Sanatura 102 Liceo Costa Rica 63

We're now entering the second half of the Torneo de Apertura; teams we faced at home in the first swing will now be road games, while previous road opponents will now visit the friendly confines of our gym (pictured above). So it was our turn to visit Liceo de Costa Rica last night as we kicked off the second swing through the league.

Sanatura 102 Escazu 62

Saturday night we went up against my old team Escazu. It was an effortless win against an overmatched squad. Escazu is making a go of it this year with a very young squad and a couple of veterans, but they just don't have the firepower to butt heads with the stronger teams. We won by 40 points, and to be honest we didn't play that well, particularly in the first half. Our bench had a strong showing in the second half which let us play everyone  some minutes.

Sanatura 87 Barva 96 (F-2OT)

We played the game everyone was expecting; the six time defending champion Barva versus the upstart challenger Sanatura. I'm sure Barva circled this game as soon as the schedule came out and details of our team became apparent; we were certainly looking forward to this game. On paper, it looks like an even matchup. Both teams are deep on the perimeter and the post. Games aren't played on paper, however, and Barva has a big advantage; they have played together for years while we put this team together in a few months. So the stage was set for an epic showdown on Tuesday night, the first of what should be several encounters.

Cartago 67 Sanatura 85

Friday night I saw a miracle. That night, we played a veteran laden team of Cartago. Their leading scorer is Alejandro Grijalba. In the past five years or so, Grijalba has been through two serious motorcycle accidents. The first time he was in intensive care for two weeks. His last accident was this past December The last one this past December where as he was leaving a gas station a speeding car plowed into him leading to some pretty serious injuries (Accident article). I don't think anyone expected him to be playing basketball again, let alone this season. And yet there he was on Friday, not only playing but carving up our defense for nifty moves and step back jumpers, scoring 29 points. Now I don't know Grijalba well...but I have to say I have the utmost respect for his passion and dedication.

Duke loses in the first round

I did not see this coming in the first round. I thought Duke overachieved all year long, ending up with a second seed in the tournament. I wasn't too impressed by the team before the season, but Coach K was able to squeeze out every possible win from this team. I thought the basketball gods were going to give us a Kentucky mauling of Duke, a karmic payback for the 20 year anniversary of the Laetner game.

 DBR has a good write up about last night's game.

Lehigh Takes Down Duke in Greensboro

Sanatura 84 Limon 66

Arguably the toughest place to play in this league is at Limon. First you start with a three hour ride down to the Caribbean coast. Then you factor in the heat and the humidity in a gym a stone's throw away from the ocean; add in a loud crowd that knows it's basketball and is really into the game. Finally, you top that off with what is usually a good team and that all factors into a tough roast test for any team.

PZ 92 Sanatura 115

Perez Zeledon has been the talk of the league early on with their new acquisitions, Dominican point guard Cesar Chaves and American forward Durell Sykes. The Dominican guy is good at getting to the basket and kicking out to shooters (more often than not sharpshooter, Jackie Acuña). The American forward is a handful on the baseline; he has some good hops and size which makes him a factor on the offensive glass. So going into the game we were focused on this quality opponent.

Al Dia Article

Looks like the media is starting to take notice. Nice write up about today's game.

Articulo Al Dia: "Desampa" expone el invicto

Sanatura 68 San Ramon 60

Road games are never easy in this league, and last night's game against San Ramon did not dissapoint. San Ramon is roughly an hour away from San Jose by bus, a little longer during rush hour. We left the national stadium a little before 6 PM to make the 8PM game in San Ramon.

Liceo Costa Rica 72 Sanatura 102


Fifteen minutes before the game, we get news that I am not able to coach the game because my coaching license is not approved; what made matters worse was that our Head Coach, Neil, also wasn't able to coach because of problems with his license. Without going into too much detail (because we never know who might be reading the blog), it's remarkable that I could coach tomorrow in a variety of leagues around the world, but I can't serve as an assistant in this league. I don't have a habit of getting angry, but I was furious at the Federation, obviously not the mindset you want going into a game. So after cooling down for about twenty minutes outside the gym (my poor son had to endure my hissy fit), I went back inside to watch the game. My reasoning was that we had put too much time and effort not to see our team play.

Opening Night pictures

Sanatura Desamparados: The Team

One of the challenges of coming to a new team is bringing together new faces in a short time frame. An underlying assumptions this year was that to have a chance at beating big, bad Barva you had to really stockpile talent and give some serious thought to how all the pieces fit. So it wasn't just a matter of going out and assembling players, it was how to craft an effective team.

Here's a look at our roster (name, position, former team):

WELCOME

Welcome to the blog. I wanted to document a season with a basketball team in Costa Rica's First Division. I've been coaching for a while in Costa Rica and I wanted to keep track for posterity's sake about this season.

After working on and off for the Escazu basketball team for the past five years, I took the big decision in January to seek out new horizons with a new team, Sanatura Desamparados. New challenges, new faces, new players and new problems. With this change came new partners in this basketball journey: Fernando Esquivel, Team President, and Neil Gottlieb, the Head Coach. My official role is Assistant Coach; Neil at one point brought up the idea o co-coaches, but I think it's important to have one guy in charge on the court, and in this case that will be Neil.

So what can you expect from this blog? A little bit of everything about a season of basketball in a developing country. This is not the NBA...or the NCAA...or junior college ball. Anything can and will happen in this league. My intent is to give the readers a taste of the ups and downs of a season in the tropics.

Why is this blog in English? I write faster and better in English. That doesn't mean we can change it up from time to time and write in Spanish, but this will largely be written in English.

Disclaimer: all views expressed in this blog are strictly my own and no one else's. If you don't like them, feel free to drop me a line or take it up with management.