Begoña Callejo (1964-2022), was an outstanding coach, player and manager, pioneer of women's basketball.
At the age of 9 she started playing in the Carmelo CBC in Amara and at the age of 14 she was already a player and at the same time coach of the lower categories of the Club. Thus began what would be her great passion, basketball. Passion that she passed on to all the people and teams she was part of.
For ten years, 1973 and 1983, she was on the courts as a player. First with Carmelo, with whom she was promoted to the second division in 1980, and then in 1983 she played for Donosti Las Banderas in the first division. It was then when her figure as a coach was imposed.
At the age of 22, in 1987, as coach of Donosti, she became the youngest woman to achieve that responsibility, leading the team to promotion to the first division. In the 1990-1991 season she would lead the team to the quarterfinals of the Ronchetti European Cup organized by FIBA.
She was coach of Carmelo, Donostia, C.D. Lasarte-Oria, Txingudi Saski Baloi K.E. to whom she took to the Division of Honor in the 1999-2000 season. From the school leagues at the end of the 70's until 2002, in the first division at the highest level, he dedicated 32 years to coaching. Without forgetting his contribution in technical departments or as a director in different phases.
In 2002 she retired from active basketball, but her professional activity kept her in permanent contact with the sport of Gipuzkoa and its protagonists.
Begoña Callejo traced a path of passion and professionalism for basketball through which other women could walk. She did so at a time when it was not only difficult but exceptional for a young woman to take on coaching and management responsibilities at the highest level.
Her great humanity, her generosity and joy were her personal hallmarks.
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