Paraguay presents changes in their direction for 2019

ASUNCIÓN - The Paraguayan Basketball Confederation (CPB) started 2019 with an Assembly to elect their new directives. On Monday, January 28, at the Auditorium of the Paraguayan Olympic Committee (COP), 14 members of the new direction were elected, with Santiago Ochipinti named President, and Alejandro Morassi elected as Vice-President. Their term will last until 2022.

“There’ll be some changes this year which we have been discussing for a long time now. We're optimistic and we have the people’s support. We like to work as a team and motivate directives coaches to do their part. Today we can converse about more ambitious projects at every level while being stewarded by our sponsors,” stated Vice-President elect, Alejandro Morassi, to FIBA.

“I feel proud of being able to represent basketball players as their Vice-President in this new CPB team, and to continue with Santiago and the rest of the team in the project we started 4 years ago. Like this, we intend to contribute what we can to basketball. As for me, I'm giving basketball back a little of what it gave me. What other directives did (for me) at a moment in time was instrumental,” added the Vice-President hours after being elected.

Looking toward the future, the Paraguayan talked about the body’s project for the next four years: “We focus more on rural areas and give more (playing) opportunities through tournaments and the National League. Aside from national tournaments, we want teams from the country to have a championship in which they can show and develop everything they're learning and that can motivate them so that clubs and federations can face in another way the development of players in rural areas.”

Another of the tasks on the table is to keep developing Mini Basketball: “We want to adapt to the blueprints of neighboring countries with regards to ages and participation patterns for youth tournaments. We want to take Mini Basketball to Asunción, so that cities from remote areas of our country can start practicing this sport; we always try to grow the number of kids and, consequently, the number of teams that participate in our tournament.”

Besides, the CPB has a plan in mind for developmental categories and the future of Paraguay's clubs. According to the directive, the idea is to emphasize that the directives must foster the development of the young players, and that workshops take place with coaches, referees and directives to motivate participants.

On Friday, January 4, the first meeting of the year took place with representatives of Federations of rural areas, in order to discuss issues related to the celebration of the tenth National Basketball League. The meeting was presided by Santiago Ochipinti, and each representative shared their ideas and needs to establish bylaws that regulate the tournament in equality and in a way that is as convenient as possible for all participants.

Many ideas sprouted from the first meeting, and some of the most popular ones were to establish an adult league with up to two foreign reinforcements, or a U21 that only featured national players. Also, to initiate a formative category that could be either U17 or U19.

Morassi talked about the future of the League: “We want to play basketball throughout the year. First, with a short tournament in the beginning that features traditional teams; and then, open the tournament to teams that come from rural areas to build the National League.”

FIBA