TEGUCIGALPA — Mini Basketball in Honduras, which hasn't been very active in recent years, will have its place in the program organized by FIBA to develop and promote the FIBA Mini Basketball movement from January 30 to February 3 in the city of Hermosillo of the Mexican state of Sonora. Honduras will have representation in the Mini Basketball Convention of FIBA Americas and with the participation of the national team, aided by DelCampo School and one child of the Tegucigalpa American School.

At that moment, the Honduras Mini Basketball representational project will initiate, supported by school basketball structures and focusing on identifying talents, and to encourage development and elite competitions.

Joset Trabanino, Basketball Coordinator of DelCampo School, and who was appointed coach of the team alongside Karloman Bejarano as his assistant, talked about choosing this school as the representative of Honduran basketball at FIBA: “We take into account the children’s academic performance, conduct and behavior inside and outside of the classroom.”

“We've been working with a group of kids and did a series of practices to see them in general. Then we made a series of tests to identify possible talents. The tests are related to physical capabilities, coordination, psychology and techniques. We base ourselves on these tests to find future prospects for this sport,” said the coach.

“We do different activities to create a basketball culture. We celebrate one-on-one, three-on-three and five-on-five tournaments, as well as abilities and shots competitions. (We also organize) internal Mini Basketball championships so that these kids can experiment the sport and start getting into basketball,” he pointed out.

With the purpose of organizing and expanding, there was a personalized presentation for children, parents, coaches and collaborators, which officially started the project led by Carmen Cubas (who is currently the coordinator of the national federation, 3x3 basketball and the development programs of the national team), who was elected by FIBA for the convention. She assumed part of the project under the FIBA Mini Basketball standards.

“For some time now, I’ve had a vision for Mini Basketball in Honduras. Development initiatives linked to 3x3 Mini Basketball were born with a special focus — their objective is to take the sport to schools and institutions and to children that have no access to practicing basketball. Children that don’t have uniforms or balls or coaches or physical education teachers. My task is to bring this sport into the lives of the children through exhibitions and visits to the schools, alongside free classes, thanks to the support of the collaborators and volunteers of the Honduran basketball family. Like this we achieve the objective of 3x3 basketball: sport accessible to all,” she stated.

“We have a great opportunity and we chose this school because of the institutional support and their commitment to family bonds, and so we thought that this was the ideal place to start our project,” she pointed out while assuring that: “Parents have joined successfully; they have supported the project and have — as third collaborators — motivated their children. They've come together to create a group that successfully supports the talents and opportunities of our children.”

“As a nation, we're excited to be dedicating efforts to the development of Mini Basketball alongside FIBA, and to establish an agenda for 2019 that is based on basketball and sports as a right of the children of Honduras — promoting values, physical activities and joy. We expect to reactivate the consciousness of the sports community regarding the protection and priority of minor categories to develop the basketball of the future, something that is everyone’s responsibility,” she added.

Honduran Basketball expects that this means the first step toward a 2019 filled with opportunities so that children integrate in this sport and experience it as a learning experience by the hand of the sports community.

FIBA