SANTIAGO (Chile) – The training sessions for Chile's shortlist for the U16 national team that will participate from June 16 to 22 in the FIBA U16 Women’s Americas Championship in Puerto Aysén, Chile, are coming to an end.

The Chilean Basketball Federation (Febachile, for its Spanish acronym) concluded their preparation stage with two important trips. After a visit in March to Guayaquil, Ecuador, the national team traveled in May to the United States, where they stayed for 15 days to participate in high-level tournaments and arrive in the best shape possible to the world stage —an event they will be hosting.
The Chilean national teams have traveled to the United States on two previous occasions. In 2018, before the U15 South American Championship, and in 2017, with their U18 team before the Qualifiers in Mexico. Now, Warren Espinosa, the U16 coach, took on special tasks in the cities of Indiana and Orlando, as was organized by the technical staff.

With these tours, Febachile intends to take its national teams to play in different places to seek new learning and improvement experiences that are paramount to the development of children, and to strengthen other aspects of the national teams.

“We've had the support of the National Sports Institute (IND, for its Spanish acronym) and the Chilean Olympic Committee (COCH) to have this tour with this team of girls. In March we had gone to Ecuador with other goals in mind, such as preparing, above all, physically, in a way that's very different to what we do, and in a city like Guayaquil,” stated Espinoza to FIBA.basketball.

He added: “We played 10 very enriching games in this tour to face the Qualifiers as a host country. There’s already a lot of anxiety in Chile in the search for the objective. We know it's not going to easy in a group where we’ll face Mexico and El Salvador, two very strong and physical teams. And, the United States, which will be a great experience because it means playing against a team that’s always a candidate to be the champion in any category.”

On April 30 FIBA made the tournament's draw, pairing Chile with USA, Mexico and El Salvador in Group B. Meanwhile, Canada, Brazil, Ecuador and Puerto Rico were drawn into Group A. The best four teams will qualify to the U-17 FIBA Basketball World Cup 2020.

“We decided to go back to the United States in this second stage of the preparation because it's the birthplace of basketball and our philosophy of the game is pretty similar. We try to play like they do and that's why it's important to regularly travel to North America. These tournaments open our eyes and expose the weaknesses that we still have as a team and, above all, as individuals. Their game is very organized, and they have the most capable players in the category.
This forces us to reinforce concepts in individual defense. We were in Indiana playing in a tournament of USA Junior Nationals, very high level. We played with teams from Kentucky, New England and Philadelphia. We then played at the Memorial Day Classic at the ESPN Arena in Orlando, and we reached quarter finals. We believe that playing at these tournaments is the best thing we can do,” the coach added.

 
“It's been a very beautiful experience. We were able to read many teams, see how we measured up against them and draw conclusions on what we may be lacking, to improve from there and get to a hundred percent to the Americas Championship. We believe that nothing is impossible, and we can achieve great things and have the chance of qualifying to the World Cup in a good spot. We're very excited that it's in Chile again and we're looking forward to playing. We know that we're going to be facing the United States, a powerhouse, and Mexico and El Salvador, who we know already,” said to FIBA.basketball the team captain, Catalina Valenzuela, who's been playing since 2015 in the national team and is a twice South American champion.

 
Chile earned their right to be in the qualifying round after winning the title of the U-15 South American Championship, where the Chileans, also known as Team Huasitas, overcame their Ecuadorian opponents in an exciting final. Seven champion players of the South American Championship were included in Chile’s list to go to the United States. Now, the team will have a new opportunity of playing at home, in front of their fans, as they try to get to the highest stage —all thanks to their accomplishments in recent years.

FIBA