From eight years old, Arella Guirantes knew what she wanted.
From the backyard hoop to the Boys & Girls Club of Bellport to the basketball courts of Bellport High School, she played at Texas Tech, Rutgers, the Los Angeles Sparks (two seasons for the WMBA), and the Seattle Storm. She also played games in Ukraine, Hungary, Italy, China, and coming up soon in Spain. The 26-year-old superstar has also landed a place in the Puerto Rican National Olympic Women’s Basketball Team for the 2024 Olympics in Paris.
“We’re trying to elevate our families, ourselves, and this part of the journey,” Arella told Fire Island & Great South Bay News.
Bellport High School Principal Erika Della Rosa told FIN that Bellport High School is so proud of Arella’s success. Rutgers Women’s Basketball Head Coach Coquese Washington said, “We are proud to see Arella excel on the global stage.”
Arella is keenly aware that her roots—starting in Bellport—can inspire future Olympians. She grew up with her family in North Bellport on Macdonald Avenue near the Boys & Girls Club, where her father, Robert, was the athletic director before taking on Arella’s training.
“So literally, we go from one gym to another gym, and we’d be there all night… I lived at the Boys and Girls Club, and after practice, I’d be in the gym all night -after I did my homework – so it was just like school gym all day,” she said.
“I started on this small, little court and a hoop from Walmart… My dad bought it and we played on the smallest piece of pavement in the backyard with a bunch of cracks in it, so if you turned your foot the wrong way, you probably roll your ankle, but we didn’t care,” Arella said. “Sometimes, we would push it out into the street and then have multiple people come. But we always had gym access because my parents were coaches, and I just literally lived in the gym.”
Arella’s dad, Robert, coached the varsity men’s basketball team, and her mom (a hairstylist by profession and an influence on Arella’s style) coached the fifth and sixth-grade girls in middle school.
“So, it was just like I was always around it. It was natural for me to pick it up.”
At 18, she started to play with the Puerto Rico team because her grandfather was from Puerto Rico.
“I got to tap into my roots for real. Just knowing where my grandfather grew up and just how much support and love and the pride they walk around with was electrifying,” Arella said.
The Puerto Rico team did not win in Paris, but Arella is upbeat about the experience: “I didn’t play in the first Olympics because of COVID, but they went the first time, and they lost by 40, almost every game. And then this time, you know, these teams that were beating them by 40, we’re losing by one, we’re losing by three. We’re losing in the last seconds of the game, so it’s just small progress, small wins.”
“Just make sure you’re not counting all the losses,” she said with a bright outlook.
Still riding on the enthusiasm from the Paris Olympics and back on Long Island, Arella is determined to give back. She starts coaching for a skills camp at Long Island Lutheran High School, on the Deering Howe Estate in the North Shore community of Brookville.
Arella is enthusiastic about bringing Bellport to the world stage: “It’s about … just bringing light into the world.”
