One of the last “tall” women in Cuban basketball is our interviewee today, Marlen Cepeda. Central with good defense and attack, La Nena lives in Miami and works at a school. Not much to say, it was hard for me to convince her for this exchange.
Where do you live, what does this basketball woman do?
I currently live in the United States; Here, like every Cuban, I have made my way; I started working on things that at first shocked me because from traveling the entire world and having many people know me to being in a country completely unknown to me and working on whatever appeared… I think it is the biggest challenge in my life!
But nothing… Step by step I have achieved what I have set out to do, I am missing many things but I know that I will achieve them. Now I work in a school; I am an assistant for the basketball team, it is called Doral Academy. I am also security.
Is there a big difference between being an athlete and being a coach?
I fulfilled myself by being a player; Now, the experience is super nice because I have so much inside to teach that sometimes I think I’m the athlete hahaha, but well everything I experience here every day with my girls is nice.
Thanks to God and my saints, I am now a citizen of this incredible country, a great step for every emigrant. I’m not a mom yet, God hasn’t given me that opportunity but well, I’m waiting until God wants.
Why “Babe”?
I came to the national team as a girl, from there I came out as a girl. The same girls on the team named me that because I was one of the youngest. It was exactly the outstanding center Yaquelín Plutín who did it for the first time and then everyone followed her rhythm hahaha.
Beginnings, neighborhood, first court, first coach? Have you always liked basketball, are you from the high performance pyramid?
My first steps were not like those of a girl who leans towards basketball; It was all a bit crazy because I didn’t like sports but my mom always told me: “with that size and that foot you must be an athlete because I can’t buy you that size of shoe” hahahaha and for me that phrase became a challenge.
My first coach was Andrés del Monte, who taught me to love basketball, which I knew nothing about, but little by little I learned and loved it.
I went through the little school of Cuban basketball in the national ESPA. I was there for three years and as a youth player, even though I stayed a year and became a guest and talent on the national team; back then team C. Before, there was plenty to draw from; There were 3 teams A, BYC and sometimes even D.
How times change! Now it’s hard to get one and… to lose in the Central Americans.
Yes, but in those days the national ESPA searched the quarries throughout the country; Now it is very difficult after everything disappears, there are no Julita quarries.
Arrival at Cerro Pelado, how was your adaptation?
Cerro Pelado was a very strong school at the beginning. I wasn’t going to adapt quickly, training among so many figures that you admired and now you had by your side.
I felt strange but at the same time super happy to be there, with the best of the country; It is something nice for every athlete who dreams of reaching the maximum of his sporting result.
I played with super tall basketball players; My big impression was in 2008 when I went to Good Like in China and was with the entire American Dream Team. I was so impressed that my coach had to yell at me in the middle of the game because he didn’t understand how nervous I was feeling, can you imagine?
And I also remember with great affection when I went to a tournament in Brazil for the first time and I didn’t know how to get out of the dressing room… Many strong but beautiful things in the life of an athlete.
I have a lot to thank my teammates from that time, but especially Yaquelín Plutín, Taimara Suero, Milaisis Duani and Yuliseni Soria, who helped me a lot personally and athletically.
I make an aside for La Peca, Yamilé Martínez who, when I burst into tears because I saw myself powerless to do things well, told me: “work baby, that will come out at some point”…And so it was that little by little I got to where I was. I arrived inside and outside my country.
Better coaches, those that you don’t forget?
I have a coach, Eduardo Moya, to whom I owe a lot… a lot! He knew how to deal with my character and bring out of me the best version of me as an athlete and the other is Alberto Zabala, who also helped me a lot. These two technicians from the national team.
From the national ESPA I remember Núñez, a dark-skinned man, but he taught us that the sky is the limit; I thank him for not feeling afraid on a court and fighting with whoever they put in front of me because he told me: “as long as I have two hands just like you there is no difference” hahahaha and it’s true!
My discoverer was Andrés del Monte who saw me in a small field near my house in Sancti Spíritus.
You were born in 1985, a golden era for Cuban basketball: the girls stood tall, the boys defended themselves especially on the continent. None of that exists! Everything has disappeared. What is your opinion of the current disaster, when you lose in Centrocaribes with fifth category teams?
Yes Julita; I was born when basketball was basketball and I lived some very good moments but I am also a witness to the deterioration, the decline. We lost the 2018 Central American and that for me was the straw that broke the camel’s back.
So many years winning that tournament… I became very depressed to the point that I began to see myself off the courts; That adverse result marked my life, I cried a lot. What’s more, every time I remember it I get a lump in my throat. Believe me, it was very strong. There began a not very pleasant stage.
From your years in the national team, anything that stands out that you remember?
Look, I have played World Cups, pre-Olympics, Central and Pan American Games, tournaments in Europe, South America and Asia, and I keep something from everyone, a moment, a play, a basket but if you kill me, make it happen… oh Julita, I can’t tell you ! I spent 17 years dedicating my life to Cuban basketball, what couldn’t I do?
You were a very good pivot, what characterized you? Did you like another position, alera pivot for example? What’s up with the shortage of tall women?
Nobody understood how he could jump so much if he wasn’t big, but hey, I had my skills. To be honest with you, I loved being a power forward because I would have liked to play from the perimeter, to shoot a lot. That’s why I enjoyed the national league when the provincial teams allowed me to because I did various functions there hahaha and I loved that.
The issue with tall players is that today, and we could say since my time, they see themselves with more travel possibilities in volleyball than in basketball and they choose to play volleyball. That is a pitched war with us. I mean, yes there are tall girls but they don’t pass for basketball. It’s a matter of interests.
And now much less so after the disappearance of the national ESPA that helped them perfect themselves. It is no less true that there are very good players, but not of high stature; The situation, as I told you, is worse because they go directly to the national team. What does that mean? which, without underestimating them, bring with them a great technical and tactical deficit. Ah! Then right there comes the barrage of criticism of our players. It’s not their fault. ESPA is essential.
What should be done to recover lost seats?
Recover? That word is very broad. Lost time cannot be recovered but if they want to improve they must open the national ESPA, not only so that basketball players go through the necessary stages to achieve growth but so that athletes of all sports achieve it. You cannot represent a country without a base; the quarry must exist, it has to exist. This is my humble opinion.
This journalist, also with my humble opinion, I believe that there is a need for a search for high talents, to teach them to love the sport of baskets, to learn the ABCs of basketball, to know how to move on a court and when they are mature to move on to the big team .
First cadets then youth and of course, the support that ESPA means, the necessary athletic improvement school on which so many athletes were built who later became those Olympic and world champions of whom we are proud.
Anyway, dear Nena, I don’t want to talk about that thorny topic.
Yes, its the best. I also experienced a period of change in basketball where they did not believe in our team and a coach named Reinier Panfet told me in a conversation: “you will make history”… and it was like that! We were American champions in 2013; Nobody knew how we did it and we all said together: “It wasn’t a miracle, it was hard work.”
More than a team, we were a family with ups and downs because in the best families everything happens, but the goal was to show the fans that basketball would live a new stage and would maintain hegemony.
The Cuban people are a little harsh at times, their criticism is harsh but you know? That helped us move forward and fight for a result.
You belonged to a provincial team that was feared in the National Championships: Sancti Spíritus.
Being national champion was a challenge for me because I focused on silencing many mouths in the province, which did criticize a lot but never did anything. We gave them results and we were happy.
In my case, I managed to be a champion in my country and outside of it, why suffer with those who run basketball poorly in Yayabo? My professional life has been very nice and that’s what I’ll stick with; It gratifies me and gives me peace. The bitter swishes are not worth remembering.
What do you remember from your time on the Cuban fields?
Oh Julita! Those fields full of fans, those affectionate and also offensive shouts from when the national league was played. I tell you that in Guantánamo I had many fans and they drove me crazy telling me things.
At the end of the game they invited me “affectionately”, you know, right?… completely crazy! From Cape San Antonio to the tip of Maisí it was a party. Basketball was lived and there was speculation about the safe quarry from which our replacement would come…? Hahaha
Opponent player who has impressed you the mosto.
I had told you about the tremendous impression that the American dream team made on me: Lisa Leslie, Diana Taurasi, Katie Smith… Hey, the whole team. It was a spectacle, another level of basketball. I remember the laughter of the Australian women… anyway! I experienced basketball at its highest level.
And of the Cuban women, who have been your players to follow?
Yaquelín Plutín and Yamilé Martínez, a high-end basketball player. I also greatly admired my countryman Yamara Amargo, with excellent hands. I have very nice memories of all of them and what I learned I now pass on to my girls. I am happy!
