SAN SALVADOR (El Salvador) – Athlete members of the women's national team of El Salvador receive scholarships in Mexico to study college and play basketball at the same time. The players selected this year are 10-year old Fabiola García, from Santa Tecla; and 16-year old Nicole García, from Quezaltepeque.

The Salvadorian Basketball Federation (FESABAL, for its Spanish acronym) believes in these projects because they grant athletes from El Salvador training hours, studies and diverse experiences in another country, which in turn strengthens the Central American country's national teams.

 
Fabiola has been in national teams since she was 14 and currently plays in the senior women’s national team. She has had outstanding participation in collegiate tournaments and federative leagues. Her last club was El Salvador’s Women’s Basketball League’s Club Santa Tecla B.C., where she has achieved four championship titles. This year, she applied to an academic and athletic scholarship through Ray Santana, National Team Coordinator and member of FESABAL’s Board of Directors.

“I'm very proud to play in the national team. I've been doing fine at school. Now I've applied for a scholarship in Monterrey, thanks to the coach’s and FESABAL’s help, who supported me so that I could do it,” said García to FIBA.basketball.

Faby, who started playing basketball at seven years of age, is known by being outstanding both in the academic and athletic spheres and will now study her bachelor's degree in Business Strategy at the Monterrey Technological Institute. She has been a part of the national team in the 2014 U15 COCABA Championship in Honduras, where they won the bronze medal; the 2014 U15 Centrobasket in Chiapas, Mexico; the 2014 U16 Centrobasket in Mexico City; the 2016 U16 COCABA Championship in Costa Rica, where they achieved a bronze medal; and the 2017 U17 Centrobasket in Puerto Rico, where they also got the bronze.

Nicole García, on the other hand, has practiced basketball since she was five, and has been in national teams since the age of 13. Apart from being in collegiate and federation teams, she has participated in the FESA (“Fundación Educa a un Salvadoreño”, Educate a Salvadorian Foundation) Project, which seeks to impact thousands of young people and motivate them to use view sports as wholesome entertainment and to keep them away from drugs and drug-related violence. It’s also a tool to improve their quality of life (their self-esteem, their goals, their standards, values, and others) due to the holistic vision of the Educational Center.

Nicole is also known to be a leader both in and out of the court. She captains the U17 national team and will continue her studies at the Montrer Institute in Morelia, Michoacán, where she’ll begin the tenth grade. As for her player history, she was part of the 2018 U14 Central American Championship national team in El Salvador, where the squad won the silver medal; and in the 2019 U16 COCABA Championship in Guatemala, where they also achieved the second place.

Her most recent international appearances were this year, in Chile, at the 2019 FIBA U-16 Women’s Americas Championship in Aysén, where they arrived 8th out of 8 teams; and in the U17 Centrobasket in Puerto Rico, achieving the 7th place.

The athletes had the opportunity to come together in the FIBA U18 Americas Women's Championship 2018 in Mexico City, where they were eight.

 
No matter the results, the important thing for FESABAL is to develop basketball players from a young age and to participate in continental and international tournaments. Day after day the Federation works to strengthen their youth national teams and the journey that two of their female basketball players will embark on to acquire new athletic and educational experience — the highest priority for the Federation led by Yamil Bukele.

“Representing El Salvador entails a lot of responsibility. Carrying the (country’s) name across my chest is very important in my life. At the same time, I'm very proud to know that I'm representing thousands of very good people with a great heart. I applied for a scholarship and my commitment now is to carry my studies and basketball forward,” stated Nicole to FIBA.basketball.

The coordinator and national team manager, Spanish-born Ray Santana, has set out from the beginning the objective of searching talents to find scholarships for them in collegiate studies. This would be the fourth scholarship he achieves to facilitate. In 2018, national team players Katherine Cubias (Sonsonate, Club Santa Tecla B.C.) and Claudia Hernández (San Salvador, Club San Salvador B.C.) were the recipients.

Like this, Santana contributes to a new stage in Salvadorian basketball, where he has led female national teams, coached San Salvador B.C. in the 2018 Liga de las Américas, and most recently coached the men’s national team in the FIBA AmeriCup Pre-Qualifiers 2021. In April of this year, he also achieved two medals with the U16 in the COCABA Championships in Guatemala. With the female team, he achieved a silver medal, only being defeated by tournament champs Guatemala, and achieved the qualification to the U17 Centrobasket. The men's team took the bronze.

Santana also knows Mexico City quite well. His great achievements as a coach there to the Mexican national women's team from 2010-2013 include two gold medals in the 2011 and 2013 COCABA Championships, silver in the 2011 Pan American Games, and bronze in the 2013 Centrobasket — apart from several medals with youth national teams.

FESABAL, their Board of Directors and the National Team Coordinator appointed in March for the 2019-2020 period, are doing a great job day after day to place young Salvadorian athletes in high-ranking academic and athletic institutions overseas.

“We wish the best of luck to Fabiola and Nicole. We're confident that they’ll do their best efforts committed to representing their nation the best way possible and will be very successful in doing so,” stated Yamil Bukele, FESABAL President.

FIBA