Candresse Sport led, with Narrosse and Dax, a merger which, today, bears fruit on the sporting level. What was its genesis? Where are the trainings held? Where are the matches held?
The club, at the start, was Candresse Sport, whose 50th anniversary was celebrated in 2019. It was founded by Jacky Lassalle and Pierre Descamps, then carried by the co-presidents who thought of the merger in 2009, Jean-Michel Descamps and Jean-Marie Dutoya. In Candresse, an Intercommunal Educational Grouping (RPI) had just been set up with the municipality of Narrosse. From this regrouping, we pooled our forces with the ASPTT, which had a structure but lacked young people, which was not our case. They had resources and technicians, we had a large workforce, hence the birth of Adour Dax Basket. We play in Dax, at the Paticat hall, in Darrigade and Boyau, with the elite U18s, but also in Candresse, whose hall is up to standard to receive the public, regional events or the French Championship. Sometimes it becomes difficult to find a time slot in the middle of all the training, so the U18s will train in Boyau.
What are the numbers today and how does the club energize the life of the village?
Today, we are at 280 licensees. We note a slight drop after two years of Covid: we train indoors and we couldn’t do it for long months, because of the pandemic. Today we have 24 teams. All levels are represented, in men’s and women’s teams, in departmental, regional, but also elite (French championship) since 2011. Here, on derby evenings or for the final stages, we have almost 600 people in the room. It creates emulation, even more in recent seasons, with all the work that has been done. We want to be a training club, with a training center. We signed a territorial club cooperation agreement with the DGB and the US Dax to create bridges between our teams, so that a young person who starts basketball in Candresse is not blocked in his progress for level issues.
Is it the proximity to La Chalosse that explains Candresse’s enthusiasm for the courts rather than the oval ball?
Candresse has always been more focused on basketball. At the beginning, the ground was drawn on the parking lot of the town hall, with the bus shelter to hold the table, before the construction of the room, in 1984. For the old ones, it was not easy to see the name of Candresse disappear from the name of the club. We were less sensitive to the name, but we wanted this activity to remain in the village. We have, in some teams, 80% of Candressois.
How does this season of recovery look for many clubs?
Our elite U15s are undefeated in Group A. It would be the first time that a club has reached this level four times in a row. The girls and boys are in the semi-finals of the Landes Cup… Thanks to the volunteers, we also organize lottos, and we have managed to maintain three jobs. The Agglo and the Department support us and, this year, after two complicated seasons, the private partners came back to us, which was very good news.
