He was awarded as the Best Coach of the 2011/2012 season from the Spanish Association of Basketball Coaches, and this is the most important and meaningful achievement to explain what he did leading Lagun Aro GBC. He ran a young, new project from the bottom of a difficult starting (18th place at the beginning of December 2012, with 2-8) to the top of 4th place of ACB with an amazing 14-2 winning streak, and he wrote the club history reaching a triple first-time ever qualification to the Copa del Rey, to the ACB Playoffs, where finally the team was 5th placed with a total 19-15 balance, and to the Eurocup for the next season. And after all of that, what was the next step? Sito Alonso could have tried to get the best personal advantage from the situation, but he preferred to keep his word and stay again in Lagun Aro, despite of it was clear that the club should have downgrade the budget and renunce to play in Europe. More, the top scorer Chris Lofton got a serious injury just after being signed and this changed even more the plans of the team. But Sito continued since the first day to work with the same attitude, character and spirit, and both the club and the players continued to follow him in the same way. No matter the very difficult season followed, Lagun Aro tried until the end to do it together with its head coach.

Could you believe that he started coaching basketball at 11? Yes, he did. That’s why we immediately can say that Alfonso “Sito” Alonso – born on December 4th, 1975 in Madrid – was kind of the chosen one. Everything happened thanks to his father, women’s professional coach: when Sito was 11 years old, he gave him the responsibility to coach the team of the Compañía de María School in Zaragoza, where they already moved to and where Sito was already playing basketball for the youth teams of Club Baloncesto Zaragoza. How did he answer to that responsibility? Sito simply did it. He combined his career as player with coaching, he trained in Helios and coordinated the lower leagues of the club when he was 16, until the city of Monzón crossed his path and signed him up as player. There he developed as an individual, as a player and as basketball coach, finishing his first training period.

Sito played and coached several teams of the club of Monzón, and then he made the decision to go on with coaching and completely focused on that. He became assistant coach of the second division team, and after two years he was named head coach, at 23 years of age. Just to continue in his fathers footsteps, in his last year he made a whole first junior players debut, after coaching them since they were just 11 years old. Later in the years, some of them arrived to the ACB teams. During the first half of his last season in Monzón, Sito Alonso was offered to coach the satellite team of Joventut Badalona, el Prat. He accepted thanks to the understanding of the President of CB Monzón, Guillermo Urguet: it was his chance to enter a historical Spanish team like Joventut Badalona, and he proved to be ready to take on this role.

After one positive season – as first in his group, and working with the future ACB team Dimitri Flis to develop his potential – Sito was called to be assistant coach of Aíto García Reneses at Joventut Badalona: for him it meant a great opportunity to work together with one of the renowned coaches of Spain, and they immediately established a strong relationship. They worked together day by day for three seasons, during which they achieved the best results ever in the history of Juventud, always keeping on the basis of the youth team tradition. Finally, when Aíto was called to work for the National Team of Spain, Joventut promoted his 32 years old alumnus Sito Alonso to head coach. As the youngest coach of ACB League, he closed his first season at 5th place, with a record of 22 wins and 10 losses. Unfortunately, the following season things didn’t run so well, and at the beginning of March the ways of club and head coach parted, after six unforgettable seasons, and a thousand of positive memories and achievements.

Sito Alonso certainly didn’t pause for one single day. He continued studying and living basketball as he always did since he was a child. Keeping positive and waiting for the best opportunity to come back courtside, he continued to make clinics and direct the “Sito Alonso Basketball Camp”, inaugurated in 1993. At just 35, Sito Alonso is young but he has a very rich experience. He was practically born with a basketball on his hands, and he started coaching practically when he still was a child. More, working for many years together with one of the greatest coaches ever like Aito, was a kind of a master of specialization for him. And Joventut Badalona will continue to reap the fruit of what he did for the "cantera" - the  famous youth teams of the club - for many and many years, in the same way as players like Ricky Rubio, Rudy Fernandez and many others will be grateful to Sito Alonso for ever.

In the 2011/2012 season, Sito Alonso restarted with a new chapter, as the new head coach of Lagun Aro GBC. The club from San Sebastian called him not only to lead the team but most of all to build a new project together, thanks to his great ability to work with young players helping them to develop all their potential, and to adapt his game and philosophy to each situation. And the path was not easy at the beginning, but then it became simply sensational, something never done before in the club history: this is why Sito Alonso was the Best Coach of the Year voted in the ACB!

 

2012/2013 COMPETITION RANKINGS

Competition	Games	Wins-Losses	Ranking
ACB League	33	8-25	17th place

PROGRESSIVE SCHEDULE & RESULTS