Long Beach State University Athletics
Figueroa on the Peruvian National Team
8/1/2006 12:00:00 AM | General
Game Connects to her Heritage Some realities force an athlete to appreciate playing point guard on a Big West team that fell short of a berth in the women's NCAA Tournament. Try equator-region summer afternoons in a ramshackle gym without air conditioning, where it's so H-O-T that even the basketballs sweat and the timeouts leave you sticking to the bench, worried that, if you stand up, you'll leave behind skin. Try going into a huddle with the coach and the assistant - who also is the athletic trainer, equipment manager and statistician - speaking Spanish with such speed and slang that you don't understand what play to run. ¿Qué? ¿Dónde? ¿Por qué? Houston center Yao Ming of China and Seattle outfielder Ichiro Suzuki of Japan had interpreters to help them through transitions. But Long Beach State point guard Karina Figueroa, born in Lima, Peru, and raised in Southern California basketball, doesn't have many luxuries playing today for the Peruvian Women's National Team. None of The Walter Pyramid's air conditioning, locker rooms, well-manicured hardwood or high-ceiling Pyramid-ness. No English. No athletic trainers waiting on her with water, Gatorade and fresh towels. No weight room. No practice uniforms. No ice. No catered meals in a dining hall. Aside from Argentina's Manu Ginobili playing for the three-time NBA champion San Antonio Spurs, basketball isn't NBA-huge in South America, especially on the women's side. Sports sponsors there throw their dollars at soccer and make those teams royalty. That leaves few resources for women's basketball, even at the national level. The Peruvian women's team is mostly run by two people: the coach and an assistant. Figueroa said the courts "are in bad condition." Water breaks don't entail jogging to a fountain or a cooler. Sorry. There's a limited supply of water that has been boiled, and getting a gulp of it means first getting your hands on one of the three cups the entire team has to share. Team meals consists of a cheese sandwich after practice. And travel? The players hope they don't have to share a bus ride with caged chickens. "This is the closest to third-world country I've seen," the former Rosary High guard and two-time Serra League MVP told her father, Moises, who is traveling with her. Moises Figueroa still doesn't know how the Peruvian National Team found out about his daughter and the basketball talent that won her the 49ers' starting point guard job as a freshman this past season. "I received a call one Sunday in early April from a man who identified himself as 'the president of the (Peruvian Athletic) federation,'" her father said. "He said their coach was very interested in Karina, that they followed her stats from the Long Beach State web site, and that they were impressed." Soon 49ers assistant Jason Flowers was sending game film of Figueroa to Peru, and 49ers coach Mary Hegarty was granting permission for Figueroa to travel to South America on July 9 and begin training July 10. Figueroa arrived to find that she, at 19, was the youngest on a team of women in their late 20s and early 30s. Everything, everyone, even basketball, seemed foreign. Fortunately, her appearance - olive skin, mocha eyes and dark brown hair - allowed her to slip back into the homeland. She didn't stand out like the lobster-red, sunscreen-nosed tourists from Wisconsin who hit Huntington Beach in flip-flops - with socks. But everything on Figueroa's 5-foot-8, slender frame is American, not South American. So this has become her chance to reconnect with her homeland. Her father, who pushed Karina into elite soccer as a child, grew up in Lima as a goaltender in Peru's more-embraced futbol. He played four years at the University of Lima and one year in the pros. Her paternal grandmother, Carmen, played basketball on the women's national team in the '40s and '50s until she shattered her hip and was forced to retire at 24 with metal holding her pelvis together. Last week Karina visited with her grandmother, who is getting to see her grandchild play for the first time. Never did Carmen Figueroa believe women's basketball would find its way back into the family line, much less give a grandchild a scholarship to an American university. For the first two weeks on the team, Figueroa struggled at point guard. Her shooting was off. Her passes zipped passed targets. Flow seemed a foreign concept. And the offense was as hit-and-miss as Figueroa's Spanish. Then last month basketball indeed became a universal language. Figueroa started at point and led the women's national team to a victory over the men's team at National University. "She regained her confidence," Moises Figueroa said. "The players were receptive to her. They helped her adapt and started to take care of her, even though she was benching the team's longtime point guard." The Peruvian Women's National Team opens play against Brazil today in the South American Basketball Tournament in Paraguay. Nobody knows how many fans will watch from the stands. It's hot, the seats are hard, the commute there is rough and the tournament is just beginning. But for Karina Figueroa, playing today isn't about the comforts of sports. It's about a commitment to her heritage. |
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