FIMBA World Championship 2023: Coach/Player Warren Goodling

Written by: Dell Jackson on October 6, 2023

Ed Note: Coach Warren Goodling participated and coached in the FIMBA World Championship Tournament in the 65 and older group. He gives us some recaps of the games and of the trip. Enjoy!

FIMBA World Championship 2023 Mar Del Plata, Argentina
August 25- September 3 2023

Once again FIMBA held its World Masters Basketball Championships this past summer. This was the first World Championship since Finland in 2019 because of the COVID pandemic. All of our games were on the FIMBA Maxi Basketball YouTube channel. Normally FIMBA will have the World Championship Tournament every two years and they have already set the next one for Switzerland in 2025.

I was very fortunate to able to play on the USA Global Masters team that participated in the event in the Mens 65 Division. The USA also had teams in the Men’s 70, 75, and 80 age groups.

It was a 13 day adventure with our team meeting in Miami and flying to Buenos Aires on the night of August 23, 2023. After a 9 hour flight we then had a 4 hour van ride to the host city, Mar Del Plata. Mar Del Plata is a beach resort town, however it was winter there with temperatures between 35-65 each day.

After a couple team practices, we began pool play against the host Argentina team. In front of a nice crowd, we used our defensive effort to jump out to a 27-4 lead on our way to a 101-32 victory. We continued pool play with victories over Peru 70-33 and Costa Rica 93-38.
Now on to the playoffs. We defeated Chile 101-36 in the quarterfinals and an undefeated Serbia team in the semifinals 88-61. Serbia played a great first half and we led 41-40 before pulling away in second half. Serbia averaged 35 foul shot attempts per game so we had to play D without putting them on the line. Julio Davila of Florida led the team with 27 points.

In the championship game vs Brazil we jumped out to a 27-12 first quarter lead. But Brazil, a tall and talented team battled back and made the game competitive. It was a game were we never gave up the lead but Brazil kept the game pressure on. Final score was USA 68- Brazil 60. Paul Grady of Florida led the team in scoring with 19.
We celebrated like we won the NBA title! It was a fun tournament playing 6 games in 13 days at various gyms in Mar Del Plata. Of course winning makes it fun. Our team has great chemistry and everyone knows their role. Jeff Ebner, an assistant coach at Wilson High School in Reading, Pa was a great addition to our team. He totally fit in. I ran the point guard position and was actually appointed to be player/coach since our Coach Jay Chessman could not make the trip. Jerry Gilbert ( South Carolina) and Kevin Johnson( Arizona) were are starting wing guards while Mark David( Texas), Terry Souhrada(Montana), and Steve Brumer( Florida) provided scoring and energy off the bench.

We were the only team that played full court man to man defense. Our defensive pressure enabled us to play at a quicker tempo. And the 30 second shot clock helped us
also. The shot clock rewards good defense as we were able to get some shot clock violations.

Basketball is a great game that you can play for a lifetime. The speed and explosiveness will slow down but the fundamentals and team concept never do. So keep playing as long as you can. The next FIMBA World Championship Tournament will be in 2025 in Switzerland. With some good luck, I hope to be participating.

Warren Goodling
LL Hoops