The U17 Women’s Basketball World Cup was held in Minsk last year and Belarus have certainly had a rich tradition in the global women’s game for the last 10-15 years. I am lucky that I can hand over the reins for this special guest blog to Minsk-based basketball specialist Anastasia Utkina. She is writing this piece especially for Blue Star Media as we continue to reach parts of the women’s basketball world that few others shine a light on. We’re loving this one-off and getting educated on a cradle of women’s basketball in Europe and Belarus, so take it away Nastia!
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A good story must begin with some history.
In the 1920s, Belarus was under the influence of Poland and the Soviet Union. In truth, the part of Belarus, which included Grodno, was geographically in Poland. The other part with Vitebsk was Soviet Belarus.
Vitebsk is considered to be the birthplace of Belarusian basketball, because it was there that the first Belarusian basketball club appeared. For some time, Vitebsk was indeed the main basketball city of Soviet Belarus.
However, Grodno has always been a unique cultural unit, having close ties with Poland and Lithuania. In Grodno, stunning players have been playing for a long time – in men’s and women’s basketball. This story, which formed the Grodno school of basketball, and this school is now taking up leading positions in the country.
A couple of years ago, a Belarusian basketball superstar, Coach Shimkaviak from Grodno’s Olimpia commented on the Belarusian Cup:
“This is an open championship of Minsk. Thank God, the team from Grodno has diversified this tournament. We took part in it as an exotic team.”
Let me explain. There are three top teams in Belarus: Tsmoki, Horizont and Olimpia. The first two are based in Minsk, and Olimpia, respectively, is located in Grodno. Most teams exist thanks to government funding. In Belarus, there is simply no institute of private teams, in which the main money belongs to a business. Naturally, Olimpia was always deprived of money and the ability to buy foreign players, so they had to grow their talents.
Aliaksandra Tarasava, Tatiana Likhtarovich, Mariya Papova (pictured), Nadzhezhda Drozd – they all passed through the Grodno school of basketball. Grodno made Mariya Vasilevko, Iryna Venskaya and Yuliya Vasilevich. And that’s not all basketball players. The youth team “Victoria” is based in Grodno, this season taking the fourth place in the Belarusian Championship.
About twenty years ago, Alexander Shimkaviak arrived in Grodno and made women’s basketball in this city the most popular one in Belarus. Under Shimkaviak, even Yelena Leuchanka was trained as part of the youth team. Shimkovyak became a coach who grew young basketball players for the national team. He became an epoch in Belarusian basketball.
It was his work that caused The Big Bang in Grodno basketball. Practically all the young people who are now engaged in basketball were under the care of Mr. Shimkaviak. And he is far from the only unique character in the coaching craft of the region. The Vavlevs are also the key heroes of this story. The father – Valeriy Vavlev – discovered Iryna Venskaya and continued his coaching career in Mosty (this is the Grodno region), and his son – Andrei Vavlev – leads Tsmoki.
So what is Grodno basketball? This is a successful combination of coaches and their love to basketball. Surprisingly, it is hard to find something similar anywhere else in Belarus. Coaches effectively find and educate basketball players who become part of the youth teams.
By the way, some youth teams can be formed by 80% of the Grodno players. This is not science fiction, it is systematic work. Grodno can’t always give high-class centers, Gomel is doing this in our country – Leuchanka and Verameyenka grew in Gomel. But with the replenishment of the PG/SG positions – always, please.
I will give an example. Look at the roster of the national team of Belarus in the qualification of the Eurobasket-2019. Magalyas, Holubeva, Papova, Masko, Likhtarovich and Tarasava were brought up or played in Grodno for a long time.
The U20 team last summer consisted of 50% of the players who went through the Grodno basketball school: Mikhnevich, Karpuk, Ruksha, Masko, Vasilevko, Bachkareva.
This year, Volha Padabed will take the new players to the U16 European Championship, believe me, there will be enough representatives from Grodno basketball too. And if you still do not know about Karolina Sedach, then this summer you will hear about her for sure.
When they talk about women’s basketball in Belarus, this expression is very popular – “not because of, but despite”. Grodno personifies and revives this expression.In Grodno, there are not always the most positive conditions for the development of basketball, but despite of everything basketball is developing organically there.
You can follow Anstasia Utkina on twitter @nastiauta
