CONESA’S RETURN TO LOCAL BASKETBALL

The Conesa Football Club returned to officially participate in the scope of the Association of San Nicolás after 28 years. It happened on Saturday, at the “La Ribera” stadium of the Club de Regatas, where the coneseros presented themselves with their girls and boys from Minibasket, becoming part of the local calendar of the activity.

On Saturday the Conesa Football Club officially participated again in the scope of the San Nicolás Basketball Association; which he actively integrated in the ’80s and early ’90s. His last participation had been in 1994, competing in the local tournament of the Senior Cadets (at that time he played under the name “Automobile Club B”, because it was the only category he presented). Almost thirty years later, the Academy was present at the “La Ribera” stadium of the Club de Regatas with its recently formed Minibasketball. There are around sixty girls and boys between 4 and 14 years old from the town -and from neighboring towns such as Erézcano and Guerrico- who attend the training sessions, which take place on Tuesdays and Thursdays starting at 5:15 p.m. Based on this call, Conesa managed to present several teams to play against their similar regatans, in what was a day that the boys will hardly forget.

A renowned Nicoleño coach, Jorge Acosta, starting from a teaching job, was the one who was able to put into practice what, previously, for different reasons, had not been possible by the hand of Romina Simioni and Fernando Juárez, the “profes” who passed through Conesa and left their mark betting on the rebirth of the discipline years ago.

Acosta was the first Nicoleño coach to direct the National League, nothing more and nothing less. He did it in 1992. That time Acosta completed the championship that he had started under the command of Regatas Guillermo Edgardo Vecchio, when he left office to direct the Argentine team. Acosta managed to lead the Náutico during fourteen games, including those of the play-offs for the permanence against Gimnasia de Pergamino, a series that Regatas would end up winning 3-1 to avoid relegation. Later, Acosta would direct Regatas in the TNA between 2005 and 2007. Today he is 59 years old and no longer works as a Physical Education Teacher. But as a coach he remains current as always, coordinating all the women’s basketball Regatas today (and leading the First in the Federal, in the Rosarina and in the local contest). He is also responsible for the competition area of ​​the San Nicolás Basketball Association, so he divides his days between the court and the desk.

Even so, he did not hesitate to return to his origins in the profession when he received a call from a former player of his, Mauricio Ruffini, current leader of Conesa (he directed it at Social de Ramallo, where they were provincial champions in 1994 and later played the old League B). “I was in Conesa in 1988 and 1989, it is a quiet club, which I love; and I liked the idea of ​​trying to rebuild all of basketball when they told me that there were an interesting number of boys and girls who liked the sport. And in a couple of months that we have been practicing, we almost managed to double that number, that is why we sought to incorporate Conesa into the Association’s Mini calendar, which finally happened,” said Acosta, who in an interview he gave some time ago defined himself as a “strict and passionate” DT, who would like to be remembered “for the commitment he always” put into the things he did.

With enormous expectation among the players and their relatives -who attended in great numbers on Saturday- Conesa already made his debut against Regatas in the legendary “La Ribera”, a stage that was stepped on by national basketball legends such as Marcelo Milanesio, “Pichi” Campana, Espil, Montenegro, Uranga, De la Fuente, Romano, the “Lunguito” Rodríguez, among many other glories. And in which the members of the “Golden Generation” paraded in their first steps in professionalism (from Ginóbili and Scola down, all). With that imposing frame and ceiling-high grandstands, standing behind one of the hoops, watching his son run behind the orange one with his friends as if looking for treasure, one parent commented, “This is a good start, but now comes the hardest part, which is to stay, that the boys keep the enthusiasm to be able to continue growing in the future”.

Meanwhile, very close by, a woman who was a member of the institution’s basketball subcommittee 35 years ago, today a grandmother, enjoyed with undisguised emotion watching her grandson do the same things that her children did in the past. In that scene you can summarize what it represented for Conesa that her light blue and white colors once again adorned a basketball court; and just when in this 2022 she is celebrating a century of life.

Conesa’s last team, in 1994

The last team that Conesa had presented in the San Nicolás Basketball Association was one of the Senior Cadets category, which competed in 1994, although under the name of Automobile Club “B”, and acting as a local in the Club gym. San Martin. That squad was made up of 15, 16 and 17-year-old players who had practiced the discipline years ago in the institution and had stopped playing, and with a base of boys who were still active and who came to play in clubs in the city. such as Regatas, Belgrano and the Automobile itself. Its members were Diego Herrera, Juan Manuel Mancuso, Anselmo Zalazar, Diego Moriconi, Fabricio Leide, Hernán Iviglia, César Cara, Juan José Arancegui, Leonardo Mercé, Eugenio Coffey and Darío Cortese. The DT was Enrique “Queto” Urteaga.

Later, outside the official sphere, representatives of the Senior Councilors competed for several summers in the traditional “Approaches” organized by La Emilia.