After several years of wandering and a few major mistakes, Nice basketball has managed to come together around a real development project.
The next home game against Angers, this Saturday, November 13 at 8:00 PM at the Salle Leyrit in Nice.
“Per aspera ad astra,” this could be the motto of the Nice club born from the collective will to prevent basketball from disappearing from the sports life of the Azurean capital.
We spoke with Claude Pallanca, the general manager in charge of sports for the Cavigal Nice Basket Nice, a club resulting from the merger of Cavigal and Nice Basket after a year of engagement under the name Nice Basket Competition 06.
“Many mistakes were made in recent years, which led to the near-disappearance of men’s basketball and enormous difficulties in keeping the women’s team at the National level.
Some leaders believed that money could solve all problems, but they forgot that without in-depth work, everything remains fragile, and at the first difficulty, everything collapses.
Today our project foresees the dissemination of our sports discipline in schools to encourage practice and recruitment, followed by organizing competitive teams at all levels: departmental, regional, and national.
In the medium term, we want to reach the national elite with our flagship women’s team, but if the opportunity presented itself even this season, we would not refuse it.
Now, we have to be realistic: our team is of a good level, but it does not yet have the necessary standing to be the number one in the championship. But we can aim for the final four, the promotion round.”
Nice Premium: And among the men?
Claude Pallanca: There, we are starting almost from scratch. Our team plays in the Regional Excellence championship, so we are far from a satisfactory level. We might consider a policy of alliances with other city clubs to pool strengths.
NP: You are the head of sports…
C.P: I started coaching very young and I have some experience, which allows me to manage the club’s organization and coordinate the technical work of the coaches. It’s an exciting role because it involves all age categories with different types of problems.
Naturally, my work is supervised by the two co-presidents, Laurence Laporte-Darcourt and Henri Biancardini, who define the strategic framework of my action.
NP: An initial assessment of the main team’s season after 1/3 (9 games played out of the 30 scheduled) of the championship?
CP: It is satisfactory, even if I think we could have done better. Now I am confident that next Saturday, on the occasion of the match against Angers, which we will host, our ranking can still improve; We are coming off two great victories away and as they say… there is no two without three!
Cavigal Nice Basket 06 also includes:
Co-Presidents: Laurence Laporte-Darcourt and Henri Biancardini
General Manager: Claude Pallanca
Coach of the League 2 team: Olga Tarasenko
28 teams (m/f)
12 mini-basketball teams
8 sports employees
6 professional female players
400 members and licensees (one of the largest clubs in France)
Average attendance for League 2 matches: 400
Forecast budget for the 2010-11 season: 800,000 euros
