The former delegate of the women’s basketball of the Villa Belgrano Neighborhood Center, Patricia Corregidor, He told that he denounced in the Justice the president of the institution, Adrián Zapanabecause he disassociated her from that activity without giving her explanations and assured that he also disaffiliated the players from the Salteña Women’s Basketball Association. This week there were two protests in front of the Center to claim for these actions.
Consulted by Salta/12, Zapana confirmed that he had been denounced, but said that he would hold a press conference next Monday to say “the truth of the matter.” And he denied leaving the Association: “There is no disaffiliation from women’s basketball (…) from Villa Belgrano,” he assured.
Zapana is a member of the Salteña Women’s Basketball Association and president of the men’s Association. “We have only asked for a sports license so as not to play in the categories where we do not have players. We are going to play with the mini basketball, U13 and second category categories for the moment,” she said. “We continue to receive a large number of girls who are coming to Villa Belgrano (in the city of Salta) because we have been working since January 23 or 24, the mixed basketball school is already operating, because mini-basketball is mixed, boys and women work,” he said.
Zapana said that the board of directors made the decision to remove Corregidor and his sister Daniela Corregidor, who was fulfilling an ad honorem technical role, “because they did not meet the requirement of a project, because we do an annual project, we make a tree and each twig has its search, its objective and some are completely fulfilled, others partially, but in this case nothing was fulfilled”. According to him, both had been appointed in March 2021, although Patricia said that they have been working there since 2019. “They are totally unrelated,” Zapana stressed, explaining that he was in charge of all sports activity and said that he will add women’s volleyball, martial arts , fitness, functional gymnastics and futsal for women.
In addition, the president of the Neighborhood Center accused the Corregidor sisters of being part of the Peñarol Club, which, according to him, “wants to usurp” the Villa Belgrano facilities.
For her part, Patricia Corregidor told Salta/12 that “since last year, starting in June or July, the president stopped having a dialogue” with her and her sister, without giving them any explanations. She said that she found out about her dismissal in January because she consulted the president of the Salteña Women’s Basketball Association, Aldo Pintoand he further informed her that Zapana disaffiliated the players.
Corregidor denied having failed to comply with a project. “We don’t have any work or development scheme (…) We started working in 2019. SIf we failed to comply, they would have to call us to a meeting and tell us to our faces. We have the witnesses, the parents, of all the work we do,” he said. He said that she denounced Zapana because she felt “mistreated” by him.
“We make the demonstrations to find out why he disaffiliated us. He never gave us an explanation for us to withdraw. He doesn’t help us financially at all, he doesn’t give us anything to work with. All we have is working together with the parents” , Held.
Corregidor said that she was born in Villa Belgrano, and that she has played since she was 13 years old until now, that she is 55; She also said that her three daughters and her grandchildren played there. He assured that Zapana is lying when she says that there are no players because she has the list of all the categories, and in some they exceed the number of players required. In the pre mini category, she said there are around 25 girls; in category U13, more than 12 girls; in the U15, from 8 to 10 girls and assured that they also have all the players of the 17.
decent bathrooms
The former delegate also referred to the matter that emerged as the real reason for the differences with the president of the Neighborhood Center. “What we always ask for is dignity in the bathrooms,” she said. She described that Zapana left them the bathrooms under the grandstand, with two toilets, and jerrycans to throw water into a toilet whose chain does not work. She added that they had no locker room, and the players had to change in the kitchen, even though “they are girls, they can’t change anywhere.”
That version is also the one held by the basketball player María López, better known as “Piojito”, who also protests the disaffiliation because in addition to the fact that she, her sisters and her mother have belonged to the Neighborhood Center and played there, now her daughters and nieces played, who are harmed since they have nowhere to train. They also see that sense of belonging damaged because at least four generations of women in her family were linked to Villa Belgrano.
“Last week the girls came across the news that they were disaffiliated from women’s basketball in all categories”Lopez stated. He assured that it was a decision by Zapana after they claimed that the players “do not have decent bathrooms”, since the ones he allowed them to use are under the rostrum, which he described as unhygienic. “We don’t have locker rooms. Our players have to change in the kitchen. (Zapana) is used to doing that with all the people in women’s basketball,” he said.
“In women’s basketball we never had their support (of the current president or the previous one, who was his father) we always we kept up with the buffet, with the raffle of all the fans on game daywith collaborations from the people who always followed us,” said López. The player also said that in 2020 Zapana expelled gay players from the Club.
“The girls began to comment at the end of December that he had been threatening them. The problem came from the locker room and the bathroom. He separated the basketball court into two sectors. The Zapana family is practically managing the Neighborhood Center,” said López. . He specified that before this measure women could enter other bathrooms that were in better conditions, but then this was only allowed to male players. “He only did it with women,” said Lopez.
The player said that Zapana “does not show her face” and that she has already expressed that they “do not live in the neighborhood” to try to delegitimize her claim. However, López said that although she moved to the Castañares neighborhood, she has a whole family history linked to Villa Belgrano and even her mother, who is the only veteran of her generation from that Center who is still alive, continues to live there. “Yesterday, (Zapana) spread the word that ‘those from Peñarol’ were going to make a mess,” she said.
López said that he started at the age of 9 playing in Villa Belgrano, like his four sisters, of which three are still alive and today they are 68, 66, and 65 years old, all of them started playing basketball as children.
The veteran player and her sister White “Paquita”, 65, still playing. However, the last match was played in Peñarol because, according to what he said, Zapana did not allow them to participate with Villa Belgrano in a championship that they won in Quijano Field because it does not have the category of veterans.
For the Corregidor and López sisters, basketball runs through their lives. María López said that her 15 and 12-year-old daughters played in Villa Belgrano until they found out about the disaffiliation and said that her nieces were also “in the first, in the second division. In sub 16 and sub 17”, and her grandnephews in a category for the little ones.
López said that the president also neglects the children, around 20, who play in the “recreational” category. He said that from women’s basketball with his fee of 300 pesos they managed to pay for a coach and other expenses.
“Basketball is our life. It hurts, it gives anger and impotence,” said López regarding the disaffiliation.
From Kicking Mandatesan extension project of the National University of Salta that fights for sports in terms of gender, made public a position regarding the disaffiliation of female teams. “Families and players marched through the neighborhood to be heard and ask the president and the commission to respond to this arbitrary decision that leaves more than 70 girls and adolescents without their right to play. Enough of discipline towards athletesthat asking for better conditions is not a reason to run from the courts,” they said.
