Andrew yeats is a basketball player from gibraltar. for us, he speaks of his sport in gibraltar, of the European Championship for small countries, and of his carrer.1.Can you introduce yourself ? Hi, my name is Andrew Yeats, from Gibraltar and i work as a Customs Officer 2.Why did you choose basketball and how to discover this sport ? I was introduced to basketball at a very young age as my dad also played for the National Team and then moved on to be national team coach when i was young so i used to go watch their training sessions regularly. 3.What is your best feel during the game ? During the game i feel most comfortable when i play well defensively, and the team feeds off my energy. On offence i feel best when i bring my team mates in to the game by getting them into rhythm and also when im able to get to the basket and finish. 4.You play for Gibraltar, what is the importance of baskeball in this country ? Basketball has always been the second sport in Gibraltar after football, there is a lot of work going in behind the scenes recruiting youngsters. The womens technical director has put in many hours and been successful in recruiting over 150 girls under 12 to take up the sport, and this success is apparent in the FIBA U16 where most of the girls are still under 12 or 14. 6.Do you think that Gibraltar can become a big nation in basketball world ? It would be a very tough ask as we only have 35,000 population, however with a good long term plan and integrity and honesty from within we could be able to win games consistently in our level. 7.Are you financially supported by gouvernment, sponsors,...? We get funded by the government to a certain extent but i dont really know much about the federations finances. 8.You had played FIBA European Championship for Small Countries , in San Marino. What are the main memories ? What I take away from this tournament is winning games which we haven't done in the last few years, in Moldova 2016 we only took 9 players and 2 were under 18s, so naturally it was very tough. This year we incorporated a few players (4) from abroad namely Spain who helped us massively. It can be seen from the efficiency stats they were our two best players, and also from Lithuania one of the European big guns. 9.In club, you play in Great Britain. Can you speak of your club and of the level in this country ? Throughout the season i play at Semi-Pro level in Spain for Union Linense Baloncesto. Its in liga EBA which is the 4th tier of Spanish basketball. In the last three seasons we have made it to the playoffs. One of the years we lost on the last hurdle to promotion to LEB Plata. This year we will try and go one step further to promotion. 10.What is your purposes in your career ? The main aim in my basketball career as a player is to be able to win a Gold medal in the Island Games 2019 held in Gibraltar. Additionally, as although im only 26 I have been in the National team since I was 16 so to be able and use my experience to help the youngsters coming up to become better players but most importantly to become better people and have good morals not only in basketball but also in whatever they set out to do and become. Once my playing days are over i would definitely like to pursue a coaching role, I feel the years and the level at which I have played throughout my career have given me the relevant experiences to have a good foundation to be a successful. With every coach I have always made it a point to learn their methodologies and people skills and how players react to each coaches way of communicating with their players. By Hugo Bâcle
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