The basketball of the Nova Geração
2016
In April 2016 we started our first basketball lessons at the João Paulo II Educational Center; the lessons were held by Professor Marcelo Martins and were aimed at boys and girls aged between 8 and 17. During the first lessons, students could get a sense of the sport and learned the fundamentals of basketball, such as passing, shooting, defending and dribbling. Over time, more and more boys became interested and enrolled in the lessons. In 2016 we decided to participate in the FEEPS (Sports Festival of the Private Schools of Salvador), one of the main school sports competitions in our city. We were beginners and we lost all the matches but, despite the negative results, it was an incredible experience for the students, who were able to experience first-hand what a basketball match was like, wear a uniform, leave their neighbourhoods, get to know new athletes from other organisations and, of course, improve. Still in 2016, we launched the first Subúrbio Ferroviário Sports Festival inside our headquarters, invited teams from different places of Salvador and organized a tournament. Thanks to this event our players had an additional opportunity to improve and have fun playing basketball and to end the year on a high note.
2017
In 2017 the number of basketball players started to grow and we decided to participate in every possible competition. Once again, we took part in the FEEPS in the Under 12 category and due to the huge improvement made by our team we ended up winning the competition: this was the first of many titles we won! Then we participated in the community basketball tournament in the city of Salvador for social projects and we won in the U-15 category (under 15). At the end of the year we attended the Esportivo do Subúrbio Ferroviário Festival again and our team won the first place in the Under 13 category and the second place in the Under 17 category. The year 2017 could not have ended better, since, for the first time, we participated in the Bahian tournament and we won in the Under 13 category. This is the largest championship in the state of Bahia, promoted by the FBB (Bahia Basketball Federation), which regulates basketball activities in our state. In the two years following the beginning of the trainings, our athletes clearly showed their great potential.
2018
In 2018 the interest in basketball grew so much that we recorded a huge increase in new registrations and we were able to reach the maximum number of athletes to complete all the teams. Our results in 2018: second place in the FEEPS Under 12 category; first place in the FEEPS youth category (U-17); at our first attempt, first place in the JOCOPPAR championship (Salvador’s private school games) in the Under 13 category and second place in the Under 15 category; second place in the Community tournament in the U-15 category. In 2018, for the first time, we attended the Conexão Maceió tournament in the city of Maceió (Alagoas), outside the State of Bahia. It is an official tournament in the northeast of Brazil promoted by the Basketball Federation. This was an incredible experience for our students, as they had the opportunity to travel to another state (for a week), have fun, learn a lot about basketball and the sports scene in Brazil. We participated in this tournament in the categories U-15 and U-17; the U-15 category ranked third and the U-17 ranked fourth.
2019
In 2019 we reached the best results of the entire project. The number of children playing sports significantly increased and we won almost every competition we participated in. Our results: FEEPS champions in all the categories we played in (U-12; U-14; U-16; U-17); JOCOPPAR champions in the Under 17 category and vice-champions in the Under 15 category; champions of the Bahian Federation Basketball Championship in the Under 15 and Under 17 categories and vice-champion in the Under 13 category. In 2019, in Maceió, we ranked first in the U-15 category and third in the U-17 category. In 2019 our basketball team achieved the best results of the year and has become a model for this sport in the state of Bahia. At the end of 2019, three athletes, who participated in our project, were invited to play in a rising club in Florianopolis (Santa Caterina – south of Brazil) that offered them and other future athletes a professional career in the basketball world.
PERSONAL and PROFESSIONAL OUTCOME
As a basketball professional and lover, it was a great pleasure for me to include this sport in the project of the João Paulo II Educational Centre and to closely follow the personal and athletic growth of these children. They live in socio-economically disadvantaged situations and need a lot of support. I would not trade the opportunity to see our children and teenagers learn how to play basketball and become trained, educated, solid and good citizens for the world. The João Paulo II Educational Centre and its management have always offered good structure, quality material and support, and this has greatly enabled the development of our children. I have always believed that the João Paulo II Educational Centre had the potential to achieve everything it has achieved, and I believe that it is possible to create new projects and have even bigger dreams.
I have done my best to try to support the lives of our children and, looking back, for the past 4 years I have experienced a deep sense of accomplishment. I am immensely grateful for the opportunity that I had to grow professionally and personally and I believe that everything I did was worth the effort.