Denia Basketball celebrates 25 years of history
Without realizing it, almost as if it had been yesterday, twenty-five years have passed since on May 11, 1996, the notary Mr. Salvador Alborch Domínguez formalized the founding Act of a new sports association called Denia Basketball Club.
Thirteen people who at that time represented the past, present and future of our basketball, gathered at his office on Calle Marqués de Campo in Dénia, to take an important and courageous step forward in a difficult time for this sport, after the decision of the Nautical Club to terminate the activities of its basketball section.
Basketball had begun to be practiced in the city during the Spanish Civil War, counting since 1939 with a stable court located on the site of C / Marqués de Campo that is currently occupied by the Buigues Clinic.
When the site was built in the early 50s, the boards were moved to the Llobell site, located at the foot of the town hall, a place where Catholic Action would promote competitions among young people from the population in which several teams were formed, and in the that the first competitions against other municipalities would also timidly start, first within the organization called "Education and Rest" and already in the sixties within the OJE.
By the time the site is also built at the beginning of the sixties, the activity is limited due to lack of facilities, our sport landing at the Marist Brothers school where a local league made up of four teams is organized: Ademar , Hemeroscopium, Cañamon and Los Veteranos.
But the decisive moment for the consolidation of this sport in the city undoubtedly came in 1968 when the Nautical Club of Dénia was founded, it was integrated into Basketball in its first statutes and a basketball court was built in its current parking lot, where many of those players, who immediately helped shape the next generation.
Together they were going to grow exponentially, bringing basketball with their initiative to what it is today more than fifty years later.
The same afternoon of the day of the notarial signature by which Dénia Basketball Club was constituted, the senior men's team of the Dénia Nautical Club played what would be the last official match of the entity, closing its participation in the National Second Division league of the season 1995/96, with victory in Elda.
A triumph that closed in the best possible way a long cycle of twenty-eight years that witnessed the progressive growth of basketball in Dénia within the Nautical Club, starting from the provincial categories to reaching those of national scope, with successive promotions of which it was made echo our society, which made this sport its own forever.
Perhaps the most notable were those from 1973 to the Third Division with a team made up entirely of home players who were overflowing with enthusiasm and talent, and the one from 1990 to the very tough Second Division at that time, only below the ACB and the 1ºB, with another that already mixed in its squad players from the quarry with the first foreign reinforcements, who indicated the line that was to be followed in the next fifteen years in the city.
A Nautical Club that since 1990 had given entry into its section to women's basketball, emerged in schools and institutes through the school league, and that in the eighties had evolved into a competitive regional league outside of the organization of the Federation, in which three Dianenses teams participated.
In that environment, two crucial people for the history of Denia Basketball, such as Pepa Font and Pepa Ferrer, had begun to show their capacity for work and leadership, who led the integration into the Náutico of a senior team and another female youth team, as a result of the merger of those three predecessor teams.
Both became part of the Board of Directors of the basketball section of the Nautical Club, chaired by José Ricardo Carrió, achieving promotion to the Second Women's Division, a category that was defended year after year with the addition of senior players and a talented youth generation that arrived strong asking for passage, starring all together in some of the most pleasant moments in the history of this sport in our city.
The great growth in the number of teams in a few years led to the creation of a second basketball court in the current outdoor parking lot of the Nautical Club.
The ambitious sports project that was being developed, which led to promotion to the Spanish 1stB League in the national promotion phases of 1993 (Bilbao), 1994 (Lliria) and 1995 (Monzón), required significant administrative management, and an economic endowment that the Náutico, focused at that time on the expansion of its docks with a costly investment, could not consider.
It was time to make a new change of location, this time in the direction of the Municipal Sports Center and under the new denomination of Denia Basketball Club with which the thirteen founding partners agreed to baptize the new entity.
The Nautical Club gave with the approval of the FBCV, its sports rights to the new Club, whose senior teams would therefore start from the Second Division for women and men.
Pepa Font's presidency was going to be ambitious from the beginning.
In a year that could be understood as one of reconstruction and revision of objectives, he managed to gather enough support to form a powerful senior male squad with which to try after the hiatus of the previous season, again the promotion of category, this time to the newly created EBA League.
On the female side, a renowned coach like Maxi Rubio was signed, with experience in the structure of one of the best teams in Europe of the time, such as Dorna Godella, to try to compete at the highest level trying to also take a category jump .
However, a series of professional problems forced him to leave the team in the middle of the season, being replaced by Miguel Ángel Albero, a coach with whom they achieved permanence in the category and who would then continue one more course directing the team.
Canfali Marina Alta dedicated a special issue of its newspaper to welcome in September 1996 the newly founded Club that we reproduce below.
Wigberto Sapena, a female sponsor for a good number of years in the nineties, would design the design of the new entity's shield on a paper napkin, in one of the many motivational meetings held by the new Club's board of directors.
That first year ended in a triumphant way with the organization in Dénia, with the essential help of the City Council, of a remembered Promotion Phase to the EBA League in which our team would achieve its long-awaited goal by finishing classified in the second final position, with a flag packed to overflowing during the six days that the competition lasted and with an important media coverage of the national press.
Basketball in this way not only saved a delicate moment for its survival in the city, but also stood up stronger than ever and reinforced its presence with the arrival of Denia Basketball.
The new Club turned out to be such a serious, determined and lasting commitment, that it has managed to arrive strong and united until today, twenty-five years later with a new change of place where activities can be carried out since the end of 2011, such as the sports facility. by Joan Fuster and under the presidency of another woman, Marisa Cervera, who continues to prioritize training and promotion work among the youngest of the population as the main and unavoidable starting point on which to build all the sporting goals that may be achieved in the future.
Along the way, the Presidency of the Club has passed through the hands of people of immense value, surrounded by magnificent boards of directors to whom Denia Basketball wants to pay tribute and show its immense gratitude for their dedication: Pepa Font (1996-1998 and 2007-2015 ), Antonio Losada (1998-2000), Enrique Cuenca (2000-2001), José Soldevila (2001-2002), Susana Gavilá (2002-2003), Pepe Martín (2003-2007), Francisco Moreno (2015-2017) and Marisa Cervera (2017 to present).
Denia Basketball is the house where 250 athletes today divided into twenty-one teams between school and club, see their dreams grow and where they make their best memories.
Congratulations to the whole Denia Basketball Club family: for 25 years a month with you !!!!!
DENIA BASQUET ARTICLE