What if there was no crossroads? When adolescence arrives, four out of five girls stop playing basketball (or any team sport). It was detected by the Basket Girlz project, promoted by Endesa and the FEB, with the study carried out by the former international base and psychologist of leading elite athletes Mar Rovira. An abandonment that does not occur to the same extent in boys. Another gap. The majority cause they cited, with almost 60%, was what the research defined as “time management.” Translated: the difficulty in combining studies with training or matches. So, the question is repeated: What if that crossroads did not exist? What if sports were the ideal complement to high school?
It is the example that the Estudiantes players proclaim Adriana Ruiz, captain; María Teresa Ntutumu and Sandra Carrera, three champions of the MiniCopa Endesa 2024, the children’s version of the Queen’s Cup held a few weeks ago in Huelva.
On the parquet, those of the Is your They were annihilating rivals, in theory favorites, with the vigor of their effort, with the energy they overflowed and the solidarity with which they helped their teammates in all their situations. If one walked towards the bench with her head down, the others encouraged her. Although the scoreboard painted a difficult picture, the smiles did not disappear from his face. A united group. In them, the values that psychologists and experts attribute to learning through sport (teamwork, decisions made for the common good, temperance, ease of relating…) are a palpable, indisputable fact. And, furthermore, all three get great grades.
—How is it done?
“Sport teaches you to be more organized,” the three respond, sitting on one of the fields at the Ramiro de Maeztu school in Madrid, in a stolen little moment, between warming up in the gym and the team’s tactical training.
—Furthermore, with the subjects it happens like with basketball: you dedicate more time to what costs you the most, so you end up doing it better and getting a kick out of it —adds Ntutumu, from Mostolá who gets up every day at six-thirty in the morning. tomorrow to review and that, after school, she goes straight to training and doesn’t get home until almost dinner time.
The routine of the three, who have been together for three seasons, is similar: get up early, take advantage of the afternoons without training to study – or the dead moments, such as trips by subway or car -, get the most out of classes and rest well. The mind responds better when the legs move, it is clearer. And none of them see their demanding daily lives as a sacrifice: it is an opportunity, a passion. They speak with such maturity that one must remember that one is dealing with three 14-year-olds, and not fully mature adults. “When a friend,” says Carrera, “tells us that she is overwhelmed by a family meal or something similar, we talk about it among ourselves and we smile. Although of course we understand it, because her perspective is not like ours.”
Says his coach, José Alberto Santacana, Santa, that the members of this group that accumulates sporting successes in each competition in which they participate “intuit the difficulty that will come” to maintain their academic level if they persevere in pursuing a career in basketball. But they have character.
—My parents always tell me that studies come first. And it’s like in basketball: winning a game means nothing. Everything in life is achieved drop by drop of sweat, with effort, Ruiz points out.
“Of course!” her classmates exclaim without a hint of doubt, and they get tangled up in rambling, because none of them are clear about what they want to be when they grow up. What she says is that in basketball they have found their place, a source of pride for her parents, who see them enjoying themselves on the court, and the fundamental support of a group of friends.
The three, at the end of the interview, stand up as if it were unnatural for them to have been sitting before, getting stiff, and run to join their companions on the outside courts. Those who were already training receive them with joy. There is a genuine fraternity in the air and the only thing that sneaks in between the rumble of their ball bounces and their shouts and laughter are the voices of the school choir, which is simultaneously rehearsing in the annex building.
—Girls, what is this? I want to see intensity and a little joy, because this is basketball, Santa corrects them at the end of a drill.
Practical solutions to a huge problem
During 2024, Vic (Barcelona) will be the Catalan capital of women’s basketball. “We wanted to promote women’s sports in the city as a way to increase social cohesion,” says Eduard Comerma, municipal Sports Councilor. This Thursday there will be inaugurated there, inside the Castell d’en Planes municipal pavilion, a well-equipped room, tables, computers, internet, blackboards…, the essentials to also be able to study in the sports center and better make studies and training compatible.
It is an initiative promoted by Endesa and embraced by the council whose usefulness in stopping the premature abandonment of sports by young women is explained better than anyone by Imma Magem, the president of the local club, Femení Osona: “We have some 25 teams, almost 300 players. And a structure of 43 coaches, 80% women, players who also train the youngest girls’ teams. This means that, with a space enabled, the dead hours between leaving the institute and training, or between exercising themselves and directing the training of other teams, could be useful.”
Instead of grandiloquent words, concrete actions that, modestly, serve to tackle the problem. That is the intention of Endesa’s proposal, which could be replicated in other places and which, in Vic, the councilor affirms, will help the 600 boys and girls who play basketball but also all those who practice sports in those facilities, such as those of table tennis.
“We must achieve a mental change in society,” says President Magem, because sport “teaches you to fight with other people for goals that you cannot achieve alone, to take a step to the side or forward as appropriate; because the hour and a half of training more than compensates for the time invested, because the mind leaves oxygenated and more willing to learn; because you have to get used to the idea that being a good athlete and a good student are issues that go hand in hand,” she concludes emphatically. This is a good beginning.
