Real Estelí Baloncesto

Real Estelí
Nickname	El Tren del Norte (The Train of the North)
Leagues	Liga Superior de Baloncesto BCL Americas
Founded	2018; 7 years ago (2018)
History	Real Estelí Baloncesto 2018–present
Arena	Alexis Arguello Sports Complex
Capacity	8,057
Location	Managua, Nicaragua
President	Fidel Moreno
Head coach	David Rosario
Championships	6 (2018-2022, 2024)
Website	realestelifc.com/basket
Home Away

Real Estelí Baloncesto is a Nicaraguan basketball team based in Managua. Founded in 2018, it is the basketball section of the Real Estelí FC football club, which was founded in 1959. The team entered the Liga Superior de Baloncesto (LSB) for its debut season in 2018 season.[1]

Real Estelí's home arena is the Alexis Arguello Sports Complex, which was opened in 2017 and has a capacity of 8,057 people.[2]

History

The first game of the team in the LSB was played on 9 February 2018 against Leones de Managua.

In 2019, head coach David Rosario took over the team. Before he joined Estelí, Rosario had been the three-time Baloncesto Superior Nacional champion with Capitanes de Arecibo.[3] In the same year, Real Estelí played in the inaugural season of the newly founded, Basketball Champions League Americas.[4] Real reached the quarterfinals. A year later, the team won its first LSB championship after defeating Brumas de Jinotega in the playoff finals.

In April 2021, Real Estelí played in the Final Eight of the 2020–21 BCL Americas and hosted the tournament in Managua. The team managed to reach the final for the first time in club history,[5] where it narrowly lost to Flamengo 80–84.[6]

Real Estelí qualified for the 2021–22 BCL Americas season, which was its fourth in a row. El Tren del Norte was allotted into Group A alongside Cangrejeros de Santurce and the Edmonton Stingers.[3]

On 3 December 2021, the club repeated as LSB champions after beating Brunas de Jinotega in the final. The following 2022 season, Real Estelí captured their fourth title.[7]

Honours

National

Liga Superior de Baloncesto

• Champions (6): 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2024

Carlos Ulloa Tournament

• Champions (1): 2022

International

BCL Americas

• Runner-up (1): 2020–21

Liga Centroamericana

• Winners (1): 2018

Players

Main category: Real Estelí Baloncesto players

Current roster

Real Estelí roster
Players	Coaches
Pos. No. Nat. Name Ht. Age G 1 Downs, Deo 1.85 m (6 ft 1 in) 18 – (2006-06-01)1 June 2006 PF 2 Williams, Andy 2.00 m (6 ft 7 in) 35 – (1990-01-01)1 January 1990 G 3 Martínez, Josmel 1.85 m (6 ft 1 in) 25 – (1999-07-11)11 July 1999 PG 4 Hodgson, Sharlon 1.83 m (6 ft 0 in) 30 – (1994-07-01)1 July 1994 F 7 Pauth, Farrell 1.95 m (6 ft 5 in) 25 – (1999-09-06)6 September 1999 F 11 Pérez, Andy 2.00 m (6 ft 7 in) 25 – (1999-09-23)23 September 1999 C 23 López, Bartel 2.13 m (7 ft 0 in) 35 – (1989-10-27)27 October 1989 G 27 Torres, Aaron 1.85 m (6 ft 1 in) 26 – (1998-02-23)23 February 1998 G/F 29 Garth, Francisco 1.95 m (6 ft 5 in) 25 – (1999-03-14)14 March 1999 F/C 34 Furgeson, Ponce 2.05 m (6 ft 9 in) 29 – (1995-05-01)1 May 1995 SF 35 Campbell, Jensen 1.98 m (6 ft 6 in) 26 – (1998-02-17)17 February 1998 PG 77 Ponce, Romario 1.80 m (5 ft 11 in) 30 – (1995-01-14)14 January 1995	Head coach David Rosario Assistant coach(es) Giovanni Rivera Jose Rios Legend (C) Team captain Injured Roster Updated: December 1, 2022

Pos.	Starting 5	Bench 1	Bench 2
C	Bartel López	Ponce Ferguson
PF	Andy Pérez	Farrel Pauth	Andy Williams
SF	Josmel Martínez	Jensen Campbell
SG	Deo Downs	Franisco Garth	Aaron Torres
PG	Romario Ponce	Sharlon Hodgson

Performance in international competitions

  Champions    Runners-up    Third place    Fourth place  

Basketball Champions League Americas

Below are all the seasons of Real Estelí in the BCL Americas competition.

  Champions    Runners-up

Season	League	Result	W–L	%
2019–20	BCL Americas	Quarter-finals (lost to Instituto)	5–2	.714
2020–21		Runners-up (lost to Flamengo)	6–3	.667
2021–22		Quarter-finalist (lost to São Paulo)	3–4	.429
2022–23		Quarter-finalist (lost to Quimsa)	4–4	.500
2023–24		Quarter-finalist (lost to Quimsa)	4–5	.444
2024–25
Totals		0 titles	22–18	.556

Notable players

- Set a club record or won an individual award as a professional player.
- Played at least one official international match for his senior national team at any time.

Note: Flags indicate national team eligibility at FIBA-sanctioned events. Players may hold other non-FIBA nationalities not displayed.

• Delroy James
• Renaldo Balkman
• Alex Franklin
• Javier Mojica
• Melsahn Basabe
• D'or Fischer

References

1. "Real Estelí debutará en torneo de baloncesto - Metro". Metro Nicaragua. 6 February 2018. Retrieved 2 October 2019.
2. Nicaragua largest sports complex
3. Real Estelí lleva su sabor boricua a la Basketball Champions League Giovanny Vega (El Vocero), 12 September 2021. Accessed 3 January 2022.(in Spanish)
4. "Basketball Champions League Americas groups and schedule confirmed". FIBA.basketball. Retrieved 2 October 2019.
5. "Real Esteli reaches BCLAmericas Final for first time in club history". FIBA.basketball. Retrieved 14 August 2021.
6. "Flamengo wins 2021 BCLAmericas Championship". FIBA.basketball. Retrieved 14 August 2021.
7. "LSB Round 5 of Finals. Real Esteli capture the title". Latinbasket.com. 1 December 2022. Retrieved 18 December 2022.

External links

• REAL ESTELI profile - Champions League Americas
• Real Estelí Baloncesto on Twitter