Bermuda’s basketball team will be gunning for their fourth straight gold medal at the Island Games next week while missing a few key players from their roster.

The team is coming off a run in the Caribbean Basketball Championships where they came eighth and will make the trip to Jersey without key contributors such as starting point guard Chris Crumpler and rising star Tejour Riley.

Despite the physical toll of last week’s tournament, the players making the trip will be primed for the competition and bolstered by a few more local additions to their numbers.

“The players that are going to both of our competitions are a little banged up, as the CBC competition is a lot more physical than they’re going to see in the Island Games,” Tim Trott, assistant coach and team manager, said.

“But having talked to the captains, despite the shortcomings [at the CBC] everybody’s geared up for this one. We’re defending the medal.

“We’re three-time gold medal winners, and obviously this is an opportunity to go for a fourth, which would be unprecedented. The motivation to win again will instil these guys to come back and compete.”

Among those bolstering the squad will be 14-year-old Rye Ahronson, who will compete as the youngest ever member of the men’s national team in this Island Games.

“It’s a great honour to wear Bermuda across my chest at such a young age,” said the Warwick Academy star, who is getting his first shot with the men’s squad after competing internationally with youth teams.

“There’s going to be pressure on me, because I’m the youngest, but it’s going to be a great time. I’m out here to try my hardest and try to bring the gold back.”

Ahronson expects to come off the bench and focus on giving his team hard defensive minutes, while also stretching the floor as a corner threat on offence.

“There’s a lot that he’s going to be soaking up as far as watching other players, watching his team-mates, talking to his team-mates, and finding his motivation, but when his time comes he’s expected to contribute,” Trott said.

The young shooting guard is playing basketball twelve times a week, including training with Crumpler, as he prepares to add youth to head coach Gavin MacKenzie’s team.

The basketball round will include a total of nine islands, a jump from the last Games where Bermuda defeated Saaremaa, the only other island represented, in a three-game series to take gold.

“We’re going to be the target,” Trott said. “Everybody knows that we’re the number one seed.

“It’s going to be a lot different because some of the players who have been on the Island Games teams aren’t going because they’ve just been to CBC, and obviously with work commitments and prior engagements they’re unable to do both.

“But [captains] Steven Simons, Sullivan Phillips, and Dean Jones are some of our core players. They’re finally getting up there in age, but are still able to contribute and they’re looking forward to the challenge.”