The National Women’s Deaf Basketball Team – FSSI

Under the basket there is a silent world that is making noise. It is not a paradox, but the happy reality of the Deaf Women’s National Basketball Team, a team that feat after feat is confirming itself at high levels on the international scene. The continental silver medal is just the latest laurel of a formidable journey: European champions in 2021, silver at the Deaflympics (the Olympics for the deaf) and bronze at the 3×3 World Championship two years ago. Four medals in the last three years. Without forgetting the bronze at the 2016 European Championships, the Olympic bronze in 2017 and the bronze at the Under 21 World Championships in 2018. And to think that fifteen years ago there wasn’t even a women’s team. Today, however, there is no competition where the Azzurre go unnoticed.

It all started in 2010 in a gym in Pesaro when some hearing and deaf friends started playing together for fun. Coached by an Italian basketball player, Peter Pozzoli, with the passion of two journalists, Beatrice Terenzi (now technical director of the Federazione Sport Sordi Italia) and Elisabetta Ferri, the dream began to take shape. The providential meeting with Sara Braida did the rest: for more than ten years she has been the technical guide of the women’s national team. Born in 1982, originally from Cividale del Friuli, a professional player before the fateful encounter with this reality: “It happened almost by chance – she says – For me it was a new world where I saw people of different nationalities communicating with sign language and I was fascinated. The first step was to overcome the initial distrust and then everything was downhill”.

The main obstacle is communication: «Compared to other countries – explains coach Braida – there is no basketball championship for the deaf in Italy so all the athletes play in hearing championships: here it is allowed to use prostheses and cochlear implants, while in tournaments reserved for them, deaf athletes cannot use aids, to try to guarantee a certain fairness». A series of difficulties are therefore inevitable: «Clearly, since basketball is a team sport – continues the coach – the biggest problem can be on defensive collaborations or on the indications we give from the bench, but now with small stratagems and tactical measures even these complications are overcome. We staff communicate with the players on the court using all the dead time, asking them to make eye contact at every whistle from the referee».

Years of work and sacrifices, but with priceless satisfaction. “The most emotional memory as a coach of the National team is undoubtedly the first basket: a total silence in the gym and the girls miming the applause. A scene that has remained in my heart. But it is a constant emotion to be able to share time with them and with my staff. Now we hope that Tokyo will also be unforgettable, where the Deaflympics will be held in 2025”. An appointment that we arrive at after many successes: “But without the team work we would not have achieved anything – Sara Braida is keen to underline – We are a team even off the court: Beatrice Terenzi, technical director who founded the national team and who has been seeking funds for years to support the needs of the girls; Elisabetta Ferri who with her pen tells and gives visibility to our reality; the federation of deaf sports that works to allow us to express ourselves in the best possible way and Giovanna Franzese, coach with whom I share technical choices and nights spent studying the opponents, who with her personality has raised our level”. READ FULL STORY HERE>>>CLICK HERE TO CONTINUE READING>>>

And on the court, the blue team continues to make a difference by bringing to the forefront stories that cannot remain silent. Like that of Simona Sorrentino, who a few years ago told her story to the basketball enthusiasts’ website La Giornata Tipo: “I was born and raised in a hearing family and spent most of my childhood doing speech therapy, trying to improve myself to hide this disability that made me suffer. That made me feel like a different child… When I was little and played mini-basketball, some of my teammates asked me: “What do you have in your ears??!”… I would freeze and run away. As I grew up, better hearing aids arrived and I understood that I no longer had to be ashamed.”

To the point that she wrote a touching letter to basketball: “Dear basketball. Thanks to you, the thing that made me most ashamed as a child, my greatest weakness, has become my strength.” It is the greatest success, the triumph of those who always win, no matter what, even before stepping onto the court: “When a disability becomes a different ability and is a source of pride, then everyone wins,” explains coach Braida. “Seeing girls who are proud of who they are, who no longer tie their hair to cover their prosthetics, then you realize that there is something more, that goes beyond sport.”

2024-07-10 03:50:47
#Italy #basketball #wins

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