A team of Trique Indian boys from the southern Mexico state of Oaxaca won all six of their games, set to become this year's champions at the the International Festival of Mini-Basketball in Argentina despite their short stature and penchant for playing barefoot, the Associated Press reports.
Other teams in the tournament call the team of boys the "barefoot mice from Mexico," as one of the team's coaches, Ernesto Merino, also a Trique Indian, told the AP. According to Merino, his boys compensate for their size with "strength, speed and resistance." Though they are given tennis shoes upon joining the team, as paid for by the state government, most are used to playing barefoot and feel more comfortable eschewing sneakers.
"For them it's normal to not have shoes, to walk barefoot," Merino said, explaining that these boys grew in up in large, poor families who had difficulty getting their children new clothes and shoes. The team is part of a basketball program aimed at helping underprivileged children in Oaxaca, one of Mexico's most marginalized areas. To join the team, children must have good grades, help out at home with chores and speak their native language.
"We see a basketball as an opportunity to grow in life," Merino said. "We want them to be prepared in life."
On Wednesday, the "barefoot mice from Mexico" were lauded with applause and accolades from Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto and basketball experts for their performance at the tournament.
"The victories of the Trique Indian team from Oaxaca's Academy of Indigenous Basketball make Mexicans proud," tweeted Pena Nieto.
The boys were even deemed the best players in the entire tournament by Horacio Muratore, president of the International Basketball Federation-Americas, the organization that puts together the annual competition.
"These boys deserved (the championship) more than anyone," Muratore wrote on the organization's website.
Click here to see a photo of the team of boys from Oaxaca who play (and win) without shoes.
