Kosovo U16 National Team is preparing for the European Championship, Division C, which will take place on 6/11 July, in San Marino.
Kosovo selector for U16, the American coach Chris Dial together with his staff and 19 basketball players are currently working with great commitment in order to make their best debut in the European Championship against the NT of Gibraltar, which will take place on the first day of the European Championship, in San Marino.
U16 NT is exercising in the primary school "Model" in Prishtina, every weekend since the beginning of March, while the selection of these children started on December 2014 and the process continued also in January, February and in March coach Dial has joined the NT. 19 out of 200 kids have been selected and only 12 of them will travel to San Marino.
However, before Kosovo’s debut in the European Championship, another adventure awaits these kids, and that is the participation in the camp of San Antonio, USA.
Kosovo Basketball Federation (KBF) has made all necessary preparations for the participation in the camp, to be held from 14 ‘til 25 June.
The main purpose for Kosovo’s participation in this camp is the individual work with eminent coaches that will participate in this activity as well as the development of many friendly games – which will help the boys for their challenge in San Marino.
At the exercises, alongside Chris Dial are always his assistants Dritero Sefaja, Edon Godeni and Petrit Zeqiri. Kosovo coaches are working with great commitment and trying to get the best from the American coach, who has great experience in working with the new generations.
Dial spoke about the progress achieved since March and what awaits them in San Antonio, while coach Sefaja talked about the great work that awaits the team after returning from the US, and one of the best basketball players of this group-age, Etnik Peci said that the atmosphere is very good and all of this is happening because of the good conditions, professional work of the coaches and the great desire to represent Kosovo in the best possible way, in San Marino.
Chris Dial, Kosovo selector for U16: “It is very important that these boys have a great desire for work and that means a lot in team work. Since March, when I joined these boys, I saw a great progress in them, especially in defense. We also managed to avoid their bad habits in offense, but we still have to work in that direction. In the second week of June, we will travel to San Antonio, where we will participate in a camp with the greatest basketball coaches in the USA. During the day, our basketball players will have the chance to work individually, in their position, whereas in the evening they will play friendly games with different schools of the USA. The games will be very hard but also very welcoming for the boys. Afterwards, we will return to Kosovo for our final preparations before San Marino. We will give these boys 3-4 days to rest and after that we will get back to the intensive and final work. So, we have a very busy schedule but also a very effective one.”
Dritero Sefaj, Kosovo coach for NT U16: “We have been working a lot with this generation since December. Now we are at a stage where the things are clear. We will travel to San Antonio and afterwards get back to exercising twice a day, every day. For us, it is very important to accurately implement our plan and so far, we managed to do that. The boys are working hard; they are highly motivated and can hardly wait for their debut in the European Championship.”
Etnik Peci, basketball player for NT U16: “Since I began playing basketball, I have been dreaming for this day to come and it finally did. For me, all of this is a dream come true. I can hardly wait to go to San Antonio and San Marino. We have a lot of work to do, but I am happy with everything that we have done so far. The coaches did a great job, they taught us, motivated us and gave us a reason to love this game even more. “
It must be emphasized that in San Marino, from 6 until 11 July 2015, Kosovo will be competing in Division C, group B, with Gibraltar, Monaco and Wells.