Interview with Carles Segués, accounting director of Abast and basketball coach of the Special Olympics

Why did you decide you wanted to be a basketball coach for the Special Olympics team?

Abast, as a sponsor of FC Andorra, is also a sponsor of the special abilities team, which plays in LaLiga Genuine. Last year we held a training session and a match with them, working in tandem between the Abast professionals and the Genuine players. My partner, Marta, told me a lot about her life, her family and even her pets, it was a very rewarding experience and I had a lot of fun.

Later, having dinner with the first basketball coach of the special abilities team, Joaquim Pujol, I told him about my experience with the soccer team and he offered me to join the basketball team as a coach. I said yes emphatically, before knowing the schedules and other conditions, since I was really excited to join the project.

What does it give you?

Being a team coach gives me a lot on a personal level, the team members come to train with a very positive attitude and with the aim of improving their performance. It is very gratifying to see how they strive to translate on the playing field everything we have proposed and rehearsed in training. Among others, we have as players a girl with cerebral palsy, people with autism and Down Syndrome.

I can have a bad day in other areas of my life and get there and disconnect from everything. Both in training and in games, the players experience their baskets and victories with more joy than the technical team, we really form a very good team.

What have you learned during these months?

Despite being people with different abilities and in principle being more vulnerable than the rest of the population, on our part they receive completely normalized treatment as we would give to any other adult. In addition, we try to improve their performance, which is a long but fruitful process.

I have also learned that basketball can be accessible to everyone and develop empathy, communication and self-improvement skills. Finally, I have confirmed that people with different abilities can have a standard life, with work, personal relationships, etc., like any of us.

What is the team dynamic like in terms of training and games?

We train for an hour on Mondays in the Joan Alay pavilion. The players warm up, stretch, do motor exercises, etc. Then we show them techniques, such as defensive systems or plays for games. We ended up doing a round of free throws and after stretching again, we all shouted together “1, 2, 3, ANDORRA!!!”.

As for the matches, we play in different regions of Catalonia (Calella, Sant Feliu de Llobregat, Puigcerdà, Blanes, Pineda, La Seu d'Urgell). We pick up the players in a minibus provided by the club and we go to spend the day at the place where the match takes place. During the journey, we talk to them, they tell us how they are, how their week was, their vacation, etc.

We play two games each day, with two halves of 10 minutes each, and then we all have a meal together with the other teams in the competition.

What are your goals for this season?

For this fear we want to improve our style of play and the skills of our players. We also want to maintain the level, despite the loss of notable players who have stopped participating in the team, and expand our number of players. On the other hand, we want to continue creating a good atmosphere, for all the players to have fun and win as many games as possible.