The business director of Santa Teresa, Bernardo López, affirms that the company benefits from supporting the community and its objective is, with the Alcatraz Project, to be able to recruit more people and have more “children playing rugby”.
Next Saturday May 21 and Sunday May 22, the thirty-fifth (35) edition of the Costa Blanca Rugby Sevens tournament will be held in the city of Villajoyosa in Alicante, Spain; where the Venezuelan team Alcatraz Rugby Club will participate for the first time.
“It fills us with deep pride to see that a team that was born as a tool for social reintegration, for young people with behavioral problems, is today representing our country in one of the most important tournaments in Spain,” said Andrés Chumaceiro, director of Fundación Santa Teresa when referring to the tournament.
The Venezuelan team, current national champion, has been preparing hard for months, in which they will compete in the Elite category, along with the best teams from countries such as England, South Africa and Spain.
The squad with which Alcatraz Rugby Club will travel is led by José Arrieta, who called up 13 high-performance players for the tournament: captain Wilkinson Arrieta, Davinsson Pire, Anther Herrera, Adrián Madriz, Francisco Gallardo, Enixon López, Larry Brito, Luis Daniel López, Yoneisker Tavio, Andrés Avendaño, Daniel Tovar, Ramón Ruiz and Keniver Este.
One part of the team is made up of former members of criminal gangs, and another – whose members have not committed a crime – is made up of young people who, due to their living conditions, are at risk of falling into conflictive groups.
Among the latter is Wilkinson -son of Arrieta-, who began playing rugby when he was only 8 years old, thanks to a partner of his father who took children from the community to training.
Wilkinson explained to Efe that his mentor thought that if children see others “playing with guns they would want to play with guns, but if they see them playing with balls they would want to play with balls.”
In his opinion, this competition in Spain will unite the team more, which at the beginning went through reconciliation processes when it was integrated between enemy criminal gangs. “More than something special, it has a weight, a very great feeling in us, this is going to unite us more as a team, as people and as a family. It is very nice to be able to play with my father, it is something that is priceless”.
Alcatraz Rugby Club fulfills its dream of meeting the world champions Classic All Blacks #VamosAlcatraz | Content sponsored by @ronsantateresa pic.twitter.com/yTa34MbUld
– The Pitazo (@ElPitazoTV) May 19, 2022
alcatraz project
The “Alcatraz Project” is a program started by Alberto Vollmer, owner of Santa Teresa, in 2003, after the emergence of now coach José Arrieta and his former criminal gang.
“We decided to leave the violence behind and form a rugby team. I never would have imagined that 19 years later I would be representing Venezuela in Europe,” said José Arrieta, founder of the Alcatraz Project and rugby developer at the Santa Teresa Foundation.
Arrieta explained that at that time his life was a bit messy “I was a boy who got me into trouble, I think that if it hadn’t been for the project (Alcatraz), it wouldn’t exist right now.”
The business director of Santa Teresa, Bernardo López, explains that in these 19 years they have managed to recruit 11 criminal gangs from Aragua state, almost all from the Revenga municipality, where the company has been located since 1796.
“We are absolutely aware that there may be changes in the human being, that there may be second chances and the truth is that we have thought that there is no one irretrievable, that there is simply a lack of opportunities,” he said.
López affirms that the company benefits from supporting the community and its objective is, with the Alcatraz Project, to be able to recruit more people and have more “children playing rugby”.
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