The rise of Bisbal, the president’s wedding and a lightning trip from Llíria to Peralada

It could seem like just another Monday, today, at the high school in Palafrugell where Joan Bassa is a teacher. At a quarter to nine in the morning he was playing Mathematics to the fourth grade students and there he was, a president of Sol Gironès Bisbal Básquet who had just experienced the most “magical” weekend of his life. That of his wedding to Clàudia, in Peralada, but also that of the promotion of the club that leads the heart to the third division of Spanish basketball, the Silver LEB. A cocktail of emotions impossible to explain in words, but we will try, which was also very special for Joan Ferrer, another pillar of the organization, sporting director and assistant to coach Carles Rofes, who after traveling 1,000 kilometers in a lightning trip Llíria-Peralada-Llíria so as not to miss the ceremony or the final on Sunday, for a promise he lived the last minutes of the historic match against Bilbao outside the pavilion. They both admit it: “we’re crazy, in Bisbal”.

Bassa got married on Saturday afternoon, while the team faced the last minutes of the match against Camper Eurogazar, where a win by more than seven points, if later Uros de Rivas lost against Llíria, opened the door for them of the play-off for promotion as group seconds. It was crazy. The president tried to isolate himself, but admits that “when I was going to sign, I looked up and saw that they were already celebrating”. The next day he could not see the final because he trains the women’s team and they played the last day, in a unified schedule, at the Old Pavilion, coinciding with Bilbao-Bisbal of the ascent. They followed the game from the bench, with their mobile phones, as did the spectators in the stands. And when the match ended with victory and a jump to LEB Plata, the euphoria also overflowed. “I planned to ask for a time-out to stop the game and celebrate, it took me a little but we managed it, we hugged and sang the national anthem”, he remembers, excited.

Joan Ferrer celebrating Saturday’s victory during Joan Bassa’s wedding. / Baseball Basketball

At the ceremony in Peralada, among the guests, Joan Ferrer, sports director and assistant to Carles Rofes, could not be missing. He was in Llíria on Friday and the night after losing the second game against the hosts, he started a quick trip to Peralada so as not to miss his friend’s wedding. Once there, he followed Saturday’s game and couldn’t suppress his excitement, for a double game. He, who was one of those in charge of giving a speech to the newlyweds. “When I started we were losing by two and there were seven minutes left”, he explains and, suddenly, shortly afterwards “people from the club who were also there were signaling to me that with 24 seconds to go we were winning by more than eight”. They went to celebrate and, right there, they made him see that the team had won without him and that perhaps it would be better if he didn’t return to Llíria. But Ferrer convinced them, yes, by making a promise: he would be on the bench in the same clothes he wore to the wedding and, if the team was losing, he would leave the pavilion.

And so it was that on Sunday, next to Carles Rofes, there was Joan Ferrer of twenty one with buttons and a tie, the same as when Bilbao took the lead in the last quarter, they fulfilled what they had promised. “I left the pavilion, far away, maybe a kilometer away, so as not to feel the rush or the atmosphere. Meanwhile, the club’s network managers were sending me the minute-results and who had the ball, and that’s how I experienced the comeback”, he explains. Nervous, he breathed and let go when his brother called him to tell him what he dreamed of hearing: “come running, there are 24 seconds left and we have it”. Ten minutes later, with the game over and the players, coaches and fans traveling to Llíria celebrating the feat, he melted with them who knows if, even with some tears in his eyes. There began a party that continued while the Llíria, which had gone up on Saturday, made its celebratory parade, and which continued on the bus back to Bisbal, where they arrived this morning at a quarter to four. A few hours later, all the protagonists of this dream were at work, of course, happy to have written a historical plan, which on Saturday they will celebrate in a big way in the town with all the fans. And then it will be time to look for resources and traveling companions for the Silver challenge, but that is another story, and it will also end well.

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2024-05-13 17:44:51
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