ARG - Tolcachier creating next stars for Argentina

KAUNAS (2012 FIBA U17 World Championship) - After helping Argentina become a world basketball power at the senior level, Enrique Tolcachier is doing his best to do the same with the players at the 2012 FIBA U17 World Championship.

Tolcachier was part of Argentina's biggest run of basketball success, serving as an assistant coach for the senior national team that handed the United States their first loss internationally with NBA players at the 2002 FIBA World Championship en route to a silver medal.

Two years later, Tolcachier was still an assistant as Argentina captured the gold medal at the 2004 Summer Olympics.

"Just being at the Olympics is a big thing. But to have the gold medal around your neck is unbelievable. It's a pride to the players that we have who changed our basketball history," said Tolcachier.

The victory over USA in 2002 came in the United States and prompted one USA newspaper to run the headline "Down goes Goliath".

That 2002 Argentina team only had two players who had spent time in the NBA - Pepe Sanchez and Ruben Wolkowyski. It was before Manu Ginobili, Andres Nocioni, Fabricio Oberto and Luis Scola would make their debut in the world's biggest league.

"All those players played very, very hard to take all the medals…We were really a team. They respected the coaches and the coaches respected them. We were a family," Tolcachier recalled.

Then in 2006, as he neared nearly a decade of being an assistant - he started out in 1997 - he stepped down and took over a position in Argentina's Basketball Federation (CABB) in charge of finding the next generation of Ginobilis, Nocionis, Obertos and Scolas.

His job as CABB's Sports Director was to oversee the youth teams and help junior players develop into senior team players.

"We know all about his history. He's a really good coach. He is a very big reason we are in the Quarter-Finals," said Argentina guard Alvaro Merlo, who is one of the leaders for Tolcachier's team in Kaunas.

"Tolcachier is really important. He has a lot of titles and a lot of tournaments over the last few years. He was fourth at the (2011 FIBA) U19 Worlds. All the people know that and he is just so good and teaches us so much."

Tolcachier does not coach a club, rather he attends Argentina competitions to watch players and runs coaching clinics to help train the next generation of Argentinean coaches. He meets with players and their coaches about how they can play or train better and how they can work harder with their weight training.

"I invest a lot into my country," said the 47-year-old Corodba native, whose team takes on Australia in Friday's Quarter-Finals.

Tolcachier is a very busy man. He has been coaching the Argentina teams at the youth FIBA World Championships - U17 in 2010 and 2012 and U19 in 2009 and 2011 - for a number of years now.

He also works as an advisor at the South Americans and FIBA Americas youth competitions, taking on those coaches as his assistants at the World Championships.

This spring he served as coach of the U18 team at the Albert Schweitzer Tournament as well as the U18 FIBA Americas tournament in which they qualified for the 2013 U19 Worlds.

In 2013, Tolcachier will serve as coach at the U19 Worlds and advisor for Argentina teams as the U16 FIBA Americas and the U15 and U17 South American Championships.

"I like to develop young players to teach them all the situations that they will experience in the future," said Tolcachier.

After all the success at the senior level, he would love a celebration at the junior level.

FIBA