Toulouse. Raphaël Pascual: “The objective is to climb to N2”
At only 31 years old Raphael Pascual is both sporting director of TOAC Basket and coach of the undefeated pennant team in NM3.
Raphaël the basketball public knows little about you. What is your CV as a player and coach?
I made my debut at Cugnaux before joining the TBC in cadets France. Then I played Net’s and TOAC while starting my coaching career and I stopped playing in a team to devote myself to training only when we went up to N3. Some people laugh when I play Sunday morning in D3 department but I still had a good low level of player!
Let’s come back to the victory at Toulouges. It was not assured in advance with the absence of Ludovic Vaty?
Two scenarios when a major player is absent. Either the team is sublime, each brings a little more to compensate, transcends. Either the opposite and it collapses. In Toulouges this was the case one. We played with extra soul and achieved a performance benchmark. Quarantine minutes during. Even if Toulouges was in my opinion in a day without.
Is Ludovic Vaty’s injury serious?
He could have played at Toulouges. He had the green light from the medical profession on Friday. But as we have a bloated group, I preferred not to take any risk of relapse.
Sportingly, having a backbone of former TBC players in N2 does that help?
Sportingly we started from a blank page. But getting players who have affinities onto the bus helps! This forms a solid base to impose our game. And that said in passing I find that we have more athletic qualities than the TBC of the time.
Winning in Monségur, home of the Coteaux du Luy, is it the next objective?
The goal is to climb to N2. But we are not referring to the superiority syndrome. Winning in Monségur is still science fiction. Until then, there are two games to win. Against CahorSauzet on Saturday and next week the final of the Occitanie Cup in Cornebarrieu against Auch (N2). Which will be a serious test for us.