Paul Nilsen is a freelance basketball journalist writing for various web-sites and publications across Europe. If you would like to contact Paul you can e-mail him here badaball@hotmail.co.uk.

Spain now being a magnet for basketball success is a truism if ever there was one. With an unquenchable passion for the game and an infrastructure underpinned with impressive resources and effective planning, it isn't surprising productivity is high at all levels.

They say that success breeds success. However, often lost in this particular theory is the old-fashioned concept of hard work and the need to perpetually banish any thought of complacency.

Encapsulating all of the above while also demonstrating to the rest of Europe just how powerful the concept of ‘people power' can be in helping communities realise their dreams is Rivas Ecopolis.

Having taken EuroLeague Women by storm during their rookie season, they have now started etching another exciting chapter in their short but nevertheless impressive history.

Located in the relatively new urban areas on the outskirts of Madrid, Rivas are the quintessential rags to riches story. They are quite literally, a neighbourhood basketball team that went on to reach the knockout stages of the most prestigious Women's club competition in the world.

At the time the urbanisations themselves were being built during the eighties, the community were encouraged by the developers to come together to form a sporting club called Club Deportivo Covibar. From those humble beginnings, Rivas Ecoplis was eventually born.

Dewanna Bonner is new on the books of Rivas and is supposed to help making the team even more successful thn in the rookie campaign

Originally there were as few as 500 people living in the area but that has now grown to 16,000 people in Covibar and another 70,000 in Rivas. With it, the popularity of basketball has soared to incredible levels, impressively out-stripping the pace shown in other similar communities - a fact even acknowledged by the Spanish Federation.

Well things turned full circle this week as the club announced a formal expansion of the Rivas basketball family as it repaid the helping hand originally given by CD Covibar by announcing that after two years of negotiations, both organisations would finally be united under one banner - namely CB Rivas.

In a project that signals the determination of Rivas to grow and build even more powerful foundations for the future, this new phase will not only maintain the first team at the highest level in Liga Femenina and ELW, but will also promote and develop a second team as well as a host of youth teams.

The second team will eventually give quality playing time at a National league level to the younger members of the club which will be part of the nurturing process as they try to eventually harvest more minutes with the first team.

These two neighbouring communities coming together as one have previously showed what can be achieved with dedication and hard work. They are now living the dream having scanned the horizon back during the mid-eighties and yet in 2010, they haven't forgotten their community roots and are proud to remember their very humble beginnings..

Not content with their fantastic efforts last season in ELW a mere 25 years after the very first ball was bounced in anger, they are now looking to the next generation of players and that can only be good for all concerned.

They already have an extensive project in place with tangible outputs. The basketball section of Club Deportivo Covibar or should I now say more accurately CB Rivas, has a staggering 28 teams, plus 18 school related teams spread over this now sub-city known as Rivas Vaciamadrid.

The club already consists of more than 500 players (320 federal and 200 in schools) and has 50 technical staff working in various sports facilities in the local community.

I am so excited about this development. The crowning glory of this community club is a team who participate in EuroLeague Women - this is what hundreds of girls will be not only be aspiring to, but they will now also have a more formal development route ahead of them which could help realise their ambitions.

I should probably admit at this point that I do have something of an emotional investment in this project. When I got lost in Rivas last year because of my poor Spanish and lack of direction, it led to me missing the tip-off for a Liga Femenina game. At that point in time I did wonder why a club was playing so far from the centre of the city.

As I ambled aimlessly through the apartments blocks and various parks looking for my destination, everybody in the community was out playing sports and I passed every kind of facility you could imagine. However tediously hot, sweaty and rather agitated, I shamefully yearned for them having an Arena in the middle of Madrid.

Eventually I reached the home floor of Rivas and within a few minutes felt thoroughly ashamed of myself. As I sat fascinated by the passion and noise oozing from fans of all ages but predominantly families, it quickly became clear that Rivas are indeed a special club because of their distinct location.

They aren't a team in situ in a town or city centre Arena. Rivas remain the heartbeat quite literally at the centre of their own community - a community for whom they are now repaying by pooling resources just like they did some 25 years ago.

Only now they can have the added confidence of having a track record which shows success against all the odds and previously delivering way above anybody's expectations.

This is a fact the communities of Rivas and Covibar should be immensely proud of and with the opening of this latest chapter, you sense there will be further reasons to be proud in the future since the new generation have been given every chance to continue putting smiles on the faces of those living in this basketball obsessed community of Madrid.

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