SANTIAGO (Chile) — The Chilean Basketball Federation (Febachile) traveled to the Old World with their U17 men's preliminary team, who are preparing to defend their title at the South American Championship. This trip, that marked a before and after in Chilean basketball, included visits to the cities of Madrid, Alcalá and Zaragoza, and the team were able to watch the squads from these places in their trainings so that they could apply their techniques and try to improve the performance of the Chilean national team.

In their aim to taking their country to the highest place, the U17 list ended on April 21 their ambitious tour, where they prepared during two demanding weeks for their category's South American Championship.

The goal is to defend the crown achieved by Chile, for the first time in history at the 2017 edition of the championship. The idea of the tour throughout Spain was born from that result. Spain is one of the top countries in the world in all basketball levels, which also allowed the staff to take a big quality leap as they witnessed a higher level.

After participating in several preparation games, Daniel Frola, trainer of Chile's men’s teams, stated: “We must take charge of the lessons that will be engraved from this experience. We must foster that international respect that there exists toward Chile. The staff wants to open our players’ minds, show them the parameters that are present in the first level of FIBA and the road to that.”

 
Throughout these 14 days of work, the national squad added 13 encounters in their preparation, which were against some of the best Spanish basketball teams. Most of these games took place in the Ciudad Alcalá (in Alcalá de Henares) and MHL Sports (in Zaragoza) tournaments, where they reached the first and twelfth place, respectively. The Chilean team played against Valencia, Estudiantes and Zaragoza.

“We worked with time to improve and develop; we have a lot of support from the Federation and the Olympic Committee. We did the trip so that they could have an enriching experience and pass on to their teammates how other countries play,” said Frola to FIBA.basketball.

The players went back home with a recognition to their efforts, winning the 9th Ciudad Alcalá Tournament, a competition that was part of the staff’s plans for the trip.

“We played 13 games in 13 days. It was a very enriching experience. They faced very strong teams, we've played against players from Senegal, Russia, Lithuania and Spain, because the teams are built with players from around the world. This was a very positive experience. This team will join other players that stayed in Chile. We’ll then tour in Argentina to be in shape for the Torneo Sudamericano,” previewed coach Frola.

 
“The idea of coming to Spain and playing in these tournaments is important for us. These are high-level competitions where, if you're not careful, the rival may surpass you. I’m impressed by the intensity of the games, which is something that our players are not used to,” said Febachile president Irán Arcos, to the press at MHL Sports.

The experience referred to by the Federation's President also included the visit of the U17 players to the training sessions of the Real Madrid squad. They also attended the Madrid and Estudiantes games in the ACB League (Spain’s first division). They had the opportunity as well to talk with Chilean Ignacio Arroyo Varela, one of the youngest players and one of the most well known in South America, who plays in Estudiantes and who’s well aware of what winning a South American title means.

“It is an extraordinary experience to see players of this quality so up close, and all together in a training session. The facilities of Real Madrid are top-level in the world, they're very fortunate. Hopefully we’ll have a place like this in the future for Chilean national teams. Everything works and the conditions are set to develop basketball. It's how we should all work and it's the closest thing to FIBA basketball. We also admire South American idols like Facundo Campazzo and Gabriel Deck and we see ourselves in them,” said Arcos about the visit of the Chilean team to the Real Madrid’s facilities.

 
“This has been a very positive experience; we've had experiences that we wouldn't have gone through in our country. We want to open our players’ minds, show them the standards and the path toward the FIBA first level,” said the President to Febachile.

Besides from elevating the technical and tactical level of the players, the tour helped national authorities to sign cooperation agreements with their Spanish Federation’s peers.

“We established a support commitment with the Spanish Basketball Federation (FEB, for its Spanish acronym) to organize training workshops in Chile. These will be aimed toward our trainers, physical trainers and the members of the Federation's medical staff,” stated Arcos after a meeting that he characterized as an "exchange of experiences and knowledge”, with Jorge Garbajosa, FEB President.

 
In that sense, Arcos stated that in Febachile “it’ll be common for the Chilean national teams to train in Spain and vice-versa, Spanish teams may go and visit Chile.”

FIBA