An Australian guard has earned a basketball tryout in Spain for the 2026-27 season. Zena Alberro went straight from EuroProBasket’s September 2026 Women’s Professional Program in Valencia to a one-week tryout with a club in Castellón.
Who is Zena Alberro?
Zena Alberro is a 23-year-old Australian point guard and shooting guard. She developed in Sydney’s club system with the Bankstown Bruins and Hornsby Spiders, and was named to the Bankstown Bruins’ 2026 NBL1 East roster before heading to Spain.
From Youth League to NBL1 East
Alberro’s path runs through two of Sydney’s best-known basketball programs. She played Youth League Women Division 1 for the Bankstown Bruins in 2024, then moved to the Hornsby Spiders for the 2025 Youth League Women Division 1 season.
For 2026 she returned to Bankstown, this time on the NBL1 East roster. NBL1 East is the New South Wales and ACT conference of the NBL1, the level directly beneath the WNBL, and the Bruins have won more women’s titles in its history than any other club.
On the floor she gives a coach two positions in one player. She can run the offense at the point or play off the ball at the two.
Three weeks in Valencia
Alberro arrived in Valencia for the September 2026 edition of the Women’s Professional Program. That meant three weeks of two sessions a day at L’Alqueria del Basket, plus games against Spanish club teams.
The first adjustment was speed. “The biggest difference is the pace of the game,” she said. “European basketball is much faster and places a strong emphasis on defense and team play.”
The second was the workload. “The hardest part was dealing with the fatigue from training twice a day and making sure I was recovering properly and looking after my body.”
Against good Spanish competition she put together some very strong performances, all of them on film. The game she points to is the last one, against a Valencia Basket side mixing its junior and cadet players, one of the top women’s youth programs in the world.
“I think the last game we played had the biggest impact on me. Even though we lost, we stayed together as a team, gave 100%, and kept fighting until the final minute.”
What does Zena Alberro’s tryout in Spain involve?
A week inside a Spanish club’s practices in Castellón, competing for a place on its 2026-27 roster. EuroProBasket set up the tryout off the back of her games in Valencia. Alberro found out during the final week of the program and left for Castellón as soon as it ended.
“I found out about the tryout during the last week of the Valencia program. I was really excited about the opportunity to try out for a Spanish team and see where basketball could take me.”
The first people she called were her family.
Spain is one of the hardest countries in Europe to earn a roster spot in, with players from the United States, Africa, Australia and across Europe competing for every place. She knows exactly what she wants the coaches to see this week.
“I want the coaches to see that I’m a coachable player who works hard, competes on both ends of the floor, brings positive energy, and always puts the team first.”
How do you get a basketball tryout in Spain?
For Zena Alberro, the route was three weeks of games in Valencia in front of the people who sign players. Her advice to the next player: “I would tell them to come with an open mind and be ready to work hard. It’s an amazing experience, and the basketball community in Valencia is really welcoming.”
The Women’s Professional Program runs every September and January, timed to Europe’s two signing windows, and game film goes directly to clubs. Since 2015, more than 400 EuroProBasket players have signed contracts or committed to universities across more than 25 countries.
See every player we have signed. The next edition of the Women’s Professional Program runs 10–30 January 2027.
