World champions. The 1950s basketball team emerged from GEVP.
Sunday 18 June 1922 was not another day in the history of Villa del Parque. A group of neighbors, gathered in the Buenos Aires waiting room at the Pacific train station, decided to found a new institution: Gimnasia y Esgrima de Villa del Parque (GEVP).
Perhaps at the time it was impossible for them to think that in 2022 the members would celebrate the 100th anniversary of the club. And that is what will happen this Saturday, even if in reality the 100 years of GEVP will be celebrated throughout the year.
At that meeting, the Organizing Committee was appointed, consisting of Gustavo Laporte (President), Francisco Gómez Tardío (Deputy), José Medina Parral (Secretary), César Pomato (Treasurer), Juan Herrera (Pro-Treasurer), Alfredo Barreto, Josué Bartoletti , Salvador Gallez, Luis Furlong, Inocencio Ibáñez, Martín Torino, H. Lartigou Lespada, Raúl Lalloz, Oscar Cufré, Eugenio Bameule, Jorge Emparanza, Carlos Furlong, Lorenzo Gagniere and Ernesto Laporte (vocals).
In the Villa del Parco. GEVP is an institution with a long history in the neighborhood.
A month later, at the first Shareholders’ Meeting at the offices of Tinogasta and Llavallol, the statutes were approved and the Board of Directors was elected.
These were the beginnings of an institution that has grown by leaps and bounds and is part of the neighborhood’s history. In addition to the members who have spent these 100 years, there have been exceptional athletes and families who met and grew up there, with several generations maintaining the tradition of representing the club in some sport and being part of the social life.
When it comes to athletes, GEVP is proud to say that it is “the club of world champions”, as the base of the Argentine basketball team that won the 1950 World Cup at Luna Park was Villa del Parque: Oscar Furlong, Roberto Viau, Omar Monza, Raúl Pérez Varela and Jorge Nuré, as well as coach Jorge Canavesi.
It would be impossible to mention all those who represented – and represent – GEVP, but Cestobol should also be mentioned, with several Olimpia de Plata winners (Graciela Cortazzi in 1977 and 1978, Cecilia Socías in 1996, Giselle Nisnik in 1997, Julieta Sardo in 2000, María Laura García, in 2005 and Florencia Paganelli in 2006); gymnast Eric Pedercini, gold medalist at the 1999 Pan American Games in Winnipeg, Canada; and the fencer and athlete Elsa Lidia Irigoyen, multiple Argentine champion, gold medalist at the 1951 Pan American Games in Argentina and representative at the London 1948 and Helsinski 1952 Olympic Games.
Today the kids who frequent the club every day can dream of being like them. Every December the “Ricardo Alix” prize is awarded to the best athlete of the year, in recognition of the extraordinary basketball player who has distinguished himself in the activity with the Parque shirt.
GEVP currently has 1,500 members (plus a significant number of lifelong members), 4 gyms, 5 tennis courts, 2 swimming pools and other outdoor spaces, and always with the idea of expanding, thinking about the future.
Teens and adults alike have the opportunity to play basketball, volleyball, basketball, tennis, rhythmic gymnastics, artistic gymnastics, recreational soccer, jazz dance, skating, among other activities, and join sports schools, starting sports teaching.
They are the pillars to develop values such as passion, healthy life, socialization, friendship and become the third axis in the education of children, after home and school.
Source: Clarin
