Débora Rubin*
São Paulo – The veteran basketball team of the Esporte Clube Sírio (Syrian Sports Club), a traditional club from the southeastern Brazilian city of São Paulo, is currently in Tunisia on an unusual mission. The team is going to play on Friday (30) against Tunisian veterans for the Ramon Semin Trophy. The Trophy is an initiative of the Arab Brazilian Chamber of Commerce, of the Tunisian Consulate in São Paulo, and of Esporte Clube Sírio to pay a tribute to the former managing vice-president at the Chamber, and former president of the club. Semin, who passed away in 2004, was the head of Sírio in 1979, when the professional team won the World Interclub Basketball Championship. "He was a great friend of ours and a basketball enthusiast," recalls the current president of the club, Raul Sarhan.
According to Rubens Hannun, honorary consul of Tunisia in São Paulo, playing in the Arab country with the Sírio team was a dream for Semin. "Unfortunately, he did not have time to see his wish come true," Hannun said. Semin played basketball for Sírio in his teens. Further on, he was also a member of the veteran team. According to Sarhan, of Clube Sírio, the idea is to continue with the tribute by inviting the Tunisian team, comprised of veterans from several teams, to come play in São Paulo.
The Ramon Semin Trophy will be disputed on March 30, in Tunis. Tomorrow (29), the Sírio team will play against another veteran team: Etoile. "It will be a warm-up for the next day," jokes André Gesini, one of the players. Gesini, who is 67 years old, also played in the professional teams of the Corinthians and Palmeiras clubs. He started training basketball at age 13, at Clube de Regatas Tietê. In the team that is now in Tunisia, the oldest player is 70 years old, and the youngest is 55. Most players are in the Hyper Master category, for people aged 60 or older.
Tradition
Esporte Clube Sírio reached its heyday in basketball in 1979, when the pro team won the World Interclub Basketball Championship. The team featured one of the greatest Brazilian basketball players of all time, Oscar Schmidt.
During the 1980s, the club lost its professional team due to lack of sponsorship. "Sponsors always give priority to football. And then, after 1992, when the Brazilian volleyball team won the Olympic Games (Barcelona), volleyball replaced basketball," explained the president of Sírio, Raul Sarhan. According to him, it takes a monthly budget of 100,000 reais (approximately US$ 50,000) to maintain a professional team.
Currently, there are 80 children at the Sírio basketball school, for children of up to 13 years of age. "We are thinking of increasing the age limit to 15," Sarhan said. And there are also the veteran teams, which come together from two to three times a week to play. "We lost our sponsorship, but we did not lose our tradition," the president sums up. The club also has football, volleyball, tennis, Olympic gymnastics and judo schools.
Contact
www.sirio.org.br
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
