Amparo Lopez, trainer, is originally from Madrid, Spain. She began her basketball career at a later age than most. She was 11 years old when Alfredo Gonzalez, a very well-known basketball coach learned of her existence and stature from a friend of her father’s. The next day, Alfredo was meeting with her parents and recruited her to play for a private club in Madrid. This was her first team sport; before that, she had never touched a basketball.

After just one year of playing for the private club, she received a full basketball scholarship to a prestigious Catholic school in Madrid. Alfredo Gonzalez followed as her head coach. She attended St. Augustine High School and played in all possible allowed categories: Cadet, Junior and Senior teams for 5 years (sometimes having 2-3 games each weekend and leading both teams to several league championships wins). She also played for Alas Filo, a private basketball club, leading her senior team to championships. During her first year, she was drafted to play for the Madrid Regional Team and the Spanish National Team cadet, junior and senior categories representing Madrid in the Spain Championships and Spain during the European Championships, respectively.

Each year she played she made both the Regional and National team for all categories allowed in her age bracket. In 1997, at the young age of 15 years old she played in Sopron (Hungary) at the European Championships and won second place. At 16, she played in Timisoara (Romania) representing, once again, her country of Spain and achieved 3rd place. She was also invited to attend special training at the CAR (Centro de Alto Rendimiento) organization which is the Center for High Elite Athletes Organization, located in Barcelona, Spain.

When she was a junior in high school, she began learning the “American way” as her recruitment by several USA universities began. When she was going to enter her senior year, she left her Catholic school and private clubs and her country and transferred as an exchange student to Westhill High School in Syracuse, NY. She tried out for their school basketball team and made it. She didn’t speak a word of English. She played Varsity her senior year, leading the team to the state championship tournament, while also excelling in school and learning the English language.

Once she landed in the USA, Lopez was recruited by many more major Division I universities in the country, but due to timing issues with academic paperwork, she had to attend one year at a junior college as a freshman. She received the Jack Burke Scholarship at Nassau Community College in New York City. At Nassau, Lopez led the team to a 16-4 record and its first-ever trip to the National Junior College Athletic Association Region 15 title game. She was named to the NJCAA Region 15 All-Tournament team player and garnered Second Team NJCAA Region 15 All-Region honors. As a sophomore, she transferred to Boston University since it had a great reputation for its academics and being an international university. Boston University offered her a spot in their number one program for academics to become an Occupational Therapist, which at the time, she wanted to be from a young age.

Lopez’s recruiting class was named 24th in the nation, according to the All-Star Girl’s Recruiting Report. BU was the only American East program ranked in the top 25 that year. Lopez was personally ranked among the top 30 players in the country because of her potential for immediate impact for the Boston Terriers as their recruit.

Lopez was a redshirt due to a back injury her sophomore year, but after undergoing back surgery and a very hard recovery, she returned to the courts to play as a junior. As a junior, Lopez and her team won the American East Conference Title and made their first ever appearance in the NCAA tournament. She played against professional players such as Diana Taurasi and Chantelle Anderson.

Unfortunately, due to a second severe back injury, Lopez ended her basketball career as a junior in college and couldn’t return to the courts as a senior for safety and to avoid further damage to her spinal cord. Since she had received a great scholarship, she was able to continue her studies and in 2004, graduated from Boston University. Since graduation, she has been working as an Occupational Therapist and helping thousands of patients get their lives back, much like she was able to.

Since then, Coach Lopez has not stepped foot on a basketball court. In 2013, Lopez had her only child, daughter Haley. At 5 years old, Haley with no pressure from her parents, asked to be signed up for basketball and that is when Lopez realized she needed to step back in the court to watch her daughter play. After 3 years of watching from the sidelines as MOM, she finally realized she still had a love like no other for the game and since then she stayed actively involved in the game through volunteer coaching, educating, and training the next generation of players.

Lopez owes all her accomplishments in basketball and in life to the unconditional love, sacrifice and support demonstrated by her parents, Isabel Esteban Mayo and Jose Luis Lopez Calvo.