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Women's development in
Europe
To all female
wheelchair basketball players in Europe,
As an Australian
women playing in Europe for the last five years, I have been
overwhelmingly impressed by the extent and standard of men’s
leagues and competition and at the same time disappointed by how
little competition exists for women (except within the men’s
leagues).
It frustrates me to
see how few resources from most National Federations and IWBF
Europe are being used by women’s wheelchair basketball. Perhaps
this is because to start playing wheelchair basketball, women in
Europe must be strong enough to survive in men’s clubs and
therefore traditionally have chosen other sports. Therefore the
numbers of women have not grown sufficiently to put pressure on
National Federations and IWBF Europe to support and resource
women’s wheelie basketball.
At the same time, as
an Australian in Europe, I find it thrilling to know how
geographically close everyone is, how inexpensive flights are
and yet no cross-Europe competition exists (for the small
numbers of women playing) where absolute National Federation and
IWBF support and the existence of national borders are not
important.
I have the luxury
this season of playing for the revolutionary CAPSAAA Club in
Paris, in both the National 1 and national 2 teams. We have an
all women’s team playing the National 2 competition against
men’s teams. As a result we train and play with the size 7 ball,
but it is such a thrill to take to the court every weekend
playing a similar role to that I play in the national team.
Perhaps we are the only women’s team in the world that train
together twice a week and play every weekend for 7 months, which
is great for us, and yet extremely sad for the development of
women’s wheelchair basketball in the world!
Until European women
realise how good it is to play in an all women’s team against an
all women’s team outside the parameters of “do-or-die”
international competition (where women actually get to practise
in the roles they play in their national teams, instead of as
pickers and screeners for their male tem-mates), I doubt there
will be the pressure on National Federations to redistribute
funding to women’s basketball.
Perhaps Paralympic
history says it all? The teams dominating the medal count in the
last few years are those teams from countries where women play
regularly against women: It becomes obvious that women must
practise regularly in the roles they play in their national
teams in order for their national teams to dominate at an
international level.
It was with this in
mind, and after playing in the Italian men’s league - where
there is an annual “All Star” game against the Italian men’s
team during one of their training camp - I decided that it would
be great to provide France - the lowest rank European qualifiers
- with a series of training games against an All Star team, and
at the same time hold a meeting to discuss the possibility of
creating a European Women’s league.
Selecting an All
Star team was easy.
Armand Tiboutot
coaches both the teams I play for in Paris – men and women. He
is a very experienced coach adding a much disciplined
‘Frogley-type’ approach to a very European team. I thought he
would enjoy the challenge and the change:
Danielle Peers plays for Meaux and we meet in Paris for lunch of
coffee at least once a fortnight:
Clare Strange and I played together for Sassari last season.
Sonia Ruiz was a stand out player in Spain when I trained with
the Spanish women’s team during my Christmas break three years
ago: Sonia plays in a second division team with Tania Romero and
is coached by Matteo Ferriani.
Julie Zaccaron, Helene Burel and Regine Minot play for the
CAPSAAA women’s team in Paris. Both Julie and Helene are
able-bodied players.
I met Matteo Ferriani when I was playing in the second division
in Italy four seasons ago. He has since been involved in
coaching the first ever women’s team in Italy.
Chuck Gill is playing for CAPSAAA in Paris and assists coaching
our women’s team.
All international
players booked their own flights with cheap airlines, CAPSAAA
provided the bus and we all camped one night at Danielle’s house
and then stayed at the French Federation the other two nights.
We had one training
session together on the CAPSAAA court on Thursday night:
In cooperation with
Malik, the French women’s coach we played two games against the
women’s team. The French team had the opportunity to play
against some of the best players in the world, who they will
meet again in Amsterdam. Danielle demonstrated how quickly a
superstar can born in the world of wheelchair basketball. Clare
scored an awesome 20 points playing in her role as one of the
world’s strongest 1.5 players and Sonia and Tania showed on the
court how much the standard of Spanish women’s wheelchair
basketball has improved in the last 5 years and have been
motivated to organise a women’s team from Spain for the European
Women’s Challenge.
Most importantly,
the seeds have been sown to start a new concept for women in
Europe. To really develop women’s wheelchair basketball we need
to do something that has never been done before. We need an
environment outside our national teams where women can play a
women’s role. We need a tournament that isn’t an international
qualifier where women can develop the same camaraderie and
sharing of the spirit of wheelchair basketball as men have had
in the Champions Cup, Willi Brinkman and Andre Vergowen since
the 1970s.
Once we start
regular tournaments in Europe and then develop a League where
women can play together with women against women and train in
the roles they play in their national teams. National
Federations will begin to understand that women are talented as
individuals, not just as extra players in the men’s leagues.
Club teams will be able to develop successful women’s teams
alongside their successful men’s teams. The IWBF Europe will see
the improvements and the benefits in increased success by
European teams at International Competition.
The first All-Star
game proved that players from different countries who speak
different languages can combine on the court as one unit to play
the game we love. We all found it exciting to be playing in the
roles we play in our respective national teams – with women
against women!
In September 2006 I
hope to organise the first ever women’s tournament in Europe for
all women, so please start saving your money and start to get
the momentum rolling for women’s wheelchair basketball in
Europe!
See you on the
court!
Liesl Tesch
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