GUATEMALA CITY (Guatemala) – Ever since the call in the first week of May 2019, the national U14 teams for both sexes have traveled to Guatemala City, leaving behind the comforts of home and their family events to get ready for the greatest Central American regional tournament in their category – the COCABA tournament, which will take place in Nicaragua, and where they expect to represent their nation.

The National Basketball Federation of Guatemala (FNBG), before hitting the road, has sworn in the Guatemalan delegation that'll be participating in the Central American tournament from November 6 to 10. These tournaments are important for the Central American federations because they face the best in their zone and that allows them to measure their level and add new experiences.

The Central American nation is divided into 22 territories and for the FNBG it's paramount that basketball is de-centralized from the capital and goes to every one of these departments. Athlete formation is one of the fundamental pillars of the Federation that, since 2017, has been working on developing boys and girls through the national formative category league, which is played in a home and away format throughout the country. This is also the main competition that allows athletes to practice and from where Guatemalan national youth team players come from, as is the case of the U14 national teams that are facing a new continental tournament.

“We're very thankful to the athletes and the coaching staff for the level of commitment shown before the event," said FNBG president Estuardo Arriola, elected in September 2018.

A new edition of this formative competition that started in March concluded in October with a spectacular talent showcase at the Final Four, that brought together the four best teams in the country.

“This athletic project is a success thanks to the unwavering support of the work of each president of the different department associations, the athletes, the coaches, the mayors that support the work, the sponsors and, of course, the parents,” said the FNBG president.

The young players have been followed since last year in the 2018 national finals. However, an opportunity was given for those that didn't qualify to the 2018 finals and weren't followed – each department was encouraged to send two male and two female athletes so that, at the beginning of May, they could be scouted by the national team coaches in Guatemala City's Teodoro Palacio Flores National Gymnasium.

Seventy-two players attended and only 20 were chosen for each sex, who later attended training sessions every week until the final cut was done before the trip to Nicaragua.

Guatemala comes to this Central American Tournament after being selected in 2019 as the hosts for the U19 Central American Championships and winning the gold in the women's category and a fourth place in the men’s. The FNBG intends to continue with their day-to-day work under their motto “We aim for more” to keep hosting international tournaments and, with commitment and hard work, participate in other competitions and play a good part.

"The expectations for the Federation are always high. Like any other country, we would like to get a medal. It was always difficult for male categories because the competition is very contested, but we trust coach Pablo Cano who, despite his youth, is a coach with a lot of experience. In the female categories, we're coming from winning the gold in the U16 and, although in 2017 we had ended third in the U14 Central American Championship that was held in El Salvador, after a three-way tie between the three first countries, we believe and are confident in the experience of Cuban coach Adonis Navarro to achieve the feat,” said to FIBA.basketball Dennys Ordóñez, FNBG Communications Director since 2013.

“We're going to try to have a good tournament and we have high hopes of representing our country the best way we can. Winning will always be a part of our expectations. We're a team built with athletes from several departments of our country. We get together during many weekends and we achieved good chemistry, considering that no player has been in a national team before. That makes us a team with little experience, but strong and driven,” said Pablo Cano to FIBA.basketball.

One of the Federation’s objectives is to de-centralize basketball and, for the first time in many years, the female team will only have three players from Guatemala City. There are three from Alta Verapaz, two from Retalhuleu, and four from the Sololá, Huehuetenango, Izabal and Zacapa departments. Meanwhile, for the male team, there are six players from the capital city and the rest that complete the squad are from Alta Verapaz, Escuintla, Petén, Sololá, Izabal, and Suchitepéquez.

Coaches Adonis Navarro and Pablo Cano will lead the national teams that’ll travel to Nicaragua, joined by a technical staff that shows how important it was to bring together so many young players from the entire country to be able to witness the fruits of all the labor done by the Federation.

Like this, the FNBG continues to develop youth national teams to forward the growth of Guatemalan basketball, and for young people to grow with the sport, practice it in the best conditions, and dream with reaching top-tier podiums.

FIBA