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INTERNATIONAL TOURNAMENT OF YOUNG CHILDREN.
1971 ………..
A story of peace and friendship owned to the will of one man.
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At the end of the last world war, the Montbrison basketball club was one of the first to take part in a tournament outside France, it had been invited at the end of december 1945 by the Sanas BC Lauzanne club (Switzerland).  André Dubruc, emblematic figurehead of the club, remains to this day, one of the founding fathers of 1934, his passion for the BCM's younger teams made him takes in 1970 the leadership of the "benjamins". All the players of that time remember his wolkswagen estate car filled with sweets as he was as much a sugar daddy as a coach. Nicely teased by the others leaders about his personal view on coaching, Dédé decided to reply to gibes by a great idea which he had in secret : turn the departmental tournament born some years before into an international one, that for his young basketball players. This category of players, very in fashion at that time thanks to his great friend, Robert Busnel, was imported from spain a new category for the youngest, the "mini basketball" who is played with balls and backboards designed to suit the size of young players All the senior men and women international tournaments took place in the only hall of sports existing in Montbrison, still owned by the club, so it was unthinkable to disrupt them. Against all odds, André decided that all the basketball matchs would be played on the parking places and playgrounds !. To make things more difficult the regional teams would qualify at the end of a tounament that would take place during the previous month on the above mentioned spots in Montbrison.
Two events to organize at the same time for the club leaders, André Dubruc required all the younger members of the club, some still cadets or minimes to help him in his adventure, him being the team conductor. So on april 10th and 11th 1971, Easter week-end, the teams of MONACO, CD MATARO (already), GRIFFEU LLANCA (Spain), RACING BELL MALINE (belgium) , ETTELBRUCK (luxembourg) , FEURS, SURY LE COMTAL, ST CHAMOND, BCM etc took part in the first international tournament of "benjamins" on square Bouvier and square Eugene Beaune. The accomodation was provided to all those teams by Victor de Laprade school with a huge dormitory, as in the movies of the 30s. An official lunch presided at the sub-prefect, the local MP, the mayor, and a lot of promitent citizen would be served on Sunday. the whole financing of the event was made possible by the resourcefulness, the contacts, and the limitless charisma of its creator !. The tornament showed enough profits to enable the young players of the club to go on a trip to Spain... Up at the crack of dawn for the setting up of backboards, refreshment rooms, score tables, the laying out of the playing grounds, the likes of Jean Jacques DUPLAN, Jean Marc BOIBIEUX, Guy DUPUY, Christian JALLON, Yves DESJARDIN, Jean Yves COIFFET, Daniel GUILLOT, Alain THINET and a lot of other young people, club leaders or players, spent on the Montbrison playgrounds a fabulous and incredible week-end, without imagining that forty years later, some of them would still be members of the organizing comitee to continue the adventure.
The septical have become fans, and the public has been captivated by the young players, the adventure was launched !!! and what a wonderfull adventure, it has been ever since !. Since then, other people have joined the organizing comitee, always with the same wish to perpetuate the tournament with the same enthusiasm. Under the guidance of Jean Jacques Duplan, Marcel Couhert, Raymond Damon, Jean Marc Boibieux the tournament took off. André DUBRUC has passed away, the times have changed, and next to the JP.CHERBLANC hall, a magnificent and ever expanding sport complex has come to life under the management of various town councils. It now includes five basketball places set into four sport halls, five outdoor and three indoor tennis courts, a combined indoor, outdoor swimming pool, all of which within two hundred metres, in the middle of a magnificent public park and close to the secondary schools. Seniors tournament have come to an end due to prohibitive costs, the entire benjamins tournament takes place indoor and is used by the "Loire comitee" to assess the departmental and regional referees. The young foreign players are puted up in some Montbrison families, while Mario Meunier school and MFR house offer to french players functional facilities such as a restaurant and modern and comfortable dormitory. A lot of players from the seventies regularly come back with their offspring, players to, on the premises of their great deeds. The passion is still there and so are happy memories...... For forty years, more than twenty countries have taken part in Easter contests, five thousands young players have gathered from every europeen country, even USA and Algeria. and the grandstands of the sport complex have been overrun by five hundreds referees and thousands of spectators. The benjamin tournament is the worthy successor of great international tournaments with witnessed the performances of some of the greatest Europeen clubs, from Real Madrid to Slask Wroclaw, from ASK Ljubljana au CSK Moscou. These great teams used to play at Cherblanc in front of one thousand spectators. Nowadays the finals take place in DUBRUC Hall, where the shadow of André the visionary hovers, more than ever, over a gym named after him. It's not uncommon to see the 1500 seats stormed by an audience more and more appreciative of all these budding young basketball players. Since 2005, the international tournament has had a "little brother", the Loire Forez tournament which enables young players of neigbouring clubs to share easter tournament atmosphere and to immerse themselves in Europeen basketball. The story of benjamin tournament merges with the story of a man, André Dubruc, and that of a club, both of which always have believed in peace, friendship and conviviality long before the Europeen Community became a reality.
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| JP. Cherblanc F.Palmier A.Dubruc R.Busnel J.Soleillant | ||
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