Guatemala's National Development Categories League will make basketball history

GUATEMALA CITY (Guatemala) – The nation is territorially organized in 22 departments, and for the Guatemala National Basketball Federation (FNBG, for its Spanish acronym) it's paramount that basketball isn’t limited to the capital city and is spread in all these areas. Because development is one of the fundamental pillars of the Federation, since 2017 they've been working on developing boys and girls through their National Development Categories League, taking place throughout the nation in home and away games.

With an average of 2,112 athletes, more than 114 coaches and 111 accredited referees in 2019 by the Federation to work in these competitive circuits. This is the third year in a row in which Guatemala is participating in this historic competition, where the formative U12, U14, U16 and U18 categories, for both sexes and in the 22 regions of the nation, are playing more than 85 federative games per event, following the home-away games format in four different regional groups. The whole country is participating.

“This National Formative League is of a primary importance to our Federation. We're confident in the processes of the children and we believe that this competition is essential to build a strengthened national team and being able to participate in a meaningful way in international tournaments,” stated to FIBA.basketball FNBG President Estuardo Arriola, who was elected in September 2018.

The FNBG has four pillars upon which it’s focused and works day to day to develop basketball in the Central American nation.

“There’s a formative basketball school in each one of the 22 departments in the country. There are also training sessions for coaches, referees and members of the department associations, to contribute to a constant improvement and have better national teams, and (also) of course, our tournaments,” added the President.

 
There are already four events being played since the beginning of the National League of Development Categories. “We're working with the U14 national league, which will participate in the September Central American Games in Nicaragua. 80% of the players that are part of the national team are athletes from the departments, and 20% come from the capital. This gives us a standing point to evaluate how significant it is to organize this competition in which everyone can participate,” assured Arriola.

For his part, Dennys Ordóñez, FNBG Communications Director since 2013, said through the Federation: “We're sure that investing our strengths in a competitive tournament in these categories, in a massive way, will result in a technical improvement that will be evidenced very soon in a better basketball by our adult categories.”

The National League debuted in the Federation’s calendar in 2017. This is the third consecutive year it has taken place. The first teams of each one of the four groups per category and sex qualify to the Final Four format finals.

U12 will have their Final Four from September 6 to 8, U14 on the 24 to 26, U16 from October 10 to 12 and, finally, U18 from November 14 to 16. The four finals will be played in Guatemala City, since they've always taken place in other participating departments.

Estuardo Arriola, born in the Chimaltenango department, was a coach and has been a part of the processes of the development categories, the senior league and the U23. He's also coached the U14, U15 and U16 national teams and the senior national team.

“For me it's very significant to head the Federation because I firsthand now the needs of athletes, coaches and department associations. My idea is to be able to bring basketball closer to all territories, which are the ones that generate a greater sports activity. We want to see how we can support them toward a better athletic development. It's important to prepare coaches and try to decentralize everything that happens in the capital city. I need for everyone to understand that what happens in the capital must happen in the departments, and that that's how we're going to take the quality leap we need,” said Arriola.

 
Guatemala was chosen in 2019 as hosts for the U16 Central American Championships and achieved the Gold Medal in the women’s category and were fourth in the men’s. Through their daily work, the FNBG intends to continue with their motto “We aim for more” and keep hosting international tournaments, as well as working and making a commitment to participate in other competitions and play a good role.

 

FIBA