Last weekend in Sofia, Bulgaria took place the convention “FIBA Europe U14 Get-Together”, where the Kosovo Basketball Federation was represented by Elvira Dushku, which is part of the federations’ project for the development of youth generations in both competitions (women-men) at a national and international level.
The lecturers in this convention were Mr. Kostas Missas, lecturer from the licensing program FECC, Chris Dial, project leader for the development of U13 and U14 for potential children (men) supported by the Youth Development Fund, and Michael Schwarz, Head of the Coaches Department in FIBA Europe.
On the first day of the convention around 60 participants had the chance to learn from the American Coach, Chris Dial, the Greek strategist Kostas Missas and the Bulgarian Coach of CSKA, Hristo Tzenov, who is also part of the FECC program. The lectures were held at the “Traditsa” gym in Sofia, and they spoke about the importance of basic basketball skills at a young age and defense phase in young generations, using the practical part with young basketball players present in the gym.
On the second day of the event the participants had the opportunity to listen to the lecture of Kamil Novak, FIBA Executive Director Europe, who spoke about the importance of the programs and projects for coaches and young basketball players. Asterios Zois, President of the Youth Commission is satisfied with the work done in the summer that we left behind in the European Championships of Youth Generations in both competitions and in different divisions. Novak and Zois also talked about the importance of increasing the Youth Development Fund from 1.7 to 4 million euros, because according to them, it has enabled new and positive developments in National Teams of different countries.
Two other lectures took place on the second day, “Who can become a coach”, lectured by Michael Schwartz, expert and head of Coaches Department in FIBA Europe. He said that the coach should be sensitive, dedicated and must have excellent communicating skills; he must be an educator as well as a psychologist. He also spoke about FIBA Europe Coaching Certificate (FECC), a course for young European coaches. "The program offers access in variety of lectures, allows exchange of ideas with other coaches. The participants can watch the games and absorb new knowledge in basketball, and focus on the discovery of talents" said Schwartz.
Afterwards, he held a discussion in an interview with Kostas Mitsas, about the experience and his coaching philosophy and fundamental basketball practices. Meanwhile, Chris Dial presented the two-year project "Youth Development Fund ", which is led by Turkey and part of which are also Kosovo, Bulgaria, Romania and Macedonia.”The goal of this project is to give an opportunity to basketball players aged 13 and 14 years old, who maybe are not the best in their countries, but have the potential to become the best in the coming years," said Dial.
Convention "“FIBA Europe U14 Get-Together” has ended with the traditional game between the participants of the event.