An atmosphere that will blow out your eardrums! We are not at the Marcel-Deflandre stadium, the temple of La Rochelle rugby, but in the small town of Saujon, at the Noël Meunier gymnasium, on a rainy Sunday in May. The first women’s basketball team plays a R2 semi-final. Three hundred people crowded around the field, supporting the Yellow and Black to the point of breaking their voices. Despite the defeat, the performance is there: Saujon, with its reputation as a family club, has, through the show given in the stands, delivered a real demonstration.
If the club is doing well, the same goes for all of Charentais-Maritime basketball. The seventh most practiced sport in the department, it has, according to available statistics, reached 4,950 licensees – the 5,000 mark has been crossed according to committee president Sylvette Gourdon. The progression in five years turns out to be insolent: around 30%. “In the La Rochelle area, the clubs are all full and demand is strong in the third ring,” notes the manager, taking the example of the Aunis Atlantique Basket club: created last year, it already has nearly 200 licensees.
As Saujon shows, the parquet floors are not only in full supply in the north. “We are reaching the maximum of our capacities,” warns the president, Franck Musquar. Before the health crisis, the club had 175 players. It now lists 250. “We need a second room. »
+ 76% for volleyball
Basketball is not the only indoor team sport that benefits from strong winds. Handball, the eleventh most practiced sport, increased by almost 10% between 2019 and 2024 and this is nothing compared to volleyball (18e) which shows an increase of 76% over the same period. “After Covid, people were more attracted to a sport like volleyball compared to judo, for example, where there is more contact. There was also an Olympic 2021 effect after the boys’ gold medal,” thinks Michel Dupuy, president of the Departmental Volleyball Committee, noting the dynamic in the women’s sections.
Three volleyball clubs have recently emerged in the department: in Saint-Porchaire, Corme-Royal and Aigrefeuille-d’Aunis. “There is a craze, young people got into it following the significant media coverage after the Tokyo Olympics,” confirms Jean Rapp, president of the Aigrefeuillaise Volleyball Sports Union (40 members, three leisure teams) . “The problem in Charente-Maritime is that there are few clubs with a volleyball school, they are often only leisure sections. »
Values
“These are sports that cultivate mutual aid, individual and collective development, effort,” thinks Grégory Alleix, coach of the Royan volleyball team which plays in League B. “All three have obtained titles at the Tokyo Olympics (1). We can hope that the Paris Olympics will amplify the trend – unless we have reached a ceiling. »
Many associations of these three sports are faced with the limits of the infrastructures at their disposal: the flagship club of departmental basketball, Stade Rochelais, knows something about this. The fact remains that for Sylvette Gourdon, her current performances contribute to the general momentum.
She remembers the federation’s anxiety during the health crisis, fearing that athletes would turn away from baskets. The Covid has in no way slowed down the momentum, quite the contrary. “There was a need to let off steam and find oneself. »
Armel, a young player from Saujon, 11 years old, confirms the importance of the cocoon: “At the club, the atmosphere is great. » His friend Maxime supports him: “Adults are nice too. ” That is to say ! If even the adults are nice…
(1) In Tokyo in 2021, the French men’s basketball team won the silver medal and the women’s team the bronze medal, the men’s volleyball team won the gold medal and the men’s teams and women’s handball both brought home the gold medal.
For golf, an ace!
+ 42% in five years! Golf in Charente-Maritime is doing like a charm. A performance all the more notable as the trend is downward at the national level. The fifth most practiced sport in the department, it owes its success, according to the president of the committee, Daniel Desmarest, to the quality of the structures and the welcome. The new La Jarne golf course already has 1,200 members, as many as the Marsilly and Royan golf courses. The tourist attractiveness of the area benefits the department’s greens. At the regional level, it is in Charente-Maritime that we observe the best progress.
