By Emilio Sanchez, CEO and Founder of the Academia Sanchez-Casal.
I have been flying for 4 hours and, through the window of the plane, I only see an immense blue and white sky. I’m flying, back to my house, in Naples, after 3 intense days at the Academy of Barcelona. It has been 3 hectic days, with meetings with my team, with sponsors and also trying to take some time for the family. 3 really exhausting days but an smile does not stop drawing on my face.
The night before last we celebrated the 20th anniversary of Sánchez-Casal. With the whole Sánchez-Casal family in Barcelona. Yes, with the whole family: with Sergio Casal, with whom I started this journey 20 years ago. With all the coaches, from the Head Coaches to the last newly incorporated coach on the tennis and physical preparation areas. With all the staff, of Management, Admissions, Sales, Administration, Marketing departments. With Esis, his teachers and his staff. With the team that takes care of our health, our physiotherapists. With all the personnel of general maintenance, court’s maintenance and general cleaning, which make possible the daily operation of the Academy. With all the Food and Beverage team, chefs, waiters, that make us happy every morning. With all the Front Desk staff, reception, supervisors, porter’s lodge, drivers. And with our student-athletes, the real engine and reason why of the entire project.
All together, we passed games and challenges in team building activities that exceeded all our expectations of fun and participation. Teams in which we were all mixed, reinforcing our sense of belonging to a project that should bring out the best in each of us to make it work.
There have passed twenty years since the Academy’s foundation but yesterday we all played as if we were children, with the same enthusiasm, with the same competitive spirit with which we were born and that has made us come this far: to be the only tennis academy in the world with 4 venues in 3 continents.
Congratulations to those members of the team who have been with us for 20 years, but also to the last ones to join us, to those who have left us on the road, to those who have already finished their stage in the Academy and have flown to the future. To each and every one of you, congratulations and thank you.
Emilio Sanchez
CEO and Co-Founder of the Academia Sanchez-Casal
