wrath’s on the economically challenged and socially subjugated. Indeed, it was daunting, and Alphonso knew the odds were stacked-up against creating a club to rise to any level of respectability from such a depressive milieu. His salvo towards establishing the club was to find an avenue for the youths to express themselves more beneficially, and to get residents’ support so that their involvement would be the perfect pivot around which the area’s label would take an about turn. The Valley had already produced an impressive line of high-achieving sports persons, including world-rated boxer Terrence Alli, national light-heavyweight champion pugilist Conrad Wilson and national junior cricketers Anthony Rigby and Eon Duncan.

After a literal house-to-house campaign that would have rivaled any census exercise or ‘mailman’ delivery duties, Alphonso and his band of young players’ got the residents’ full compliments on their intentions. They received advice and pledges of aid to set up the ‘necessities’ for the club and playing facilities. Also, there was unending interest to be ‘part of the club’ through positions ranging from player to administrator to care-taker.

It was 1994, and the impulsion was created. With the help of some residents, the players swooped in on a frail, abandoned house in the area, and almost totally demolished the structure. In tongue-in-cheek comments, Alphonso recalled the enthusiasm displayed in the demolition, saying “not only we (the players) wanted to get the spot, but you know in those days what ‘free’ wood, zinc and other building materials were like to people in the Valley.” However, the base (floor) of the house – a solid concrete platform – was retained and made into a miniature ‘half’ court after some sprucing. Additionally, some materials from the house were recycled for other structures, including a novel backboard which was supplemented by home-made ring fabricated by a craftsman from the area.

“These (facilities) weren’t standard, but they were goods for our launch,” according to Alphonso, who was the only person in the area at the time knowing the rudiments of the organized game. He tasked himself with sharing that knowledge, and diligently went about expounding the essentials.

More and more youths in the area with an array of indulgences ranging from idleness or ‘liming’ to more demanding pursuits, started to pop up to the Valley’s new ‘happening’. “Some were even behind football (soccer) and other recreation, but they saw this as a chance to stay and play a sport in the area, and interact in front of their families and neighbors.

Early in 1996, the club registered with the Linden Amateur Basketball Association (LABA) – the area’s affiliate of the national governing federation. Soon after, the Royals’ first contest came in an LABA-sponsored Division III tourney in March at which they coveted the runner-up spoils.

Leading up to the final, the rookie club won all of its games unchallenged, literally. In the championship game against the reigning 76ers, Royals plainly lost on the buzzer when one of their rivals’ clutch players was fouled attempting a late shot. Both free throws were made, and the result nipped the Royals’ glory run at a narrow 59-58 defeat.

Before that game, Alphonso had meted out a disciplinary move by nudging two of the Royals’ star players from the final for their failure to attend scheduled practice. At the time the decision had more support and praise than bile from other club members. Though, in hindsight some furiously railed against the move. In Alphonso’s view he never regretted the experience for “that was what set the tone for the ball club and its successes through the years.”

Though he was still active with capacity to competitively ‘wheel and deal’, Alphonso never donned the Royals colors. “And, guess why?” he poses. “I was 31 years old, and average age of the team was about 18,” Alphonso adds, declaring “the players were collectively saying ‘Sancho, you’re too old for this team’.”


Tourney sponsor Dereck Alphonso (l) with Royals’ Und-15 champs and fans.

For the first two years of its existence, Alphonso singularly managed the club like a paternal single parent, until he turned to his brother, at first, for help. As a known, trendy personality in the area, Dereck’s inclusion in its officialdom was seen as a fillip to promote the club. Then the club began absorbing more figures at the level of administrators, including a hefty batch of women. Alphonso felt that the foray by the fairer sex into the club was going to pay dividends. “Given the customs of our community, the kids, especially boys at these ages, were more likely to listen to the womenfolk.”

These were fresh initiatives that became a crowd-puller for the club. People were encouraged to come out and watch games. Viewership went up by amazing numbers in the entire town, partly due to the new features adopted by the club, as well as the fact that there was increased coverage of local and international games, especially on television. “One time at an LABA meeting it was suggested that if the body wanted to raise funds, ‘let’s promote a Royals game’,” Alphonso chides.

U-17 tourney sponsor, Prime Minister Sam Hinds and the champions in ‘97

Recognizing its potential in 1996, the club moved to Division II, and garnered another runner-up crown. Then it was onto the Division I stage. During this span, Royals were also successful in acquiring sponsorship to stage championships for junior players at Under-15 and Under-17 levels. These were first time occurrences for the basketball scenario.

Alphonso was the 1st vice-President of LABA at the time and, he pooled his influence with others’ to persuade Prime Minster Sam Hinds to sponsor the U-17 tourney, while his brother who was now the club manager funded the competition for the younger ‘ballers’. Predictably, the Royals’ juniors won all four contests held in the two years.

Those championships brought more young players, including several from outside the Valley, onto the Royals’ register. The prime condition the club highlighted in absorbing these new players was for them to be ‘green’ with little or no experience. This requirement, Alphonso notes, “was to ensure they work our way – the Royals’ way.”

The players with their new brood went at it sustaining the club’s merits. Training sessions continued at their Victory Valley facility, though they would regularly visit the Pistons court in Christianburg to get full court exposure, especially leading up to tourneys. And, in that same year of the promotion to the top plane, Royals won their first Division I tourney. Ironically, it was the Pistons team that they defeated to win their first senior championship. The club’s meteoric rise continued with two more elite titles in 2000. A year earlier, Alphonso had migrated to the USA to take up permanent residence. His deputy Kester Jeffrey took up the duties of being the club’s head coach.

Around this time, the club began experiencing a dilemma. On one front, players were maturing, and there was increasing need for them to seek gainful employment. Their average age was tagged at 22 years. And, like many sports in Guyana, basketball is rooted at the amateur level, and cannot suffice as a pursuit for financial gains. Consequently, older members diluted their time with the club to concentrate on work duties. For many the changes were major since they ventured to highly demanding jobs that took them away from home for prolonged periods. “Actually, the ‘bush’ (gold mining and related activities) was big at that time, and a lot of guys were lured into that kind of economic industry,” Alphonso offers.

 Royals and some fans celebrate their first Division I championship crown.

Secondly, the rumor mill exploded onto the club’s psyche with the scuttlebutt pointing that the club was heading into a state of disarray and dissolution. This distracted the club’s interest towards recreating its image. Alphonso had said, “it could have been the green-eyed monster or some other force at work to diminish our profile, but we realized that is a norm in society and we fought to overcome it.”

With momentum and appeal back on their side, the Royals renovated their ‘home’ court and its surroundings with plugs from residents including Alphonso, who visited and contributed 30 sacks of cement to the community effort. Added to that, Guyana’s President, Bharat Jagdeo delivered on a promise to assist the club and residents with a mini-playfield and court. This was after the head of state had commit to construct the facilities during one of his high-level community awareness tours to the town. The court was built in the adjoining Silvercity ward.

With the club back in the forefront, the Valley, once ‘an enclave of boisterousness’, was now getting a flag-bearer to improve its status quo. At times, the club had to ‘cut its nose’, but still came out unspoiled with a smiling face. It was no surprise when Royals with its abundance of young and disciplined exuberance was selected from among dozens of clubs to be the opponents for the National Under-19 squad during its training for international engagements.

In a few years, the Victory Valley Royals Basketball Club is revered as the most organized and disciplined club in Guyana’s basketball fraternity. It has molded the talents of the youths in its area, and coupled that with personal self-development quests. Already having an enviable early history, it boasts of having the only coach (Alphonso) to take the national women’s team to a Caricom Basketball Championship crown. Now, the club is known for another major accomplishment – organizing and conducting of the annual Linden Senior Schools Basketball Championships that coincides with the Linden Town Week.

It is felt, especially in sports, that the character of a team is often a determinant of its name. Hence, in chronicling the club’s early years it is fitting to simply say: “Victory Valley Royals is the epitome of a club, once surrounded by giants, rising from a low position to reach a classification of majesty through triumphant results on and off the court.” Undoubtedly, the Royals face the future with burning desires to command the basketball kingdom.