Women’s league coach, strength of a good block

When barely three regattas were held in LGT-F, absolute women’s category Galician League of Coaches, some figures and clubs are starting to stand out with their goals aimed at promotion to the Euskotren league. Coaches of different boats discuss for La Voz who are the main figures of the competition.

Opposite of A-League male, the vast majority of coaches decided to highlight different groups of jerseys, both from their squads and from their competitors.

Juan ZunzuneguiChapela’s rower and coach, is committed to the main blocks that make up his own team, focusing on the “home” group, with rowers like Vero Montes or the sisters auntie and Marina Dominguez, “who work and perform together for many years”.

The coach from Vigo points out the Robaleira juniors, “who bring freshness and youth with very good games”, and the Mecos jerseys, whose competitiveness stands out.

Jorge Hermida and Jorge Sanmartin, The coaches of Mugardos-A Cabana Ferrol mention names as competition references: Iris Simón, from Perillo, and Verónica Montes, Antía Domínguez and Marina Domínguez, from Chapela. Hermida justifies these choices based on their careers, a criterion he considers essential given his influence and “ability to change teams”.

Ramon Bermudez, Rai, trainer of Rianx together with Fran Romero, prefers to watch his own drifter. Rai opts for a block of veteran t-shirts, who “opted for the project”, those “at home”, which he defines as “pillars of the project” and those for young people, “very exciting and dedicated to the drifter”.

Felipe Silva, from the unemployed, he also keeps T-shirts from his drifter, and mentions his own names. It highlights Amalia Solla and Silvia Úbeda, participants in several La Conche flags and present in the Euskotren league in the past, of which their “experience and trade” stands out. Likewise, the technician from Dismissed also highlights the figures of Antía and Marina Domínguez for their long careers.

Laura Davila, of the Puebla boat trainer, defends the community of fixed bench against individuality, but for this reason does not bypass proper names. Davila singles out the sisters Domínguez from Chapela and Silvia Úbeda from Cesantes, considering them “part of the history of Galician women’s rowing” and “reference jerseys that made us dream of being like them”.

The wise Roman, de Perillo, refers to the fixed bench as a team sport and points out Chapela, Rianxo and Mugardos-A Cabana Ferrola as the main drifters, avoiding individualities, stating that “they all stand out as a group”.

Unai Fernandez, Coach Castropol, bets on experience and seniority in his choices, highlighting Silvia and Amalia, from Cesantes, and Alba Meis and the Domínguez sisters, from Chapela. In the same way, Fernández appreciates the figure of Laura Davila, a rower and coach from Puebla, who gathered a great career in Cabo da Cruz and several appearances in La Concha.

“It is difficult to identify the best rowers, some go under the radar”

A common point among the league’s coaches consulted by La Voz is the difficulty of highlighting a name above the community, even more so in “a category that is hardly televised and difficult to cover”, as mentioned by Jorge Hermida, of Mugardos-A Cabana Ferrol.

The differences are big in this respect, not only with the men’s categories of the Galician League, which have a bit more visibility than the women’s league, but also with the Euskotren League itself: «This is not ACT, and in the end it is always much more difficult to identify all the best rowers, inevitably is that some of them go under the radar,” says Román Sabio, from Perillo.

Another factor that makes it not so easy for coaches to observe certain profiles outside of their coaches is the short time that has passed since the women’s competition Liga Galega de Traíñas started the 2023 season: «Many of the teams we start from scratch or with many new faces between the arrivals of other clubs and youth promotion. It’s normal that we’re more focused on our teams than on other teams,” says Chapela’s Zunzunegui.