FRIDAY night’s Yorkshire Guernsey Division Two knockout match between Manzur and Goldridge Estate Agents had something of an international feel to it. Manzur had in their ranks Latvian Aivars Pilmanis while Goldridge had Shekouba Sesay from Sierra Leone.
But there was no doubt that Sesay was the star at Beau Sejour.
He hit 32 points to see his team win 73-44.
The 31-year-old arrived in the island in the summer and he works as a compliance officer at Nerine Trust.
He got involved with Goldridge when his work colleague and director of basketball at the team, Robin Smith, asked him to join.
‘This has been a bonus,’ said Sesay.
‘It’s been the icing on the cake.’
Sesay left troubled Sierra Leone 12 years ago.
The west African country was in the grip of a decade of civil war that saw more than 50,000 people killed and many more mutilated by rebels and government militia.
Sesay learnt to play basketball in his home country.
‘There’s a lot of basketball over there, but obviously with all the problems, it’s not a priority,’ he said.
‘When I go over there on holiday, I spend most of my time on the court.’
After moving to London, he went to Brighton where he studied law at the University of Sussex.
While on the south coast, he turned out for Portslade Pirates and Mid-Sussex Magic before going to British Basketball League franchise Worthing Bears.
But his studies forced him to retire from competitive basketball at the age of 27, although he did continue to train regularly with Worthing.
Last August saw him move to Guernsey with his partner, Georgia Le Page, and their four-month-old daughter, Malaika.
However, he never intended to get back into basketball after he got here.
‘It’s something that I’ve always been passionate about, but when I came to Guernsey I didn’t realise there was basketball,’ he said.
This season has been the first time for four years that he has played regular competitive basketball.
But he is clearly not rusty.
In nine matches the small forward has notched up 278 points with an average per game that is close to 31.
Left-handed and powerful, Sesay is a threat in attack and is certainly too good for the second division.
But he has ruled out leaving Goldridge to join a Division One team saying that it is his intention to take them up.
‘I don’t want to move to any other team,’ he said.
‘We’ve got a good enough side for Division Two and for Division One. We’ve got some quality players and I think we’d survive and put on a good show.’
There have been calls for the island coach, Jeff Stuart, to include Sesay in his plans.
‘No one has approached me - the coach hasn’t,’ said Sesay.
‘If I’m invited to try out, I’ll go. I’m now a Guernsey boy.’
Whereas Sesay is waiting to pull on a Guernsey vest, Pilmanis has already done so for the under-21s.
Friday night was the 19-year-old’s debut for Manzur but he has featured in the first division for the Island U-21s.
Originally from Riga, Pilmanis can do a job at power or small forward.
He spent two years at a basketball school.
Pilmanis recently arrived in the island to work as a builder.
He enjoyed his run-out on Friday night but he feels he could have done better.
‘It was quite good, but I will be better next game,’ he said.
‘I was frustrated about my game. I’ve been doing better.’
Like Sesay, he has his sights on the top league.
‘Next year I’ll be in Division One,’ he said.
The new president of the Guernsey Basketball Association, Pete Beausire, is glad to see Sesay and Pilmanis doing so well.
He hopes that more imports will get involved in the sport and he encourages people new to the island who play basketball to get in touch with the GBA.
‘From our point of view, foreign players have raised the standard of the local game,’ he said.
‘They push our better players to raise their game and they bring a new spirit to the game.’
For more information, see www.guernseybasketball.com.
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