There can be no better setting to conduct this interview. We meet Michelle Raposo (Villaviciosa de Odón, Madrid, 06/20/1995) at the Multipurpose Palace. It is the mythical sports facility in Guadalajara, which also, at the time of our meeting, was occupied by the Spanish women’s basketball team. Thus, while Cristina Ouviña, María Conde or Laura Gil insist on reflecting Miguel Méndez’s systems on the parquet, in the stands we talked with Michelle about sports, life and a lot, a lot about basketball.
Our protagonist cannot help but look askance at the evolution of the internationals. “It is true that I follow the ACB more than the national team, but there are players that are historic; We are very lucky in Guadalajara to have surprises like this from time to time”, says the captain of Guadalajara Basket.
At the age of seven, Michelle moved with her family to live in Azuqueca de Henares. There, she began her idyll with this sport, a passion that she continues to enjoy today, twenty years later. Her first baskets were at the old Basket Azuqueca. They have also been able to enjoy her game at Basket Yunquera (already in the senior category) and at the mythical Alvargómez, led by Juan Carlos García Arés.
“I was with Juan Carlos for five years and it was a very good experience,” says the player. At that time the team was active in the First National and even had the opportunity to play a promotion phase to the Women’s League 2, in Castellón. “It is one of the most beautiful moments of my career. In Castellón we play with teams like UCAM Murcia or against Veritas, that is not paid for”, points out the captain of Guadalajara Basket, recalling that experience in 2017.
When that project ended, Michelle joined another legendary player in this sport, Pepe Peinado, in the ASDFGH, the provincial basketball association. She later played in the First Autonomous Region, already in Guadalajara, for two years, one with Dani Gómez and the second with Emilio Aguirre.
After a stint in the Alcalá basketball, also in the First Autonomous Region, he returned to the capital of Alcarria to be part of the adventure of the current Ferial Plaza, which is now two years old. “I can’t complain about my career. I have learned a lot from all the coaches and I have fond memories of all of them”, he explains.
At the same time that he recounts his path in the world of basketball, in the Multipurpose the horn sounds. The selection takes a break. And Michelle talks about the internationals again. “To be there, with the best, you have to have a lot of ambition and work hard. It’s about making a sacrifice that not everyone is willing or can’t afford to make. When I was young I could have gone to play in Madrid, but my parents couldn’t afford it and I preferred to stay in my city with my teammates”. After the sentence, there is a brief sigh from Michelle and she quickly composes herself: “We have a formula at the club that our coach, Dani Gómez, says a lot, which is work plus effort equals improvement. If you don’t work you will never have quality”.
Well, work and intensity are two non-negotiable factors for the project of his current club. The help of the institutions and of Ferial Plaza have allowed Guadalajara to once again have women’s basketball in the national category. The team is in its second year, but from the club they are in no hurry and that is how they transmit it to the players. “Last year a great job was done and this season it is improving and it is showing. The first round has been complicated by injuries and a lack of coupling, but now the results are coming out. There is a long way to go in the second round and anything can happen. There are many teams to fight for the top positions. Aspiring to the first two places will be difficult because they have a lot of advantage, but I’m ambitious and I’m not ruling anything out this season”. It is the summary, in the mouth of Michelle Raposo, of the adventure of this course at the Ferial Plaza Guadalajara.
“For me, basketball is my escape route, my break from work, from day to day. It is my release. It’s what I like the most”, insists the player and also discovers her facet as a coach, a facet that began in the 2016-17 campaign with the Guadalajara Basket boys’ junior, to play in the junior regional final phase the following season, getting a creditable third place. She has also led infants and female cadets. In 2019-20 she was assistant coach of the Castilla La Mancha women’s youth team. Today she directs the little ones, the team of the San José School. “As a coach you have to know how to lead the children and deal with the parents. If they respect the work of the coach and we respect what the parents want to instill in their children, there is no conflict. There are parents who want to be coaches from the stands when their children play and sometimes you have had to say that I am the one who leads the team, ”she explains.
The lesions
The great enemy of any athlete, injuries, has also approached Michelle. Injuries kill me, they weigh me down a lot”, she says and discovers with concern that “I have had an injury for two years that I have not finished solving. Last year I tore a muscle in my back, which caused my sacrum to tear. That made me play the whole season with a broken bone and a lot of pain. This year I’m doing better because I’m gaining strength. I have gone through seven or eight physios, various doctors and they don’t know what I have. This prevents you from doing what you like and can mark my future in basketball. I don’t know how long I’ll be playing.”
I’m sure it will be a lot and that he will be able to continue adding points in the Ferial Plaza project, an adventure that “looks very good. Hopefully it’s the final one.” Hopefully!
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