Esporte Clube Pinheiros
Encyclopedia
The Esporte Clube Pinheiros is a sports and social club located in the Brazil
Brazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...

ian metropolis São Paulo
São Paulo
São Paulo is the largest city in Brazil, the largest city in the southern hemisphere and South America, and the world's seventh largest city by population. The metropolis is anchor to the São Paulo metropolitan area, ranked as the second-most populous metropolitan area in the Americas and among...

, founded in 1899 as Sport Club Germânia by German immigrants. It has around 35,000 members and its terrain comprises 170,000 m² in the well regarded quarter of Jardim Europa. The club's assets are valued to be in excess of R$ 350 million.
SC Germânia was one of the clubs which established football in Brazil and was one of the clubs which participated 1899 in the first inter-club match and 1902 in the first championship match of the country. Germânia was twice winner of the state championship of São Paulo, the Campeonato Paulista
Campeonato Paulista
The Campeonato Paulista de Futebol Profissional da Primeira Divisão - Série A1, simply known as the Campeonato Paulista, is the top-flight professional football league in the Brazilian state of São Paulo. The league is contested between 20 clubs and typically lasts from January to April...

. The eminent player of the early days of the club was Hermann Friese, considered the first football player personality of Brazil. Arthur Friedenreich
Arthur Friedenreich
Arthur Friedenreich was a Brazilian football player. Nicknamed The Tiger, he was arguably the sport's first outstanding black player.-Biography:...

, the first great star of Brazilian football and widely acknowledged as one of the all time greats of the sport, commenced his career at Germânia in 1909.

After abandoning football in the early 1930s due to the professionalisation of the game, the club successfully transformed itself to a universal sports club. Already in 1932 the water sports department sent its first representative to Olympic Games. Many more athletes from the club since represented Brazil in major international sports events, and swimmers like Gustavo Borges
Gustavo Borges
Gustavo França Borges Gustavo França Borges Gustavo França Borges (born December 2, 1972 in Ribeirão Preto is a former international top swimmer from Brazil. He participated in four Summer Olympics for his native country, starting in 1992...

 and César Cielo
César Cielo
César Augusto Cielo Filho is a Brazilian professional swimmer who specializes in sprint events...

 are amongst the club's Olympic medal winners. The basketball
Basketball
Basketball is a team sport in which two teams of five players try to score points by throwing or "shooting" a ball through the top of a basketball hoop while following a set of rules...

 and volleyball
Volleyball
Volleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules.The complete rules are extensive...

 teams play in the national top divisions, and the swimmers continue their dominance in Brazil. Beyond this, Pinheiros has departments for many more kinds of sports, such as judo
Judo
is a modern martial art and combat sport created in Japan in 1882 by Jigoro Kano. Its most prominent feature is its competitive element, where the object is to either throw or takedown one's opponent to the ground, immobilize or otherwise subdue one's opponent with a grappling maneuver, or force an...

, gymnastics
Gymnastics
Gymnastics is a sport involving performance of exercises requiring physical strength, flexibility, agility, coordination, and balance. Internationally, all of the gymnastic sports are governed by the Fédération Internationale de Gymnastique with each country having its own national governing body...

 and tennis
Tennis
Tennis is a sport usually played between two players or between two teams of two players each . Each player uses a racket that is strung to strike a hollow rubber ball covered with felt over a net into the opponent's court. Tennis is an Olympic sport and is played at all levels of society at all...

.
Since its merger with the Gesellschaft Germania, a social club of German immigrants, in the early 1940s to form the Esporte Clube Pinheiros, named after the river Rio Pinheiros flowing close by its seat, the club has also developed as a meeting place and venue for cultural events. These days, thousands of visitors pass daily through the club's restaurants, bars and other facilities. Top stars of the Brazilian entertainment industry like Daniela Mercury
Daniela Mercury
Daniela Mercury , is a Latin Grammy Award-winning Brazilian axé, samba-reggae and MPB singer, songwriter and record producer. Since her breakthrough, Mercury has become one of the best known Brazilian female singers, selling over 20 million albums worldwide...

 and Jorge Ben Jor
Jorge Ben Jor
Jorge Ben Jor is a Brazilian popular musician. His characteristic style fuses samba, funk, and rock into samba-rock, with lyrics that blend humor and satire with often esoteric subject matter.-Early life and career:...

 perform in the club's auditorium, which at its opening in 1957 was the largest of its kind in South America. Also classical music and theatrical plays are regularly on the agenda. Further facilities of the club include a kindergarten, library and the Centro Pró-Memória Hans Nobiling, which comprises a museum displaying trophies and other memorabilia from the club's rich history as well as the archives.

Basketball

In 2006 EC Pinheiros participated for the first time in the professional first division of Brazilian basketball
Basketball
Basketball is a team sport in which two teams of five players try to score points by throwing or "shooting" a ball through the top of a basketball hoop while following a set of rules...

, but then failed to qualify for the single league that resulted from the merging of the conferences. In 2010 Pinheiros rejoined the league, called Novo Basquete Brasil
Novo Basquete Brasil
Novo Basquete Brasil is the Brazilian premier profissional men's basketball league. Organized by the Liga Nacional de Basquete , in a new format to the Campeonato Brasileiro de Basquete, this league is managed for the first time by 19 Brazilian basketball associations, all LNB founding...

, under they sponsored name Pinheiros/Sky. The team plays at the Ginásio Poliesportivo Henrique Villaboim on the club's grounds in Jardim Europa.

Current roster

6   Shamell Stallworth Forward
7   Juan Pablo Figueroa  Guard
8   Leonardo Morro Center
Center (basketball)
The center, colloquially known as the five or the post, is one of the standard positions in a regulation basketball game. The center is normally the tallest player on the team, and often has a great deal of strength and body mass as well...

11   Marquinhos Forward
12   Josuel Center
Center (basketball)
The center, colloquially known as the five or the post, is one of the standard positions in a regulation basketball game. The center is normally the tallest player on the team, and often has a great deal of strength and body mass as well...

16   Olivinha
Olivinha
Carlos Alexandre Rodrigues do Nascimento, also known as Olivinha or Alexandre is a Brazilian professional basketball player....

Forward
17   Thomas Gehrke Forward/Center
Center (basketball)
The center, colloquially known as the five or the post, is one of the standard positions in a regulation basketball game. The center is normally the tallest player on the team, and often has a great deal of strength and body mass as well...

18   Tiaguinho Guard
25   Bruno Mortari Forward
21   Bruno Fiorotto Center
Center (basketball)
The center, colloquially known as the five or the post, is one of the standard positions in a regulation basketball game. The center is normally the tallest player on the team, and often has a great deal of strength and body mass as well...

40   André Goes Guard/Forward
TBD   Rafael Mineiro 
TBD   Renato
Coach   Cláudio Mortari / João Marcelo Leite


Roster updated 07-22-2010

Volleyball

Brazil is a leading country in volleyball and the ladies as well of the men of Pinheiros' volleyball department are playing in Brazil's first division, the Superleague.
In 2010 the men played with their sponsored name as Pinheiros/Sky. The ladies formed a union with Mackenzie University and therefore played as Pinheiros/Mackenzie
Pinheiros/Mackenzie
Pinheiros/Mackenzie is a professional women's volleyball team, based in São Paulo, São Paulo , Brazil.-2008/2009 team:-External links:*...

.

Water polo

Water polo has been played at EC Pinheiros since 1949. Soon players from the club were also selected to play in the national team and represent Brazil at Olympic Games and many more international events, such as the Panamerican Games 1963 which were won by Brazil. After Pinheiros won the Brazilian Cup in 2004 Pinheiros also won the first edition of the national league Liga Nacional de Pólo Aquático in 2008.
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