When asked if they saw black being able to materialize their sporting promotion in the offices, Álvaro Bernal answers forcefully. “Not black, very black”, points out the ‘MVP’ of the last ‘Final Four’ of the 1st Division in which AD Infante won its second league title (and second promotion) after that of 2019. That the illusion did not expire in a few a few weeks was the great challenge and, despite the fact that the day after lifting the trophy at the Príncipe de Asturias “we already had all our people moving to find the necessary support”, these neighborhood boys -nine players from the champion squad live in the Infante- came to feel “with a certain laziness, because we saw that all the effort was not bearing fruit,” says Bernal, a player involved in the structure of a club in which many of its players act as coaches at the same time. training teams.
June 30 was the limit that the Spanish Basketball Federation, the organization that governs the EBA league, had set for registration guarantees. Basketball is a sport in which many things can happen in a very short time and only the final buzzer says it’s over. Something similar happened in the offices. “Two days before is when, thanks to a meeting that the Murcia City Council gets us with a company, they tell us that they can help us,” says Bernal, although it is not the famous 30,000 euros that the club was looking for to get out with guarantees. “But it gave us a certain solvency to be able to go out” one to which the almost 40 sponsors contribute, some larger than others, that the club has.
A final stretch to obtain the white smoke that everyone wanted that was “a real madness, with days of charging the phone three or four times totally desperate”, and that included numerous meetings with public representatives, such as the mayor José Antonio Serrano and the councilor of Hacienda Enrique Lorca by the Murcia City Council, and Fran Sánchez, of the General Directorate of Sports, by the Autonomous Community.
Just two days before surrendering, the club received the ‘OK’ from a company that arrived through the Murcia City Council
Last 1st Division season was started by 14 teams, but only one could remain. And yet, what the track dictated was not going to be the most difficult thing to see in EBA. At least for “a team that does not have great purchasing power, but with everyone’s hard work it has been possible to move forward”, says the president, María del Carmen Botías, proudly, who assures that “we are not going to forget our values of neighborhood club. One in which basketball has long since dethroned soccer as the king of sports.
The entity will experience its first season in the EBA League after being promoted for the second time
The illusion makes its way into one of the largest clubs in the Region of Murcia, which, with 22 federated teams in all categories and both genders, and ten sports schools, prepares a “great season, although every season it is” , nuances the top leader. “We are excited about the effort it has cost us to be here, for what it means to be in the EBA for the first time for the club and because we have a lot of young people who want to show that they can play in this league”, Paco Alarcón wishes to point out, who, In addition to coach, he is also vice president of the club. “This year we are all more animated and very happy”, acknowledges the president, who is pleased “with the growth of the Infante family, in which all the children continue to grow with that reference of the EBA team that we are launching”.
come to stay
Resolved the economic problem, now it is up to the Infante not to make this trip to the EBA league one with a return ticket. Alarcón, one of the most recognized coaches in the region and with a long career that includes the structure of the FEB, has “high expectations of doing well.”
With a player base that continues and with which the quarry is identified, in the case of Bernal himself, Alarcón considers that “we are achieving a balanced team, because we have a lot of youth, but also experience to have poise in difficult times.” The style is no secret. “It’s going to be fun, dynamic and entertaining, we’ll base ourselves on defending and running, playing full-field and maintaining a very high pace in the game.” Neither does philosophy. “We are going to think about winning each game, but one by one,” Alarcón advances.
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