TEGUCIGALPA (Honduras) – The International Basketball Foundation (IBF) highlights Mini Basketball and 3x3 as two structures to be strengthened. Uniting both approaches in annual activities, inspiring the world by transmitting a message of unifying and socially responsible basketball.

FIBA opened on May of this year, a 3x3 court in honor of the FIBA Secretary General, Patrick Baumann, a space that invites everyone on the street to celebrate basketball, in homage to the late Baumann, the main driving force of the FIBA 3x3 movement around the world.

In 2014, FIBA Americas presented the FIBA 3x3 format to Honduras. Country that adapted it generating an interesting basketball culture for children, and with that approach the festivals with the denomination "Mini 3x3 Wildcats", where they have skills competitions, free throw competitions, allows faster dynamics, with greater participation of children in a basketball afternoon with resources strengthened with creativity to capture your interest.

"2019 is the year of Mini Basketball in Honduras, the modality is finding its natural strength, a right of growth. I have participated in 3x3 development workshops in Central American countries such as Nicaragua, Guatemala and Mexico, the latter taught by Alex Sánchez, FIBA 3x3 Director. I was part of the Mini Basketball Congress of the Americas in Sonora, Mexico, and I think it is time to take the next step, and unify Mini Basketball and 3x3 Basketball for a new stage of practical and innovative child sports development, with those characteristics of basketball open to games and fun, knowing that if children is happy they will keep playing," he said Carmen Cubas, of 3x3 Basketball and Mini Basketball for the Honduran National Federation (FENABAH).

For the second year in a row, Tegucigalpa hosted the 3x3 Wildcats Mini Basketball Festival with the premise: "Playing 3x3 is fun". The festival was held in the facilities of DelCampo School, with the participation of at least 70 boys and girls from the ages of 7 to 12, who enjoyed an afternoon of Mini Basketball 3x3, supported by teams of students of higher grades and teachers of the institution. Generating impact that allows the initial interaction with basketball in an attractive and easy way. This festival generated an increase of participants compared to the first.

"For DelCampo School it is important to support sports activities, especially Mini Basketball, since in the previous years it was not of common practice in this school age. The modality has come to awaken the motivation of children and we know that by practicing it now as a child, there is a greater chance that they will continue practicing it later. We hope to provide distinguished athletes in the future. We are doing it with the intention that children are successful and committed in all aspects, that is our commitment", added Lesly Suazo Soler, Director of DelCampo School.

The practice of sports is one of the fundamental factors for the integral formation of children, reinforcing indispensable values in them such as friendship, coexistence, respect and cooperation. The children of Honduras are managing to maintain their sports practices and the impact on their school life is increasingly positive.

"We have observed that upon finishing high school, our students get much better scholarship offers abroad, if they have a profile strengthened in four aspects, and one of them is precisely their sports history. We appreciate the support of Carmen Cubas and we hope to continue together to form athletes of the future," added Soler.

For his part, Joset Trabanino, Coordinator of Mini Basketball at DelCampo School, said: "We are pleased to see how our students are getting involved in this beautiful sport. In the recess, children play 3x3, apply concepts and we will certainly continue working to generate more participation, to improve our work with children and show them that basketball can be novel, happy, and different. Our sporting development has been strengthened, and we have generated in both 3x3 and basketball, the connecting link where one modality benefits the other."

The children are the present of the Mini Basketball of Honduras and in particular Héctor Ávila, an 11-year-old boy, student of DelCampo School, and selected to the Honduras U12 National Team that in a short time has reflected the result of the efforts to promote Mini Basketball. "It was a great experience to have gone to the Mini Basketball Festival in Mexico, I was able to make new friends and meet great people and players. I had the opportunity to play against countries that play very well and that motivated me to continue to train and improve every day a little more," he said.

3x3 Honduras aims for a different job and is preparing to grow confident that the time is right to generate a solid movement, that contributes to the players between the ages of 7 and 12 who enjoy their Mini Basketball, and the 3x3 is their way of inviting them to play.

FIBA