The vision Wanda Bodden said that God placed in her three years ago never left.

“I worked on this since 2016,” she said. “If you have a dream, don’t stop.”

Bodden, a local pastor who organizes the “Bringing Back the Glory” basketball tournament every spring break in Port Arthur, said a basketball event bringing together Port Arthur’s and the Grand Cayman Islands’ teen athletes is a go for July 17-22 in the British territory south of Cuba.

Collin Anglin, the islands’ director of sports, bought into Bodden’s vision.

“The goal has number of different elements to it. One is exposure to great competition and creating an overall great experience for the kids in terms of seeing different parts of the world for them to interact and experience different cultures while playing basketball as a vehicle,” he said.

The event, which is yet to be named, calls for both Port Arthur and the Caymans to each field two basketball teams — one boys and one girls — to compete in a series of games this year. Anglin said the plan is add track and field, boxing and soccer in future years and return the event to Port Arthur for 2020.

“Hopefully, it’s not a one-time thing,” said Ahmaal Bodden, Wanda’s son and Port Arthur police officer who will serve as sports coordinator for the festival.

Anglin’s visit to Port Arthur for Saturday’s introduction of the festival at the Museum of the Gulf Coast is a sign of both the city and the territory reviving “sister cities” relations first established in 1983.

(Bodden’s husband is of Cayman descent.) The meet-and-greet included youth basketball players and boxers, Southeast Texas coaches and Port Arthur city officials in attendance with the ongoing exhibit of high school sports history as the backdrop.

For the youths, it’s an opportunity to see the world away from home.

“A lot of these kids [in Port Arthur], the most global to them is Houston,” Bodden said. “Some have been to Vegas. I want these kids to be exposed on a global level.”

Anglin said his job as the Caymans’ sports director is to facilitate and support every organization his territory has. He boasted the Caymans’ Olympic representation in track and field and swimming and medals in international sailing and cycling competitions.

The upcoming sports festival involving Port Arthur athletes comes at a time when the Caymans, a territory with an estimated population north of 59,000, will have a fourth gymnasium built. The country also has been a destination for a major-college basketball tournament the past two years.

“We’re continuing to grow as a tourist destination,” Anglin said. “We’re looking for them to experience the islands, feel the water rushing to their feet and walk the sands.”

The dates for the festival make up most of the NCAA’s dead period in basketball recruiting. Players can take time from their summer traveling teams to compete in the Caymans, but without the college coaches present, Ahmaal Bodden stressed the importance of capturing video to send to recruiters.

As organizers plan to see the festival grow, so is their hope that the young athletes come away with an improved worldview.

“Nelson Mandela said that sports has the power to change the world,” Anglin said. “It has the power to change things in ways that little else does. When you can help children see other parts of the world, they don’t unchange that.”
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I.C. Murrell: 721-2435. Twitter: @ICMurrellPANews