Adonis Navarro: ''It's the rebirth of basketball in Guatemala''

GUATEMALA - After a process that lasted a little over four months, the Guatemala National Basketball Federation (FNBG, for its Spanish acronym) presented the 15 athletes that will build the U-16 Women’s national team's shortlist. Now, the last cuts must be made to define the team that will represent the country that will host the 2019 U-16 Central American Championships.

“Being a host (country) is always advantageous. The public are a fundamental factor that inspires and collaborates with the team work. For us it’s the rebirth of basketball in Guatemala; we're welcoming a tournament of this quality and breath in our country,” said Cuban coach Adonis Navarro regarding the importance of hosting this tournament.

Contextualizing a bit, the coach took the reins of the women's adult national team to after Spanish coach José Luis Dámaso. The first thing he did when the Cuban took charge was to study the athletes’ physical condition and to start to work on their weaknesses.

“We diagnosed where they were from a tactical, technical, psychological and theorical point of view, and we planned a process from the weaknesses and strengths of the players. The Cuban school is always identified around the world by how we prepare physically. We saw there were weaknesses there and we've tried to develop that part,” Navarro stated at the time.

From there, the senior women’s team recovered the Central American scepter in Managua 2017, after eleven years of absence from the Olympic cycle.

Now, as the U-16 coach, he must decide the 12 players that will go for a new feat. This technical team demonstrates that the most important thing is to have achieved so many players for the national team. Now, they will be able to see the results of their months-long work when the tournament starts on March 25, with a duration of four days.

 
“The U-16 shortlist began with 24 players chosen from all of the nation's regions, then we cut four players and we were left with 20, and now we have 16. This was the result of weekend concentrations — Friday, Saturdays and Sundays —where they came from different parts and where we focused on the results, we achieved in the U-14 tournament in El Salvador. We tried to improve on the mistakes that we made there.”

The Championship will feature the national teams of Costa Rica, El Salvador, Honduras and Panama, who will be welcomed by hosts Guatemala. The best two teams will qualify to the 2019 U17 Centrobasket.

“Our team is characterized by their fast and team game, where we try to diminish some deficiencies we portray in the inside game,” the coach added.

“Being at home we're calmer and with our preparation toward acquiring an athletic character, so that when the tournament comes, we may try to be among the two best and get our qualification to the 2019 Centrobasket.”

This is one of the dreams today of the FNBG, in which they focus on the youth national teams both for men and women and working as Adonis Navarro does along his technical team formed by Jason Pennant, Augusto Urrutia, Luis Rodríguez and Luis Rojas. They all contribute their day to day knowledge to bolster the growth of Guatemalan basketball and so this group of young female players reach their own glory, or they at least try to do so.

 
FIBA