In the summer, he had tried to convince her to be part of the project of the new women’s basketball team in the city, but the training schedules crossed with those of his working life. The signing of her seemed impossible. However, this time, Dani Gómez received the yes. Eva Silgado (Guadalajara, May 1, 1996), accepted the proposal and dressed in shorts again. The challenge: try to get the team chaired by Luis Miranda into the coveted promotion phase. Yesterday Eva was playing her third match with the purple shirt. She is happy on a basketball court and it shows in every action, in every game and also in this interview.
This sport has always been his passion. When she was very young she also approached soccer or racquetball (she even joined a federation in her town, Valfermoso de Tajuña), but it was in basketball where she found an exciting world. At her school, Santa Cruz, she scored her first baskets before moving on to the legendary Alvargómez, where she lived from the quarry the golden age of women’s basketball in the city.
“When we entered Alvargómez they invited us players from the quarry to see the women’s league team and there were names – already legendary in our sport – such as Maria Angeles Vega, Anabel Mateo, Juana Molina, Claudia Aponte, Vicky Robles… they were our references because they were girls who played in the highest category in Guadalajara and represented the entire quarry. We looked at them, how they played”, remembers Silgado and points out that Aponte even became her coach in Canoe.
And it is that Eva Silgado, after her time in Alvargómez, tried her luck in Madrid basketball, while still a child. “Luis Narro called us -he had been manager of the Alvargómez- and I went together with Laura Ricote to the Canoe, then to the Coslada, again to the Canoe… and back to Guadalajara, to the CEBA”.
His debut in the senior category was again in alcarreño basketball, specifically at the Sanz Vázquez Clinic, a team that had Juan Carlos García Arés as coach. “That was a very nice stage, as a sports experience it was great, because you played with people who know a lot about this, we played for promotion to the Women’s League”, highlights the power forward.
And in his sports career his presence in the Castilla-La Mancha team and in several Spanish club championships cannot be missing. “They are two very different competitions”, he explains and clarifies that “in the regional team you were not going to fight for the medals, but the intention was to leave a good image and have a good time. You are going to compete for clubs, with Canoe, for example, we played a great role, we were seventh in Spain and that in basketball is saying a lot”.
In this review of Eva Silgado’s sports career, two names have come to light that are already part of the history of women’s basketball in the province: Juan Carlos Garcia Ares and Luis Narro. Regarding the first, Silgado highlights that “when I rejoined basketball he welcomed me into the team very well. He taught me a lot and I can say that he already knew him from before because he was my grandfather’s doctor”. As for Narro, the player defines him as “my sports father”. He has always counted on me in his teams. I went with him since I was little and today I continue to keep in touch, it is a very familiar relationship.
This basketball globetrotter also had time to face another adventure in Arganda before the stoppage forced by the pandemic. And then back to Guadalajara. Now, with her return to Alcarria and Dani Gómez’s team, Eva hopes to continue enjoying her passion. “For me, basketball is fun. The years I’ve left it is because I’m more interested in having to play than wanting to play and that doesn’t fit into my idea of sport, I’m looking to have a good time and have some values and I find all of that in basketball”.
In her years of experience, the player has gone through good times and others not so much. Among the best, she remembers those years with the Castilla-La Mancha team. “On a small scale it doesn’t look like anything, but for a girl of about 13, it’s the best. Not going to class for a week to go to a Spanish championship, are big words”, he says and continues explaining that fortunately he has been able to get rid of injuries, the big problem for any athlete, so as a negative fact of all this adventure focuses on those training sessions in Madrid, at nine o’clock at night, in the middle of winter and with a long trip from Guadalajara and another one back.
What Eva Silgado has always been clear about in her relationship with basketball has been to prioritize her studies. In fact, she is a pedagogue, a profession that she can combine with sports. “They have always instilled in me that the first thing is studies. So, when I signed for Canoe, the first premise was that if you don’t pass all the subjects, you don’t play. And it was real, who had one subject left, one game was left without playing. I haven’t stopped playing. For me, basketball has always been an escape route from the routine of studying”, she comments.
Its objective
Plaza Guadalajara Basket Fair. It is the name in which Eva has all the senses of her currently. It is her team and she fights to get into the upper zone of the First National. “I have entered new but I see a very consolidated team and very good at the level of team sport. Any player can stand out at any time and that is very important in basketball. We have a chance of playing in the final four”, she analyzes, while she makes a wish: “I am convinced that the best times for women’s basketball will return in Guadalajara. In this project I see enthusiasm, a lot of work and above all that the quarry girls have a reference and that is very important”.
IN SHORT
Tell us the name of a reference in the world of women’s sports?
I could say Laia Palau and Pau Gasol, but if I think about it, for me the references are the values and that is transmitted to me by my brother Alberto, who has been an athlete and played the promotion phase with the Marchamalo, he transmits me improvement and perseverance . Also my cousin Leo who has just started playing and is eight years old and gives me enthusiasm and that is important in sport. In diversity is richness and I stay with many.
Do you think there is gender inequality in sport?
Sport is one more line of society and in society, unfortunately, there is still discrimination. It is true that in women’s sport, in basketball, in recent years there has been an important change, especially at the level of visibility and it is more accessible and there we do not have to envy the men’s sport at all.
If we made a ranking of historical athletes from Guadalajara, who would have to be in the lead?
For me, Sonia Reyes, with taekwondo and her presence in the Olympic Games, is the great reference in Guadalajara.
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