It is the first Lombard baseball team for the blind in Lombardy which since 2017, the year of its establishment, already boasts a championship (won in 2020) and an Italian Cup (won in 2023) in its palmares. We are talking about ASD Leonessa BxC, led by President and Captain Sarwar Ghoulam, which represents a mosaic of cultures and generations united by the desire to overcome the limits of life and to promote aggregation and inclusion through sports practice. Yet the team coached by Usman Mohammad, a symbol of civic pride and an example of tenacity and sacrifice, is still inexplicably without a home ever since it had to leave the diamond in via Branze due to the separation from Cus Brescia. “Our ‘field factor’ has no longer existed for four years – confides disconsolately Barbara Menoni, vice-president of the club -. If we managed to stay in the city for training, albeit in the inadequate San Polo hockey field, for the matches home, the team is hosted at the Sebastiano Chia in Bergamo courtesy of Giovanni Colombi, President of the Bergamo Walls”.
A situation that forces players and families to face countless inconveniences while always playing away. Fortunately, some local businesses and associations have come forward to support the team, which otherwise would not be able to move forward, through financial donations and concrete help such as that of the Collebeato Lions Club which this summer raised 29 thousand euros to help with the purchase. of a 9-seater minibus to be used for trips out of town. But the Municipality? In addition to the award given to the company last October 28th, in fact, a concrete response is expected: the identification of an adequate pitch “first and foremost” and the creation of a structure that will become a point of reference for blind teams. From Palazzo Loggia it seems they have identified an area in San Polo but, between the modification to the Territorial Government Plan and the realization of the project, it is feared it may still take many years. “The change of destination for sporting use seems to have already been made – confirms Menoni – but it needs to be completely urbanized so the times and costs will not be insignificant”.
Introducing blind children to baseball is even more difficult if adequate fields are not offered. “This is the other big problem. Not feeling the red clay and the grass under your feet is not the same thing: today training the defensive phase is practically impossible as you cannot throw yourself to the ground. It is no coincidence that today the ASD Leonessa BxC boasts only about thirty members, including assistants and players who play in a single category. But we are happy to be promoters of a sport that is also growing abroad, the best initiatives to raise awareness of the practice of the discipline and this allowed us to be an example for England too.”
2023-11-10 06:46:18
#History #ASD #Leonessa #BxC #home #field #factor #years
