This week we examined the final round of qualifiers for next year’s World Cup including how Mexico was barely saved from an embarrassing elimination.
While the men’s national team is under turmoil and on Friday hired its fourth head coach in forty days, another much younger squad has served as an example of unity and resiliance.
A children’s team representing the indigenous Trique community triumphed at a mini-basketball tournament held in Argentina this month. Nicknamed “the barefoot mice from Mexico” since several members of the team are short and prefer not to use sneakers, the hoopsters from Oaxaca won all six of their matches against squads from around the world.
The Trique youngsters’ triumph was recognized by Mexico’s Chamber of Deputies with a one-minute standing ovation while President Enrique Peña Nieto tweeted that the team’s effort “makes Mexicans proud.”
The forty players, which include five girls, are between the ages of eight and eleven and are allowed to participate as long as they have good grades at school, do their chores at home and speak their native language.
The following video shows the team’s homecoming to Mexico as well as an interview with one of the players who was proud of his impoverished community “that could use more resources so we can all have better lives”:
We’ll return on Monday to look at some news stories and notes from the Americas. Thank you all for reading our blog’s posts.
Video Source– YouTube via user Cadena3Noticias
Online Sources – ABC News; SI.com; Latin Post; The Latin Americanist
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