SPORT JOVENTUT DE BADALONA THEBASKETBALL CLUB JOVENTUT, FOUNDED IN 1930 IN THE TOWN OF BADALONA,KNOWN AS THE "CRADLE OF BASKETBALL", HAS DOUBLED ITS MEMBERSHIP IN A FEW YEARS. THERECENT INAUGURATION OF THE PALAU MUNICIPALD'ESPORTS, WITH ROOM FOR 12,500 SPECTATORS, HAS BEEN A BOOST TO "LA PENYA"ON THE SPORTING, FINANCIAL AND SOCIAL LEVELS. ith 11,200 members, Joventut some of the activities taking place in de Badalona is currently the Badalona are overshadowed by others basketball club with the Iargest in the Catalan capital. In this respect, membership in Europe. This has been there's no doubt that if Badalona has a possible thanks to their move to the Pa- sign of identity of its own, this is none lau Municipal d'Esports de Badalona, other than the Club Joventut, an organi- inaugurated on 1 September 1991, and sation which, since its foundation, has which this summer will be the setting for taken its name and that of the city al1 the men's and wornen's basketball over the world. The people of Badalona events of the Olympic Games. thrill to Joventut's victories and suffer For years the Club Joventut had to make when things go wrong, but more than do with having 5,000 members, be- anything else, they are proud of their cause of the limitations imposed by its club. pavilion in the Carrer d'Ausias March, It is precisely this symbiosis between the with its capacity for 5,500 spectators. city of Badalona and Club Joventut that With the loan on the part of Badalona has given most energy and drive to the City Council of the Palau Municipal club since it was formed on 30 March 1 (12,500 spectators) for 15 years, Jo- 1930, when a group of friends formed ventut has been able to double its mem- the "Penya Spirit of Badalona". The bership and make progress on the group's chief activity was sport, espe- sporting, financia1 and social levels. cially bicycle outings, football, table- Badalona is a city of almost 220,000 tennis and basketball. After the Spanish inhabitants, where you breathe basket- Civil War, in 1939, the organisation ball everywhere you go. In its schools it modified its statutes and changed its is difficult to find a boy or girl who has name to "Club Juventud Badalona", its never, in his or her spare time, tried to directors choosing a name that sounded get a ball into a basket, and a lot of the practically the same in Castilian as in young people belong to one of the bas- Catalan. ketball teams and take part in the The new statutes were approved on 20 school competitions. Not for nothing, August 1943, and in article 2 they spe- then, is Badalona known as the "cradle cified that the club's aim was thé pro- - of basketball". motion of basketball. For some years, e tts proximity to Barcelona means that the Club Joventut also had roller hockey - - -- SPORT and handball teams, but these sports two Korac Cups (1980-8 1 and 1989-90). never caught on in the same way as One of the aspects Joventut has tradi- basketball, which today is the only tionally concentrated on is the encour- sport the "Penya" takes part in. "Penya" agement of local players. The Penya's is the name Joventut is popularly known first team has quite a number of players as, in memory of that "Penya Spirit of 'that have come up from the club's sec- Badalona" of the thirties, and the fans ondary tearns. In 1974, Joventut was also cheer the team on with the cry of the first club to start a basketball "Forca,Penya". school, which now has 700 boys and In its 62 years of history, Joventut has girls grouped in 40 teams which take won a number of official titles, although part in the championships organised by a few less than they would have liked in the Catalan and Spanish Federations in Badalona, because for a long time the the different categories. team was overshadowed by Real Ma- The main sporting successes of these drid and FC Barcelona, who easily sur- training teams have been those of the pass them in funding and have there- junior team, which was Spanish cham- fore also been able to get hold of the pion in its category for three consecu- best players. Amongst the Penya's titles tive seasons, from 1986 to 1989. The are four Spanish Leagues ( 1966-67, team had players like Juan Antonio Mo- 1 977-78, 1990-9 1 and 1 99 1 -92) and rales, Carles Ruf, Jordi Pardo and To- SPORT mbs Jofresa, now in the Penya's senior seconds from the end of the European team. league final left the Penya, who had Alongside them, Jordi Villacampa, Ra- been followed to lstanbul by more than fael Jofresa, Ferran Martínez, the nat- 800 fans, without a title which no Cata- lan team has yet achieved. *uralized Spaniard Mike Smith and the North Americans Corny Thompson and A few months earlier, in October 1991, Harold Pressley, trainéd by Lolo Sainz, in Paris, Joventut also got within a hair's make up the present team of a Club breadth of breaking the myth of the Joventut-- . which in the last few seasons NBA, when at the Open McDonald's has grown spectacularly in every sense, they lost by just two points against the thanks largely to the financial contribu- legendary Los Angeles Lakers, in one of #ion of its sponsor, which at present is Magic Johnson's last matches. Montigalb, a company belonging to the But in spite of these two occasions, Jo- banking group Banesto. ventut at this moment has an organisa- This financial effort -with a budget of tional structure and a popular support 814 millian pesetas- has allowed Joven- 'that allow it to face the future with opti- tut to take a leap forward, a leap which mism. We can be sure that for a long last April almost took them to the height time yet to come, when people speak of of European basketball. But a basket Badalona, the first thing to come to by the Serbian Djordjevic iust three mind will be the name "Club Joventut".~ .