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Tahuichi Academy is a football (soccer) school in Santa Cruz, Bolivia that developed the backbone of the Bolivia national team since the school's foundation in 1978. It is widely considered to be one of the world's best football academies.
[edit] BeginningThe academy was established by Rolando Aguilera Pareja, who came back to Bolivia from political exile in 1978. He had returned to Santa Cruz, Bolivia, after seven years in the United States. He returned with his children who had learned only baseball and American football. Being a son of Ramon Aguilera Costas, a famous football player with Santa Cruz's Blooming in the forties and fifties, Aguilera wanted to keep the sport's tradition in the family. To that end, he contacted Dede (Leonardo de Deus Santos), a Brazilian football star living in Bolivia, that he might train his children Roly and Erwin in the family's own backyard. Soon after, other children in the neighborhood joined in and the idea of forming "Bloomingcito" arose. But forming a team was not enough. An opponent was also needed, and that was the task of Ladislao Jiménez, the ex-goalie of Oriente Petrolero (the other local team). Consequently, "Orientito" was born and that is how that first game took place on that memorable Sunday in March. Many parents then became very enthusiastic and soon there were over 200 applications for registration of children of different ages. As a result of this, Mr. Aguilera took the initiative to organize a football academy for youth. In the regional Chiriguano Indian language, "Tahuichi" (pronounced tah-WEE-chee) means "Big Bird." It was the nickname of Mr. Aguilera's father, in whose honor the "Tahuichi Aguilera" Academy was founded. The Academy was formed as a non-profit sports institution on May 1, 1978. Its primary focus then was children's recreation and the development of the basics of the sport. Tahuichi was not yet a year old when it won the national championships. Soon after, it made international news when it tied 0-0 with Sao Paolo (Brazil) during the preliminary match of Bolivia versus Brazil in the 1979 Copa America. In January 1980, in Buenos Aires, Tahuichi beat Independiente of Argentina 4 -1 in front of 50,000 spectators to win the South American U-14 Championships. Club Palmeiras of Brazil finished third. In 1985, Tahuichi Academy was invited as Bolivia's national team to participate at the FIFA U-17 World Cup [edit] 1994 World Cup FinalsWhen Bolivia qualified for the 1994 FIFA World Cup, nine Tahuichi Academy graduates were on the team. [edit] Famous Players
[edit] Honors
[edit] External links
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