Cristina Guntin, the only rugby coach in Division of Honor: “Eibar has always trusted me”

Cristina Guntin’s landing on the Eibar was not just a stance. “The decision had nothing to do with whether I was a woman or not,” said club president Iñaki Arrizabalaga.. The first thing that convinced him to decide to sign him was seeing firsthand his “passion” for rugby and his “participation” in developing everything related to the sporting aspect of the club. “You can see he’s a fighter,” he hurries to say. Arrizabalaga does not regret his decision at all. Rather, she’s gifted with the ability to lead a cast of tributes to “a super valid woman who gets our full support” and makes an “impressive” sacrifice to connect their daily lives with other duties outside of the quartet. weekly training sessions for the first team.

The introductory letter states that Cristina Guntin is a 43-year-old Galician and Gastón Ibarburu is a 44-year-old Uruguayan combined with his passion for rugby. Something about being a technician eibar they take you to a thousand and one wonders in the feminine and masculine categories, respectively.. Knowing all that means the world of professional rugby makes their respective duties easier, including those affecting family reconciliation. No one who is the mother or father of a large family realizes that with their biological son and two other adopted children living with them, you have to strike a balance to take care of everyone. Especially on weekends when there are games.

Eighth of nine siblings

Galicia is the eighth of nine siblings. During his adolescence he played almost no sport until he discovered rugby in his second year of Biology. “I started getting in shape a little bit and when I saw that the band was so good and I was very comfortable, I decided to keep going”, spits. He earned degrees in Biology and Social Education despite his dyslexia, which “makes me make many mistakes when I speak fast and mix numbers up.” Thus, she gives the impression of a woman who does not wrinkle at the first change in the face of difficulties.

No doubt she is one of those determined women. When her partner was offered a professional contract outside of Vigo, she didn’t hesitate for a moment to pack her bags and leave her family in comfort. And that I have a job as a biologist in a botanical garden.. During his stay at Gernika, where his partner played for the local club, everything changed for him professionally. “I couldn’t find a job as an environmental biologist or an educator, but when they asked me to study in the subcategories of Mungia and Kakarraldo, I immediately accepted”.

They went from Gernika to live in Hendaye for a year. He managed to play in the ranks of ASB Bayonne and he is at Saint Jean de Luz Olympique. A year later, his rugby adventure continued elsewhere, such as Scotland, where his biological son is Montevideo or Madrid. Both were good athletes. In fact, they have to play with their own national teams. Ibarburu may even show his chest when he faced the Springboks in 2005.

Return to Basque Country

Suddenly, one fine day, Eibar Rugby Taldea came across their lives thanks to Peio Urkidi, the former coach of the Basque club, who recommended them. The couple had always loved the idea of ​​coming back. Basque Country and raising their kids there so they didn’t think much of it when the opportunity arose. “They called us, we told them about our project, and we all evaluated that we could help such a humble club grow, and we agreed immediately”.

That conversation was eight years ago. Since then, the women of Eibar have not stopped delivering good news for Basque rugby, despite the “very complicated” first year. The men’s team was in the División de Honor B “with many problems” and the girls were in the Basque League “where we sometimes lost 100-0”. They started to score some victories in the second year and managed to be promoted to the Honor B Division in the third year.. They only stayed there for two seasons because they were promoted to the top category once the pandemic was over. “A humble club like Eibar has always had a lot of confidence in me. It would certainly have made a much bigger impact if this success had been achieved by a team other than Madrid or Barcelona. But we achieve everything by hard work,” he says proudly.

They even managed to compete this season. playoffs but for the title lost against Sevillanas of Corteva Cocos Rugby in the semi-finals. Looking back, Cristina Guntin remembers how dyslexia, which made her seem like a bad student, helped her learn to look for other working formulas and correct her mistakes. If his language problems hadn’t prevented him from earning two careers, it wouldn’t have prevented him from earning the official N3 trainer title. “I love to learn and understand everything,” she emphasizes. When it came to reconciliation, it was relatively easy with his wife, but since the team expedition consisted only of women, he took his children on the bus whenever he could while traveling.

unpleasant anecdote

Of course, his status as a coach gave him some interesting anecdotes not to use any other qualifiers. on a particular occasion they stopped the physiotherapist, trainer and himself at the entrance of a field to go with the young children. After the relevant explanations, the person who covered them finally gave his arm to twist. In fact, he interrupted it because he allowed himself to enter the facilities “without children”. Fortunately, the incident was diverted without anyone raising their voices, and “now they don’t tell us anything because they already know us, but you can’t imagine the puzzled face they put on at first,” he recalls. definite resignation This moderation is also shown on the field together with the referees. “I have a lot of respect for them and try to make sure my players do too,” he adds.

Cristina Guntin believes that the presence of women in everything surrounding rugby is “increasingly normalized”. For him, for example, What his party did was “boo” play off A girl refereed the match against Sevillanas.. There is still a long way to go to achieve this normalization because some women in Spain have yet to see it. “The same thing doesn’t happen in other countries like New Zealand and they’re not really surprised when a player comes here.” The next step may be to coach a senior men’s team. Currently, he has already done this with the under-18 and has helped his partner more than once.

Fraguas, physical trainer

Raquel Fraguas from Zaragoza leads Eibar’s physical preparationA former Spanish hurdles champion who is curious to see that his Olympic dream has come true not in athletics but in rugby. I had it done to go to Athens. Climbing on a fence during a practice session ruined his knee. “I broke my cruciform, meniscus, femoral neck and was stopped for a year and a half”, Don’t forget. Bad luck got him. “The fence lifted its leg and I almost passed out from the pain.” Years later, she met her current partner, Bernardo Domingo, who at the time was the physical trainer of the Spanish men’s and women’s teams. Seven. She asked him for help because her work was piling up and they continue together from there. Despite the cooperation his partner provided him, Domingo wasn’t very good on either team, so he asked him to take charge of the girls. This way both got their respective passports. be in Olympic Games from Rio de Janeiro.

Fraguas arrived in Guipúzcoa at the hands of Cristina Guntin, whom he knew from where he had stayed in Madrid the year before. Their reunion was the result of witnessing an Eibar semi-final against Majadahonda. After the match, Fraguas offered to help his friend’s “very” beloved team. Coach wanted to sign him right away, a decision that was delayed for a year for various reasons.. He currently resides in the seaside town of Deba and travels daily to Eibar, where he trains boys and girls in all categories of the club.

a “privileged”

His activities cause him to see himself as “privileged” as he makes a living in a sport where professionalism is scarce. Few women can survive from an activity like rugby. If, in addition to her daily chores, she takes the time to care for her five-year-old son, James, the pieces of the puzzle fit perfectly into place, not to mention quality of life. “Maybe Spain There are only three or four people who dedicate themselves professionally to this job.”, to reflect. Gone are his years in Madrid, where he had to balance his job as a physics instructor, personal monitor or assistant coach. Spanish Rugby Federation (FER) for very little money.

The professional activity to which Fraguas devoted himself gradually changed. Remember that in the series “long ago” World Series There were almost no women on the technical staff. “Only men appeared, except for an election where there was a physiotherapy”, he complains. Something similar happened to him, but for financial reasons. “The logical thing is that during my time with the national team, the tour included the players, the coach, the physiotherapist and the manager, so I limited myself to writing down their homework.”

Fraguas doesn’t believe there is machismo in rugby. “Yes, I can say that I faced more obstacles to be a mother than to be a woman.”, indicates. He remembers the day he went to the facilities of a Madrid club a year ago. The man at the front desk tried to block her as she was going to the girls’ locker room with her four-year-old son. The man managed to say, “There are many children abandoned by the Earth,” to justify his incomprehensible decision. “Of course I finally got in with my son,” she bursts out.

Another anecdote of his work is how he handles the subject, whether they are a boy or a girl. “Easier to train and work with them”. It has an explanation. “When you tell a guy to run a hundred meters, they do it at the top, and if you ask a girl, they’ll usually ask you why,” she explains. When it comes to work, she admits it’s “more difficult” with them. On the other hand, when you’re with a coach like Cristina, “there’s a greater complicity because I already know what she’s going to tell me from her point of view.”