Shoeless Trique Indian Boys from Oaxaca Win Basketball Tournament Keerthi Mohan - IBTimes
go to original October 17, 2013

The Triqui Indian Basketball Academy (ABIM) team, from Oaxaca in Mexico, defeated 19 other international teams for this year’s title. (Presidency of the Republic)

A team of Trique Indian boys, most of whom were barefoot, won this year's championship at the International Festival of Mini-Basketball held recently in Argentina, and has earned appreciation from Mexican president Enrique Pena Nieto.

According to Associated Press, the boys were generally shorter than their opponents and were dubbed “the barefoot mice from Mexico” by other teams. But, they compensated for their lack of height with "strength, speed and resistance," Ernesto Merino, one of the coaches, told AP.

He noted that although shoes were provided to the youth, who hail from the southern Mexican state of Oaxaca considered to be one of Mexico's poorest and most marginalized areas, they preferred to go barefoot as they are not used to wearing shoes.

Read the rest at IBTimes

Related: In Remote Oaxacan Village, Basketball is Possible Ticket Out for Boys and Girls

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