The Endesa Women’s League started the 2022-23 season this Tuesday with a presentation in style at the ‘house of basketball’, Endesa’s headquarters in Madrid, which also hosted the opening of the ACB course just a week ago. In both acts floated the aroma of the great summer of Spanish basketball. Not only for the Eurobasket gold, but also for eight out of eight in the finals of the training categories, four of them with the face of a woman: gold in the European Under-20 and continental silvers Under-18 and Under-16 and World Under-17. “You have given us a lot of joy”, said José Bogas, CEO of an electricity company that has been with the Spanish Basketball Federation (FEB) for 11 years and has been the main sponsor of the women’s competition for four years.
The LF will have another campaign with 16 clubsthree of them also have a presence in the Endesa League: Valencia, Casademont Zaragoza and Barcelona, which last season rose to the women’s basketball elite as Barça CBS (Hozono Global Jairis is the other promoted). The regular phase will be played from next Wednesday, October 5 to April 15. The playoff for the title will be from April 20 to May 11. In between, the Super Cup on October 8 and 9 with the Valencia Basket-Perfumerías Avenida and Kutxabank Araski-Spar Girona semifinals; and the Copa de la Reina de Valencia from March 30 to April 2.
The gala, sober, agile and entertaining, had former player and commentator Marta Fernández at the controls and the participation of great legends such as María Planas, Wonny Geuer, Anna Montañana and Laia Palau. “The League is more competitive now, it has evolved a lot with greater economic means and it is more enjoyable. You have taken a big step”, assured Planas, the first and only Spanish coach to date (1978 to 1985). “You can always improve. We know where we come from. The focus is always on visibility, which is important, but it is not enough”, continued Palau, the player with the most caps (314 games) and medals (12) in history for both men and women.
“Continue working”
The veteran Palau (43 years old) hung up her boots in May to assume the sports management of the Spar Girona, one of the great candidates for the title along with Perfumerías Avenida (current champion) and Valencia Basket, which has brought back one of the greatest for the national tournament: Alba Torrens. “I have seen the growth process of the League. Things are hard, but they are easier when we all look in the same direction, if we unite”, he stressed. The Balearic woman is not the only one to return: Sandra Ygueravide, the best 3×3 player in the world, lands at Anna Montañana’s Lointek Gernika, who occupies the great gap left by Mario López in the Biscayan team and completes the trio of coaches in the Basque Country with Azu Muguruza (IDK Euskotren) and Madelén Urieta (Kutxabank Araski).
“You get excited, because you listen to the players talk about the growth of the League, the structures of the clubs, the competitiveness, that ten of the 12 players of the national team have returned to the league and that is the most beautiful thing they can do for you. say as a Federation and that is thanks to the work of the clubs. It is not for complacency, it is the encouragement to continue working for this to grow”, stressed Jorge Garbajosa, president of the FEB. Women’s basketball begins a new season. Another full of hopes and expectations. Another to take a step further to greatness.