The Conlara Valley stands out in the interior of the province, and in sports it is no exception. In 2016, and seeing that basketball grew in each town, a group of leaders formed the League of the Valley, practically as if it were an island within the provincial basketball. All of this changed radically this week.
The San Luis Basketball Federation got involved and from now on they will work side by side so that the Valle del Valle is an active part within the governing body.
Víctor Menéndez, ex-athlete, sports lover and lawyer by profession, is the president of the Liga del Valle: “The main reason for the formation of this League was fundamentally because our youth and our basketball in the interior lacked official support, also from the San Luis Basketball Federation. Our players, due to a lack of summons, never made up a Preselection, there were never representatives from the deep interior, except from San Luis and Villa Mercedes. We saw how our values were lost in time without having any aspiration to transcend in this sport that they loved so much, and all due to lack of opportunities. Until now, everything has changed. “
A thousand players currently make up the Conlara Valley League, which has institutions in La Toma, Tilisarao, Concarán, Santa Rosa del Conlara, Merlo, Quines, Villa Dolores (Córdoba), Luyaba (Córdoba), Villa Mercedes and even from San Luis capital.
When the first Board of Directors was formed, a long-term inclusive sports project was drawn up with clear objectives, which “was to promote this noble sport in all its categories and in both sexes in all the towns of the Conlara Valley and to which our members belonged. organizations or institutions, even thinking about those that had not joined from the beginning. “
The League started with only 5 institutions and with 5 first-class women’s teams that added 47 players. It currently has 10 institutions in all its categories (Mosquito, Mini, Premini, Sub13, Sub15, Sub17, Sub19, Sub 21 and First) both in female and male. “We have more than 1,000 players,” Menéndez explained.
The current Board of Directors is made up, in addition to Menéndez, by Rodrigo Ramos as secretary and Lucas Priasco as treasurer, in addition to the members and auditors.
Regarding the current situation, Menéndez, who is also a volleyball and soccer coach, commented: “Today we are working directly with the San Luis Basketball Federation in the person of Professor Eugenia Bustos, current intervener of the institution, who showed an openness and a very important interest in the clubs of the interior, highly valued by all our leaders “.
The change is not only palpable in the leadership, but also in the sports: “The Federation is looking for talents in the different institutions. We have several players in the San Luis Sub17 Preselection directed by coach Silvio Leyria, whose objective is the Games Binationals that will be held this year in our province “.
After the meeting, the leaders agreed to work together to articulate sports policies that will undoubtedly help raise the level of San Luis basketball in general. “The objective is only one: that our children and young athletes can improve themselves technically and physically; as well as the improvement of our technicians and leaders,” said the president, who closed by reflecting: “This shows that the objective set at that time by our initial Commission to make visible and project our young athletes from the interior through our work has crystallized into a reality, thanks to the intelligent and federal opening of these new leaders “.
