Drafting.- One of the cradles of great local and national athletes and international legends is Deportiva Enrique Fernández Martínez, which this January 13th celebrates 59 years of opening its doors for the first time to offer generations of Leonese a unique experience for coexistence , physical activation and sports.
The municipality of León lived in the 60s with a full and prosperous development in the footwear and tannery industry, which permeated economically and culturally, however, it lacked a unique space for sports.
That great moment was consolidated with the construction of a sports complex with more than 33 hectares dedicated exclusively to sports, basically a regional cell of the Mexican Sports Confederation (CODEME) and that would bear the name of Enrique Fernández Martínez, in honor of whoever it was. governor of the state in the period 1939-1943.
Located to the east of the city, this sport was born with spaces for the practice of sports such as: soccer, athletics track with soccer field and stands, basketball auditorium, baseball field, multipurpose outdoor courts, skating rink, semi-Olympic pool with a pit and platform for diving, a library dedicated to sports and for conviviality and recreation, a sports area, a zoo and palapas.
In its beginnings, it housed the offices of the State Delegation of CODEME, which favored the training and development of high-performance athletes, as an example, two basketball players who shone nationally and internationally, such as Alfredo Jacobo and Arturo ‘Mano Santa’ Guerrero, the latter, participated in the Mexico 86 Olympic Games.
Over time, the regional offices of the CODEME changed their name to the State Sports Institute and that was where the evolution began, since later, in 1987, the state gave the direction to the municipality, creating the Municipal Sports Department.
Throughout its history, this entity has changed its name as: Sports Action, Municipal Commission for Sports and Attention to Youth (COMUDAJ) to become the Municipal Commission for Physical Culture and Sports (COMUDE).
But, throughout its history, the common denominator has been the discovery, training and development of athletes who have reached professionalism or participated in international events.
For five decades, basketball players, wrestlers, footballers, divers, boxers or baseball players have had in this sports unit the perfect setting to prepare for events such as: Olympic Games, Pan American Championships, Central American Games, Club World Cups, as well as a base for train athletes for professional teams in baseball, soccer, basketball, and volleyball.
International figures such as Edson Arantes Do Nacimento have also paraded, along with the Brazilian team, who in 1970 trained on the grandstands field during a tour that he made prior to the Mexico 70 World Cup.
16 years later, there were also great figures of international football such as the French Michel Platinni, Luis Fernández and Jean-Perry Papin, as well as goalkeeper Rinat Dassayev, Vladimir Besonov of Russia, among others who enjoyed their stay in this sports space.
Various Olympic medalists have also visited this sports unit, such as: Felipe ‘Tibio’ Muñoz (Mexico 68), Raúl González (Los Angeles 1984), Ernesto Canto (Los Angeles 1984), Carlos Mercenario (Barcelona 1996) and divers Joaquín Capilla (top Olympic medalist (gold and bronze in Melbourne 56, silver in Helsinki 52 and bronze in London 48) and Fernando Platas (Sydney 2000), in addition to the Cuban Ana Fidelia Quirot Moré (Barcelona 92 and Atlanta 96).
The sporting Enrique Fernández Martínez was the preparation headquarters for the diver Laura Sánchez, who represented Guanajuato in London 2012 and obtained the only Olympic medal for the State.
Leonese have prepared for the Olympic Games such as: Alfredo Jacobo (Swimming), José Luis Zertuche (Box), and Francisco Pérez Anguiano (Diving) in Sydney 2000 and Roberto Elías, who participated in Sydney 2000, Athens 2004 and Beijíng 2008.
The marksman Alejandra Zavala, who participated in London 2012 and all her preparation was carried out in this sports unit, as did Daniel Vargas in the marathon discipline, who achieved his pass to London 2012 and Rio 2016, as well as Jorge Quiñonez Jaso , who began his career in this sports unit as a child and reached the highest summer fair of Rio 2016 with the volleyball team and finally in cycling, the Leonese Ignacio Prado reached his first Olympic Games.
Other outstanding athletes who came to this sporting scene were the sprinters Ana Gabriela Guevara, Alejandro Cárdenas and Salvador Sánchez, who was a world featherweight boxing champion.
It has also been the home of national reserve athletes such as divers, bowlers, athletes, karate players, swimmers and fencers among others.
