Caslánguida, began his third season at the command of the last champion, Fuerza Regia de Monterrey. Photo: Fuerza Regia Press
The race for the appointment of the new coach of the men’s basketball team, a position left by Sergio Santos Hernández, is open and Nicolás Casalánguida is one of the many candidates who were linked in the last hours.
The former assistant of Hernández in the World Cup in Turkey 2010 and Julio Lamas in Spain 2014, has a seven-year curriculum within a structure of coaches of the Argentine Basketball Confederation (CAB) that seeks a new course after the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games and the 2019 China World Runner-Up.
In dialogue with Télam, the current coach of Fuerza Regia de México, current champion of the National Professional Basketball League and a team that he recently arrived to defend the title, analyzed how the possibility of being appointed as the new Argentine coach of the selected team takes it runner-up in the world.
Télam: How do you feel that your name sounds to replace Sergio Hernández after what he did as Argentina’s coach and where he left a very high bar?
– Nicolás Casalánguida: Our country has several outstanding and trained coaches to assume a responsibility of these characteristics, and although I did not have any contact with the managers on this occasion, the mere fact that my name sounds like an alternative gives me satisfaction. In principle, because I was part of different processes, with different coaches, and representing basketball in the country is one of the strongest feelings that can exist.
– T: Your phone continues to ring to work abroad in recent years, and every project you go to fight titles. Do these results make you feel that you are on the right track?
– NC: Yes, working abroad was part of a plan drawn up several years ago, and today I am fulfilling it, I am starting my fourth consecutive season outside of Argentina and luckily we have been able to fulfill the objectives. In the last three campaigns we fought for titles, and now I have the possibility of directing in a top-level organization such as Fuerza Regia with a long-term project, because we agreed to a 3-season bond. This situation makes me comfortable, in an ambitious and demanding club, which allows me to live in a place where there is pressure for important objectives and that is a privilege that I enjoy.
Casalánguida has a career that led him to direct Gymnastics and Fencing by Comodoro Rivadavia, Regatas Corrientes, Obras Basket and Atenas de Córdoba in the Argentine National League; and three experiences abroad: two seasons in Avocado trees from Michoacán of the LNBP (with a runner-up, after winning the Eastern Conference) and a runner-up in the Venezuelan Super League with Guaiqueríes of Isla Margarita. Now, back in Aztec basketball, command Royal Force.
The “succession operation” of the “Sheep”
T- Néstor García is the main candidate to succeed Hernandez. What do you think of this possibility?
–NC: I am very happy to know that Nestor can assume the position, he is a coach who has the credentials and the experience in the international environment that is required for the position. He worked in other countries and in different teams where he demonstrated his knowledge and leadership and I have no doubt that he has all the tools to do a great job.
It will surely form a qualified coaching staff as well, that is the hallmark that characterized our team for many years, regardless of the names. outstanding coaches and with a journey.
T- What’s the beauty of being able to represent your National Team? Since you were part of a process with Julio Lamas and before in Turkey 2010, together with Hernández. Do you feel that the scrolls and how you are working at some point are going to bear fruit and you will reach a goal of directing Argentina?
–NC– Representing the country’s basketball with the national team is the most pleasant sensation that can exist. It is a huge responsibility but at the same time it is something unique, it does not compare with working in the clubs.
I was in 3 different processes. In 2009 and 2010 with Sergio for the World Cup in Turkey, then with July in 2013 and 2014 for the World Cup in Spain and when Sergio returned I accompanied him, in the Pan American, South American, Pre Olympic in Mexico and the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro 2016. It was a very good stage, I am grateful for the opportunities and I was able to work with great professionals.
Experience and youth, two qualities that Casalánguida has to await its moment
“It is true that I joined the Argentine Basketball Confederation when I was very young, I think I was 29 years old and had little experience. tournaments are very significant moments that leave a mark, “said the Comodoro Rivadavia-born.
The same mark that he carried in his career and for which, with a mixture of youth and path traveled, they bring him closer to being appointed as a possible coach of Argentina, although he himself indicates that he does not despair, but if “time will tell if that opportunity will come ”.
“I always work thinking about having demanding challenges and I look for projects that allow me to sustain myself in the international environment. Time will tell if that opportunity will come, for now I am not despairing, although I would like at some point to be able to put my work and experience back in my country, both in Argentina and abroad, “he added.
T- You recently joined the Octagon Agency, based in Europe and of great world prestige, is it one of the challenges to reach the “old continent” at some point?
– NC: Yes, we talked about it with Claudio Villanueva and being able to direct in Europe and in a good competition is a clear objective, but for now I am focusing on the Fuerza Regia project, the LNBP of Mexico is a competition of a very good level, full of players with talent and experience in top leagues. Today all my energy is here in Mexico, with a complex and very demanding goal, which is to achieve the bichampionship, something that the institution could never achieve.
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