Center Signs With MDC After Defecting From Cuba’s National Basketball Team

When Susan Summons got a call this summer informing her that a six-foot-five-inch player from Cuba’s national basketball team had defected and was living in South Florida, she was intrigued.

Five days after arriving in Miami, 25-year-old Lianyi Becquer Leblanch—who had represented Cuba since she was 16—got a call from Summons, the associate head basketball coach at Miami Dade College.

“I don’t know exactly what she told me because she was talking to me in English,” Becquer said, as she fondly recalled her first conversation with Summons in late June.

A few hours later, Becquer arrived at the Kendall Campus gym for a workout.

“We offered a scholarship primarily based on her leadership and experience,” said Lady Sharks interim head basketball coach Erica Redman. “We knew she would be an asset to the team.” 

Becquer brings a high basketball IQ, strong leadership traits and a passionate disposition to a young Lady Sharks squad that replenished its roster this offseason after losing 23 games last year.

“Lianyi is excited about being a student here at Miami Dade College,” Summons said. “She is full of enthusiasm, life, energy [and] is hungry for the opportunity. She is working very hard academically and is destined to be a star.”  

Coming To America

This summer, Becquer’s prospects were dimmer. After a falling out with coaches on the Cuban national squad, she felt her time on the team was coming to an end. In June, she was mentally fatigued and out of shape for a commitment with a team in Mexico. 

As a result, her performance suffered. A week before the team was scheduled to start the playoffs, her contract was canceled. 

“I don’t wish that experience on anyone,” Becquer said. “It was something complicated that I lived [through].”

Less than a week later, she was in Miami and a former coach connected her with Summons.

And just like that, Becquer’s decorated basketball career in Cuba, which has taken her to Argentina, the Dominican Republic and Mexico, was over.

She was worried. Representing Havana is all she knows. Bequer was 14 when she was  selected to play in the Superior League of Basketball in Cuba.

By 2018, she had won silver medals at the Central America and Caribbean Games in Colombia and the Women’s Centrobasket Championship in Puerto Rico

The following year, she played in the International Basketball Federation’s Women’s Olympic Pre-Qualifying Tournament. Becquer led the team in rebounding with seven per game.

 Adapting To A New Culture

Summons knows better than most how Becquer’s story can play out. Sixteen years ago, she welcomed another highly-touted player—Dayna Rodríguez—from the Cuban national team to MDC.

Rodríguez was a six-foot-two-inch center, who joined the Lady Sharks in 2006 after also defecting from Cuba. She eventually led the Lady Sharks to back-to-back State Tournament championships. As a senior, she averaged 16.5 points and 12.6 rebounds per game before transferring to Washburn University in Topeka, Kansas. 

Despite the roadmap laid out by Rodríguez, Becquer, who is learning English, has encountered setbacks. The first time she took public transportation to get to her classes at Wolfson Campus, she got lost.

To communicate with Becquer, her teammates downloaded the Google translate app. The tool has made for some interesting moments for a team that has players from Serbia, Ecuador, Nigeria, Macedonia and Sweden. 

During a recent practice, as Becquer passionately yelled out instructions, one of her teammates didn’t understand what she was saying. They stopped practice and referred to the Google translation app.

Eventually, they realized Becquer was encouraging the teammate to be more aggressive and shoot.

“She has that infectious personality that even though she doesn’t speak the language you can’t help but gravitate toward her because she is so enthusiastic,” Redman said. 

As the team prepares for their season opener on the road versus Palm Beach State College on Nov. 1, Becquer is working on her conditioning because the nearly four-month hiatus away from the game caused her to gain weight.   

But she calls the opportunity to play basketball in the United States “a dream come true” and aspires to eventually play in the Women’s National Basketball Association.

“Basketball is my life,” Becquer said. “I love it.”

Click here to subscribe to our bi-weekly newsletter, The Hammerhead. For news tips, contact us at mdc.thereporter@gmail.com.