Basketball: a sacred discovery for BLMA coach Valéry Demory with the “Belgian Cats”

At rest since their return from Landerneau on Sunday, the Gazelles will return to the courts this Friday, November 12 with Ahmed Mbombo in the absence of several elements representing all the components and forming part of the usual decor.

While we are experiencing the first international window of this 2021-22 season, the BLMA is thus deprived of its head coach, Valéry Demory, its captain against TTT Riga, Migna Touré, and its physiotherapist, Clémence Hallard.

Wink of fate, in any case, it will be a first. International 3×3, present at the Olympic Games in Tokyo and then at the European Cup at the foot of the Eiffel Tower, Migna Touré joined the France group and its brand new staff in Paris at the end of the day on Sunday.

There she found her daily physiotherapist in Lattes, Clémence Hallard, both surprised and delighted by this call to Les Bleues. While Olivia Epoupa, injured, could not honor her selection (without being replaced), the course started on Monday and the qualifying campaign for EuroBasket Women 2023 (in Israel and Slovenia) will pass for Jean’s daughters. -Aimé Toupane by a trip to Ukraine this Thursday then a France – Lithuania in Villeneuve d’Ascq on Sunday.

“Yes, a form of excitement”

Valéry Demory, him, has a past in selection (85 capes in EDF) but he will have been patient until he is 58 years old to take in hand a selection… that of Belgium, nicknamed the “Belgian Cats”, after an initial meeting in Lille then several video interviews with managers who came to visit him in Lattes during the BLMA – Ekaterinburg.

Sunday morning, the day after the Gazelles’ failure at Landerneau, he had already passed beyond Quiévrain before the discovery of his new players, Monday morning in Antwerp. “ I selected fifteen players, six of whom I knew very well for this first window. We challenge Bosnia and Herzegovina in Sarajevo on Thursday and Germany in Kortrijk on Sunday, it’s not a very easy group (the ten winners of each group and the four best second qualified, Editor’s note)“, told us the person concerned before heading for Brittany.

“Yes, there is a form of excitement before this first experience“, concluded “Valé” Demory, determined to face both challenges.