VIDEO. Saint-Ouen: every Wednesday, these basketball players appropriate a field often monopolized “by the guys”

2023-06-14 01:08:21

“9 p.m.! “, a young basketball player gets angry, pointing his wrist. With his comrades, he has just interrupted the game of a dozen women, entering the field. Tone up. The players want to end their match undisturbed. “Guys, guys, there’s no problem, we’ll stop, we’ll finish our action,” retorts the coach and founder of the Comète club, Carole Cicciu. The basketball player insists, without managing to dialogue with his interlocutors: “9 p.m.! “. “But you don’t even have a watch!” “replies the player. Later, she tries to calm the situation with one of the members of the group: “He waits for an hour once a week… We’re there once a week! »

This situation is “very anecdotal because today our work is accepted, our presence is also accepted”, according to her. The work of the Comète Club: to allow women and gender minorities to find a place on public basketball courts, while making women’s sport visible in these spaces usually monopolized by men. Every Wednesday evening, it is in Saint-Ouen that a dozen sportswomen meet for 1h30. An occupancy agreement signed with the town hall of Saint-Ouen makes it possible to secure the niche. On Saturday morning, these orange ball lovers converge on the 18th arrondissement of Paris.

“I found that if I wanted to take up basketball outdoors, I had to play only with guys and I couldn’t play with them. We don’t have the same way of playing. I often injured myself, ”points out Carole Cicciu. Around her, gravitate about thirty basketball players who can come when they wish, without constraints. “Politically, it’s strong! “, rejoices Anne-Laure, who comes to train with her 17-year-old daughter Jeanne. “Seeing that I can almost play, that I know the rules a little, now I’m more comfortable,” agrees the high school student. “Adolescent girls when they pass are often taken aback. They look at us and say to themselves “oh well, we can come and play too”.