Concentrated ahead of the AmeriCup to be held in Puerto Rico, one of the National Team’s leaders reconstructs a history in which her passion to continue playing despite difficulties stands out.
Macarena Rosset always had a non-negotiable goal: to continue playing basketball, a passion that defines her life, despite everything. So much so that in the middle of the coronavirus pandemic he had the opportunity to return to play the Lega A1 in Italy and, despite the global complications and even the limitations of the team itself, he was able to stand out individually throughout the season. After overcoming an extensive quarantine for COVID19, today he trains at Cenard as part of the Argentine preselection.
“I really like the commitment that there is, I noticed it from the outside and now I’m living it”, says the escort from the Ramada hotel, where 18 players are staying during the concentration that the delegation led by Gregorio Martinez lives for the Americup 2021, a tournament that will be played in Puerto Rico from June 11 to 19. In this context, the one born in Junín spoke with CAB press to explore its history and present in national basketball.
Three hundred kilometers round trip
Born on February 23, 1991, Rosset grew up in Junín, her hometown, with her mother, father, and brother. But basketball was not always his passion: “I started late to play. Although when I was little, a guy at 10 years old, I had done a lot of sports such as tennis, volleyball and swimming, I decided late, so I had to learn a lot of things when I grew up and I had to put a lot of effort into it. But hey, at that moment I was convinced that it was what I wanted to do and that I was willing to do it ”.
“My first club was Sunderland, at that time I had two years of school and I did not do it here in Capital, but my old man would take me and bring me, so I would come to train 300 kilometers and return. It was hard and I needed a lot of the support of my family, because if my father had not had the job he had at that time and my mother had not stayed with my brother there, if I had not had their support, it would have been impossible “, Macarena remembers about the journey she went through at the age of 16, when she began to take her first steps in basketball.
“Just in my last year of school, which was already in Vélez, I would stay from Thursday to Sunday in a club apartment and then go back to school there. It was very hard, but if I went back in time I would do it again, it’s not that I regret everything I did “, complete.
After finishing school and with the possibility of playing in Vélez, Rosset continued his training in Buenos Aires, and then in 2013 he made the first leap in his sports career by traveling to Italy to wear the CUS Chieti shirt: “I am going abroad once I have received a degree in Physical Activity, as a Physical Education teacher. Although I worked a little as a mini basketball assistant in Vélez and later when I went outside to schools, I never specifically practiced the profession but I have the title. Then I started studying kinesiology and the possibility came to go to Italy. I was in the ‘Pepo’ team -Debota Gonzalez- and Nati David, in A1, so it caught my attention and I said ‘why not?’, It was time, I was already 23 years old. So I took the step, I left the race and said ‘now I’m going to dedicate myself fully to basketball’. But before I never said ‘I have the objective of reaching such a place’, I always say ‘I can’ and I keep working, or ‘I can do that, I will try to achieve it’ and so one step at a time ”.
“When that season ended I returned to Junín and it was clear to me that I wanted to continue doing so, so from that moment until now I have always continued accepting in the case of having offers. It was because of basketball, I like it and I always try to set goals, but also the fact of being able to travel, living in other cultures, meeting people, I love that, so it’s a combo every time I make a decision, it’s not 100% basketball “, Macarena completes.
After that first season (2013/14) with CUS Chieti, where he played 13 games and averaged 17.2 points, 4.2 rebounds, 1.3 assists and a PIR of 19.8, Rosset wore the Ferrara shirt in the second Italian category for two years, in In 2016/17 he played Bundesliga 2 with Falcons Bad Homburg and that same year he returned to A2 to join Marghera. In 2017/18 she made the leap to the first category of Spain, where she played with Cadi La Seu and a year later she returned to the second category of Italy to play for two seasons with San Giovanni, an institution that accompanied her not only in sports but also personally, since in the last season with the Macarena team she had suffered an injury to her foot that took her away from the courts for several months.
In parallel, during the season breaks in Europe, he always returned to Argentina where he also continued his sports career wearing the National Team shirt, but also played local tournaments with teams such as Vélez and Obras.
The return to Italy
“I had already closed in Works, I was very happy, but hey, the pandemic passed and there came a time when it was known that it was going to be played just when it was played, and I was already 29 years old at that time and I am not saying I’m going to quit playing basketball tomorrow, but I’m no longer 20. And that’s where the possibility of Vigarano came out, it was to return to an A1 which is what I had always wanted, I had been in A1 Spain but I did not find myself more than nothing with me and I came back in December so it was something pending. And in Italy I had played in A1 the first year and afterwards they always called me in A2, which is perfect, I have no problem, but I was left with that thing of saying I want to play again, so I took it from that side, from the side that in A capable pandemic, which is the only possibility I have to play again this year and I said well let’s see what comes out and I accepted ”, Macarena recalls about the decisions she had to make a year ago regarding the COVID19 pandemic.
“We started with 10 players and at the end of the tournament at 10 o’clock we finished three just then it was very difficult on that side. When we met again we were just doing it, in fact we ended up winning the last game we had, and I think that if we had played the two that we had left to see if we would save ourselves, because we still had chances, maybe we would win them too. We were getting to know each other again and well, what happened happened, positive people in the team and bye, all isolated. I think it worked for me, but well it was difficult in that sense because it is difficult to find chemistry, to amalgamate between all of them. But at the end of the day now that I am calmer I can rescue several positive things although the results were not so positive or what was expected “, assures the escort when analyzing their passage through the Vigarano.
During the 2020/21 season his team finished the tournament last in the standings with a negative record of 2-24. Rosset for his part averaged 14.8 points, 4 rebounds, 3.8 assists and a PIR of 14 in 24 games played.
From the confinement to wearing the blue and white again
“I had a month and a half of quarantine for close contact and then two more weeks because I tested positive. I was locked up doing what Fede (Bernal) told me. Physically I feel fine, I did not suffer so much, when I was sick only a little bit of mucus and cough. But the point is that it is not the same, I think we all experience it, one can train at home, be physically well but then what is the round trip of the court, the changes of rhythm, changes of direction, whether you want to or not it was a long time so I’m gradually getting back into rhythm in that sense “, Rosset remembers about her first days training in Buenos Aires as one of the 20 players in the Women’s National Preselection.
“I really like the commitment that there is, I noticed it from the outside and now I am living it. Not only from the coaching staff but also from the girls, although they are young, they are very involved, very committed and that is very good. I think the intensity with which they are working is incredible, it is very positive, obviously we have to get used to that because I think it is difficult to change the way we play, but we are going to achieve it and I think little by little in the same training you can see that it begins in one way, it improves and ends in another, so positive things are being seen, so the truth is that I am very satisfied and very happy ”, analyzes the player who has been part of the Senior Selection processes since 2013, when she made her debut in the Pre-Olympic in Caracas.
In these 8 years wearing the light blue and white he played various tournaments at world and continental level and, when consulting him about an outstanding moment in his national career, he assured: “The South American from Tunja was incredible, although we had the AmeriCup (2017) here in Buenos Aires, that was also beautiful, the feeling that I experienced or that I think the whole team experienced winning that South American, I don’t think I have felt it in myself. sports life, so I keep that tournament ”.
“Sportingly speaking, the sensations that one experiences singing the anthem or already putting on the shirt in the dressing room before going on the court is the best thing that happened to me, so now having the possibility of being here in the preselection, sharing with the girls, Having this T-shirt that is what we walk with, that we are here, that we walk or go to eat and that says Argentina is a pride for me. To be able to continue doing it now, I do not say at this age because I am not that big either, but at 30 years old, it is beautiful and it is a pride. I don’t know, it’s like it’s hard for me to put it into words so I’m very happy “.
The current preselection is made up of a wide mix of ages, players between 27 and 30 years old who have been nurturing our Selection for 10 years now, sharing training with a new litter between 18 and 23, a context that places Macarena as a reference: “I think referring to whether, obviously because of my career, like those of other girls who have been playing abroad, we have a little more experience in that regard. I don’t like to call him a reference, but I am open to the fact that if one of the youngest girls comes and I have to give her some advice or say ‘look at it’, because you want to or we don’t live any longer. It is like when a father gives advice to a son or an older friend gives advice to you who are younger, you give that advice because you already lived it and you do not want someone else to make a mistake, or if it is for good path to follow. So I am willing to do that, to be able to contribute because at that moment it happened to me, I had it with Sandra, Marina Cabba, Paula Gatti, they were people who if they saw me half derailed would come and tell me, ‘Maqui look at it’, always with good vibes, then I remember that and I want to be the one out there who can provide the girls with that”.
What message would you leave for your younger peers? Rosset responds: “I always talk about effort and dedication. I have met boys and girls with a lot of talent, but who have never put in the effort or dedication to get there. It is very easy to say, but you have to make the effort. The desire is not negotiable. You have to drop everything and, many times, you have to put a lot aside to get where you want to go. You never have to lose passion. It’s my job, because I live from this, but you never have to give up passion. I can’t see it 100 % as a job. You must not lose the desire to continue growing and improving “.
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