The multipurpose “baskin” (inclusive basketball) and basketball court was inaugurated last Thursday afternoon in the outdoor area of the “Dino Bubani” sports hall in Faenza.
This is an innovation that aims to respond to the needs of inclusion in sport carried out by the Asd Disabili together with the Nuova Co.GISport, which manages the municipal swimming pools in the area and in collaboration with the Faenza Basket Project the sports hall and the basketball court at open, which was recently redeveloped thanks to the contribution of the Cooperative Credit Bank of Ravenna, Forlì and Imola.
Baskin means “integrated basketball”. It is a new sport designed, studied and created so that normally able-bodied children and disabled children can play together in the same team (made up of both males and females). It takes inspiration from basketball, of which it uses the general structure, maintains its objectives but changes the rules, adapting them to the various types of disabilities present. So much so that any type of disability (as long as it allows shooting a basket) can take part with specific and fundamental tasks for determining the final result.
Baskin arrived in Faenza in 2014 thanks to the Asd Disabili which, with the support and participation of young athletes from Faenza, gave life to a dream that quickly became reality. Swimming activity is the spearhead of the Association’s activities followed by team activity in baskin which has allowed us to broaden our horizons. Since 2018, participation in baskin has increased until the formation of two teams active on the field: Faventia Baskin (white shirt) and Baskin Faenza (blue shirt).
The inauguration was actually a little party attended by many of the kids who carry out sporting activities under the aegis of the Asd Disabili Faenza, which is based in the main building of the swimming centre, together with instructors and coaches, with the participation by Martina Laghi (municipal councilor for educational services, instruction, sport and sports facilities), Davide Morara (president of Nuova Co.GISport), Robert Brocchi (president of ASD Disabili Faenza), Cinzia Amorino (coordinator of ASD Disabili Faenza) and to Marco Spina (secretary of the Faenza Lions Club).
“Ours is a voluntary association where everyone commits themselves with spontaneity and passion – underlined Cinzia Amorino -. Michele Montevecchi is part of our family and has made his time available as a freelancer and has designed, based on the ideas I reported to him, two lateral baskets at a height of 2.20 metres: one is fixed installed on the ground with its foundation and can be opened and closed with light pressure; the other in steel is placed on the external wall of the sports hall and is equally innovative, because it will open and close with a system powered by a solar panel. We’ve been working on this project for a year and we’re finally here. Cristiano Tarlazzi from CST did an excellent job, and all on a voluntary basis, who created everything in his workshop on Montevecchi’s project, then arrived with a crane to assemble one of the two baskets. This is the first court in Italy – Cinzia Amorino specified -: it has fixed baskets with this adaptation, because there are lateral basketball baskets in Friuli-Venezia Giulia and in Veneto, but they were not created with this system, but they are born with the aim of creating a basketball court within an outdoor field of a sports club. Here, however, the project starts in a different way. The concept is: space is public, sport is health, sport belongs to everyone, baskin is the emblem of all this”.
“We have put a lot of effort into making this field accessible, non-exclusive, and therefore inclusive – said Davide Morara -. The two small baskets required incredible work for which I thank the engineer Michele Montevecchi together with the CST company for their creation with a particular mechanism and which fully comply with safety standards. Our task is to preserve them: we know it will be difficult, since the field is open to the public and not everyone has this sensitivity, but we are committed and will commit to making it increasingly inclusive.”
Supporting the construction of the multifunctional basketball and basketball court were the Bcc of Ravenna, Forlì and Imola, CST Lamiere, the Tinti Arturo company, the Imola-based Copisteria Chal, the Faenza Lions Club and the Ente Italiano Sport Inclusivi (Eisi).
