donbosco
Legend of ZZL
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I totally realize it’s not the same, plus my experience dates back to the early 1990s, but after my frustrating attempt to play in the Guatemala City league I played a couple of seasons in other leagues in and around the town of Antigua, Guatemala (eventually coaching too).
One league was in Antigua and played in a pretty nice gym.
The big roof there. My team was actually called “Don Bosco” and it’s where I got my message board handle. We played at least two games a week - everybody played in the same gym. Our sponsor was a bar where I worked called La Bota Tejana. The owner, like the coach in Guatemala City that I mentioned on page 1, was an All-Guatemala center in her youth - her family was full of athletes - her little brother had been the National Middleweight boxing champ. She professed to be Guatemala’s only licensed female boxing ref!
There was a 2-Gringo rule in that league and one team had a former Division III player - 6-5 - who had played at Whittier College (Nixon’s Pre-dook school). My team was good as was his and we battled it out. The bar owner would close up during our games and lead everyone down the street to watch - then back to the bar we’d go.
Here’s one of our incarnations…
I also played in a league in the next town over -- Jocotenango. Those games were played on Sundays on an outdoor court right in the middle of town in front of the church. There would often hundreds of people at those games...milling around, food carts, and music, a Poppi-fut game going on nearby. That was a real carnival atmosphere -- a lot of fun -- about as much as I've ever had playing organized hoops in fact. Here's a shot of that court.
Basketball was never close to fútbol of course in popularity but those were the days of The Dream Team and I fell in with some of the more basquetbolista Guatmaltecos anywhere.
Just an interlude - now back to Escazu - by the way do yall have a mascot?
One league was in Antigua and played in a pretty nice gym.
The big roof there. My team was actually called “Don Bosco” and it’s where I got my message board handle. We played at least two games a week - everybody played in the same gym. Our sponsor was a bar where I worked called La Bota Tejana. The owner, like the coach in Guatemala City that I mentioned on page 1, was an All-Guatemala center in her youth - her family was full of athletes - her little brother had been the National Middleweight boxing champ. She professed to be Guatemala’s only licensed female boxing ref!
There was a 2-Gringo rule in that league and one team had a former Division III player - 6-5 - who had played at Whittier College (Nixon’s Pre-dook school). My team was good as was his and we battled it out. The bar owner would close up during our games and lead everyone down the street to watch - then back to the bar we’d go.
Here’s one of our incarnations…
I also played in a league in the next town over -- Jocotenango. Those games were played on Sundays on an outdoor court right in the middle of town in front of the church. There would often hundreds of people at those games...milling around, food carts, and music, a Poppi-fut game going on nearby. That was a real carnival atmosphere -- a lot of fun -- about as much as I've ever had playing organized hoops in fact. Here's a shot of that court.
Basketball was never close to fútbol of course in popularity but those were the days of The Dream Team and I fell in with some of the more basquetbolista Guatmaltecos anywhere.
Just an interlude - now back to Escazu - by the way do yall have a mascot?