The women of the City of the Coast: Lagomar presents its first women’s basketball team

Between the route and the beach, on Avenida del Country in Ciudad de la Costa, is the Lagomar Country Club. There you can practice endless sports, but there is one that has a special place. The members, whatever the activity in which they perform, defend the colors of the green jersey, because they are fans of Lagomar basketball.

This year, for the first time in its history, those from the coast will present equipment to compete in the Women’s Basketball League. This project is carried out by the team player Victoria Pereyra, who is the coordinator of this sport in the club, for both men and women.

Since they began, when physical activity was enabled in gyms, they train four times a week, one hour of physical activity and one hour on the court, in all categories. Nicolás Scarabino is the coach of the female major and Pereyra, along with José Pepe Castro – who is the assistant to the oldest and works with the categories of children – trains the rest.

All force

For a long time, the club’s board wanted to present a female team, because although there were groups of adolescents and women training on a social level, they were not part of the official competition. The incorporation of Pereyra to the working group was fundamental, and they chose to make calls to applicants and evaluate the call. The plan worked perfectly: they now have the mini categories, U12, U14, U16, U19 and older, with more than 12 members in each of them.

“The club, unlike most other teams, is betting very hard on the women. We have the same number of court hours available as the main men’s squad, we have a coaching staff with a coach, assistant and physical trainer, we train on the main court. The managers are betting heavily on the female, the players have responded and the entire coaching staff is on the same path ”, Scarabino considered.

But the presence of Pereyra not only encouraged the completion of the space for women, but also encouraged many players from other teams to decide to change to Lagomar, which is why they have athletes with a lot of experience. The team is very diverse: the ages range from 15 to 41 years.

For the coach it means a challenge to synchronize a team with such a variety of ages, especially when it comes to setting up the squad, but it is something common for women. “It is a reality that we have many young girls with a lot of potential, selection projects, and my idea is to give them participation and that the older players transmit that experience and add from that place, but it is common, in women’s basketball, that the main team is completed with young players who are the ones who will end up playing ”, he explained.

At a steady pace

The main objective of the coaching staff is to form a good team, and then begin to set specific objectives in the competition. “Getting our best version and being competitive is the first year, we have to see how far we can go,” added Scarabino.

The club gives its full support to this category, “not only because they give us everything but because they are present every day at practices; that of having a closeness with managers does not usually occur ”, he highlighted.

Lagomar’s star player and coach recently participated in the 3×3 Pre-Olympic Tournament. Regarding that experience, he pointed out: “It was incredible, we played against the best in Europe, NBA players, we were able to be competitive. And the fact of sharing in the hotel, talking … The difference is that they are professionals, so it cost us much more than normal, but it was the best preparation we could have done and we enjoyed it a lot, beyond the results, ”said Pereyra.

For this tournament there are several new teams, which suggests a growth of Uruguayan women’s basketball. Pereyra considers that a lot has been improved but that now is the time to give time to this growth, “because we all want us to be all professionals, to be paid, but that takes time.” She considers that the youngest players “have had many opportunities that we at their age did not have, such as the NBA campus and outings with the national team every year. That didn’t happen, there were years when we couldn’t travel. You have to let them continue advancing, going abroad and that the league continues to be stronger and stronger ”, he concluded.

Promising

The women of the coast faced Capurro in their debut and obtained a great victory 91-44. The scorer of the match was Paula Reggiardo, who added 22 points. On the second date they also triumphed over Aguada 90-52. The top scorer of the match was Victoria Pereyra. The next game will be on Saturday at 3:30 p.m. against Remeros in the city of Mercedes, on the banks of the Negro River, where the coastal women of the Soriano department play as locals in their gym.

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