User:JeanetteMartin/Pupilos De Chavelo

The Pupilos De Chavelo was a very special basketball team in Puerto Rico.

The Pupilos played in the Villa Turabo basketball tournament in Caguas in 1986.

Pupilos De Chavelo members included Wikipedia.com user:AntonioMartin, Libertario Sauri, Alfredo Rivera, William Luciano, Luis Soto, Avidair Champagne and Kikito Rivas. Antonio's brother, José, was the team's official mascot

Los Pupilos De Chavelo was nicknamed like that after their sponsor, a sports store in Arecibo.

The team was selected as a wide favorite to win the tournament, but, as in with any team filled with good basketball players and popular guys, a lot of things worked against that goal. While they all became best friends during the tournament's duration, they became cocky after 3 straight pre-tournament and 4 straight tournament wins. Sauri, nicknamed Liber, became a member after the second tournament game, a 60-59 overtime win over their rivals Yellow Team.

After a 58-54 win over the Mundo Dulces team, trouble could be perceived, and Antonio told this to their coach, a nice person nicknamed Papo. Nobody listened to Antonio and the team quickly lost 2 in a row, the first coming against Centro Dulces by a score of 79-76.

After the second loss, Papo ordered a team practice, what would be their first practice in about a month. He said that anyone who would attend the practice would get good playing time. As it was raining, Antonio and William were the only ones to attend, and Papo and his assistant Ricky came and told them the practice was being called off.

Then came the rematch against the Yellow Team. It was a classic, and Antonio and William got their promised playing time. It was a classic marred by controversy, as, when the game's referee called a 3rd foul on Liber, Liber went berzerk, accusing the referee of favoriing the other team. While this could have been the case , the truth is both of Libers previous fouls that day had been, at the least, dubious. Antonio was standing next to Liber and he tried to hold Liber off after the referee also called a technical on him for protesting, but Liber was strong and he took off his jersey, slammed it against the floor and took off after being ejected. Liber and Antonio had founded an incredible friendship bond between them, and Liber later called Antonio to apologize. Antonio was not mad at him, however.

After that foul, both teams went back and forth, until with 9 seconds, Antonio was fouled with the game tied at 78 apiece. It was a 1 on 1 free throw situation, and Antonio missed his free throw, so the Yellow team got the ball, made a lay-up and won the game.

Two more losses made the team that was supposed to be the tournament champion at 4-5, but that was enough to make the playoffs. In game 3 of the playoffs, Antonio tried to save the ball from going out of bounds, and ended up making a spectacular shot from the out of bounds corner, one which helped the Chavelos win the game 65-62 and the series 2 games to 1.

With that , they were set to meet the Yellow team in the finals. They took game one, but then lost 3 in a row, including a game 2 that was a spectacle of bad officiating. For the Chavelos, only Antonio, Kikito and William were able to finish that game on court. They still only lost by 3 points. The Chavelos fought back from the 3 to 1 deficit to force a 7th game, where they lost, 91 to 85.

They werent champions, but those Chavelos sure proved to be warriors.