A pioneer of women's basketball who was also a referee and coach at a time when women and sports were not a common combination. She arrived in Barcelona at the age of 10 and started playing basketball at 13, with the boys and girls in her neighbourhood. Are you imagining a lanky young woman who towered over others? Encarna was just over five feet tall, but her height was inversely proportional to her talent as an athlete. She was famous for her hook shots, which earned her the nickname she would become known by: La niña del gancho, or the hook shot girl. With the Laietà basketball team, she won the first women's basketball championship in Catalonia, in the 1935-36 season. After passing through several clubs and having to combine basketball with other jobs to survive, she signed for FC Barcelona in 1944, where she remained until her retirement in 1953, at the age of 36. She was also the first female basketball coach in Spain, and became a role model for female basketball players in the generations to follow. The documentary La niña del gancho by Raquel Barrera, which premiered in 2016, helped to spread the biography of this pioneering sportswoman.

 

English
Lorca (Murcia) 1917 – Barcelona 2022 ID 3195

A basketball player, referee and coach in Spain. The documentary La niña del gancho by Raquel Barrera, which premiered in 2016, helped to spread the biography of this pioneering athlete.