GUALTIERI (Reggio Emilia) – Provincial sport, between passion but also difficulties linked to the decline in the number of members. In the first of a series of reports, let’s talk about Eagles Basketball Gualtieri. “We had years in which we didn’t know the regional championships, we only knew the elite and excellence championships (as they were called then). Indeed, Virtus, Fortitudo and Rimini came here to Gualtieri. It was an incredible satisfaction.”
Fulvio Simonazzi he is one of the founders and current president of the club founded as an oratory club in 1980 and involved in the federal championships for 35 years. To tell the story there are trophies, photographs and statistics archived season by season, vests and various memorabilia. A provincial reality which, like many others, thrives on passion and belonging, and which reflects social changes. In the past, the Eagles have exceeded 300 members. Today there are around thirty: from athletes participating in the regional Division 2 to the Under13s. “There aren’t many births, already in Gualtieri for example there are only two primary schools with 20 children, if you take away those who play football who are many, it’s easy to do the math”.
What does it mean to have fewer children? “Having more difficulty in creating category formations: either you make large teams, with kids from different years, or you have to create synergies with other clubs in such a way as to put together more children of the same year, because when they are young the physical differences are particularly noticeable.”
In order to participate in the Under17 regional championship, for example, two boys from the Eagles are forced to move to Viadana. Basketball today has to deal not only with football, but also with new growing sports, such as martial arts, and with an increasingly multicultural territory, in which approaching sport is less obvious. But sometimes small miracles happen: “Going to schools, I found around fifteen Indian girls. This was an exceptional thing. I’m trying to understand how to move from this point of view to try to bring them to a youth championship.”
minor basketball Reggio Emilia Eagles Basketball Gualtieri
