Titanes want to write their own story in Colombia

It usually happens that an act, fortuitous or not, is the generator of another chain of events, which together create a great story. In the midst of that chronology of circumstances is the basketball of the Colombian city of Barranquilla, wanting to build its own brand-new history. In that chronology the team of Titanes has a leading role.

If Barranquilla can write its story in the present it is because there was a past that planted the seed and that affirmed roots. At the beginning of the 90s Caimanes was the representative of the city, back in the beginning of the professional era of Colombian basketball. The team created by businessman and manager Farid Char was one of the highlights of that decade, achieving titles in 1995, 1997 and 1998 and causing a marked support. Players such as Gustavo Lindo, Luis Carlos Manjarres and Ernesto Fuentes, forward Washington Vargas and guards Antonio Sinclaire and Jimmy Mosquera became idols and reason why the coastal city openly identified with basketball.

However, the decline that this sport showed at a professional level in Colombia at the beginning of the new century extinguishing the fire of that passion, turning it into disinterest, which motivated Caimanes to contest its last tournament in the 2004 Invitational Cup.

14 years without basketball activity until Barranquilla, a city very naturally linked to football by the Club Junior and baseball by the team of Caimanes, was reunited with basketball. "Since a time ago a group of businessmen, lovers of basketball, and the mayor of the city, Alejandro Char, we had the desire to have a team in the city, but we were hit by a big impediment. The old Elías Chegwin stadium was in very bad conditions and without him, there was no possible project, there was nowhere to play," explains the current president of the team, Alberto Caparroso.

However, that triggering event happened. It was the realization of the Central American and Caribbean Games in Barranquilla. The Elias Chegwin Stadium (built in 1946 and whose name is a tribute to a former basketball player from Barranquilla in the 1930s), now has modern facilities for 3,900 spectators. In the tournament the Colombian team won the silver medal, after losing the final against Puerto Rico, and that podium reactivated the city's enthusiasm for the sport. According to the director, "it marked the reunion of the people of Barranquilla with the roots of basketball. That’s when we decided to return to the Professional League. Joined by a group of young businessmen, and with the support of the mayor, which allows us to access the Coliseum, and contributes some sponsorship, we decided to develop a project that unites the sports with the commercial, something that the interest of the public and the structure of the Chegwin Coliseum allow us.”

The selection of the name of the Barranquilla team was a separate chapter. Initially it was thought to recover the one of Caimanes, that was during many years the sign of identification, shared by the local equipment of baseball, of the same name. However, the denomination belongs to the Char family and the death of Farid, in June of 2017, did not make things easier. This, in addition to the intention of separating the basketball team from the baseball, resulted in him being baptized as Titanes, also seeking to favor commercial issues.

After approving the entrance of the team to the Professional League, negotiating the place with Cóndores de Cundinamarca, the margin of time until the start of the tournament was scarce. The leadership opted for coach Tomás Díaz, the coach of the National Team. The team selected players with confidence in the coach, like Eduardo Torres, Héctor Díaz, Luis Blandón and Jesus Medina, more some young people like Soren De Luque. The trio of foreigners had a touch of unexpected quality, with the arrival of the point guard Xavier Roberson, the Most Valuable Player of the Final. "We put together the team with what we could, for example, we did not find tall players, that's why we made a perimeter game, but we formed an applied squad and each one understood their role, we did not aim to be champions, but we found the chance in the way," commented the coach.

The initial objectives were to compete, but with the idea of asserting themselves in the professional tournament. However, the positive facts began to be linked. The performance of the team grew, and the triumphs began to arrive, ending in the national title, when winning in the final against Warriors de San Andrés 3-2, winning the decisive match on the island.

According to Caparroso, "achieving the championship with the Titanes exceeded our expectations, we obtained positive results faster than expected and forced us to advance the times. We got more fans on the stadium, more revenue and more media exposure. In turn, our desire was to reach international competitions in a while and now we are competing with chances in the Liga de las Americas, something we did not expect for this season. However, it is a challenge that we assume with enthusiasm and responsibility, for the importance of the tournament."

For coach Diaz the greatest achievement of the team was that "Titanes had a social impact in the city, because it woke up a hobby that was asleep for several years, causing the fans to return to the public arena for basketball. The people of Barranquilla found another recreation alternative in basketball: the Titanes generated a hobby of their own and made the city turn to the team, proving that it is an excellent place for Colombia."

With a national title in record time and the immediate international debut in the Liga de las Americas, everything seems to be vertiginous for Titanes de Barranquilla. "Being in the continent's main continental club tournament is a prize that we should take advantage of by taking experiences, we must learn from this participation, in order to continue having an international presence", Diaz makes clear in the sporting aspect.

The salutary thing would be that the general project of Titanes does not remain, hardly, in a sportive conquest in the professional field. President Caparroso himself is responsible for explaining the immediate future: "Our plan is for the long term, and for that we have sports, finance, press and marketing departments, and in the third year we are looking for self-sustainability. We plan to open commercial stores of sports products, offer training courses and create a training center, it does not help that the Professional League of Colombia is so short, we have to extend it for a few months. In the meantime, to counteract the inactivity, we will generate international tournaments with neighboring countries, such as Venezuela, Panama, the Dominican Republic or Puerto Rico. We arrived at basketball to stay for many years and participate in all possible international tournaments. "

Many events connected in a very short time are building the story of Titanes de Barranquilla in basketball. The expectations that have already generated open the mystery to know how many chapters this story will feed.

FIBA