Recess time for the national basketball coach Belkis Echegaray Mauriz, surely to recharge energy thinking about the coming season, for her and for Germinal basketball, the Club where she works.
In the warmth of a place to enjoy a good chat, Belkis received Diario EL CHUBUT to leave us his experience in the discipline, his balance of the past 2022 and his current imprint, his expectations and his projects for this year.
One of the last questions we asked was: what is basketball for her, to which she answered the following: “Basketball is my ground wire, it is my passion and today it is my profession, I must choose the possibilities and opportunities thinking precisely in that, which is my profession”
“As my tattoo (front face of the right arm) says, my heart beats like the spike of a ball, basketball runs through my veins,” added the coach and pride and emotion are palpable.
Beginning with the note, Belkis Echegaray Mauriz gave us an overview of her beginning in this passion of being a coach and limited us by way of introduction: “I am a national basketball coach, pharmacy assistant and ontological coach. Undoubtedly my passion priority is sports discipline, thank God I was able to complete the three levels of the National School of Basketball Coaches (ENEBA) which is the only institution authorized for professional training in the country and grants licenses for competitions organized by the Confederation (CAB)” .
Continuing on this path, he commented that “I studied the first two levels at ENEBA CHUBUT, whose director is Bruno Echegaray Mauriz (brother) and I developed the third level in Buenos Aires” Belkis told us and added: “My dream is to become professional trainer, I was lucky to be the first national trainer of the province and thanks to this, many girls continue with the proposal, when they summoned me to CES 3 (Higher Training Center) as an evaluator, I was proud to see many colleagues from the Patagonia because the idea, precisely, is that they want to be coaches”.
“I have no doubt that in order to improve discipline at the national level, there are many trainers to turn to teaching after excellent training. My life has always been related to sports, I’ve been playing basketball since I was 3 years old, my mother is a table official, my coach brother and personally my goal as a girl was to be a coach,” she confirmed excitedly.
“When my brother took charge of the training and mini basketball at Racing de Trelew, I began as his assistant (monitor) with the smallest categories until I directed U 13 at the age of 19, also dabbling in the Chubut national team as a player. I was 20 years old, I moved to Playa Unión and due to an injury (torn cruciate ligaments) I stayed away from basketball for a while, after the surgery I returned to play and Germinal appeared in my life. I started in the ENEBA 1 course and it was just Germinal that made it possible for me to start training, practice with the training sessions and at the same time put together the Club’s women’s basketball”.
In 2017, along with a group of eleven coaches, Belkis Echegaray Mauriz, was the protagonist of an experience in the US as part of an exchange at George Mason University in Virginia.
The program called Sports Diplomacy was promoted by the American Embassy in Argentina, focused exclusively on Argentine women’s basketball coaches who work with young people and seek to promote equality between women and men in the practice of sports in schools and universities, in addition to injury prevention, sports psychology and leadership.
At the end of this note, the national coach stated: “The experience that Gustavo ‘Fly’ Alvarez made me live in the Pre Federal tournament was fantastic, perhaps at first I was afraid because I had never worked with him and because I was a woman, sometimes One imagines those obstacles and prejudges, quite the opposite, being Gustavo’s Assistant helped me grow, I took center stage during the tournament, they gave me space to contribute and that was really wonderful”.
“I ended up directing the U17 final and it was also part of something excellent in terms of basketball for the Institution. I hope to continue to be linked to Germinal, continue with the development of the players with whom I worked, always contribute to their growth and bet that they will continue on the path which is very encouraging, always thinking about the person and then about the player, that they are good people on and off the field and in terms of sports, surely, if we achieve what I mentioned before, the results will eventually come by decantation”, concluded the national basketball coach, Belkis Echegaray Mauriz.
