By Aris Barkas/ barkas@eurohoops.net
A total of 200 coaches from 36 different countries have attended the first ever EuroLeague Coaches Clinic, however, the EuroLeague Head Coaches Board had also its first-ever meeting on Thursday.
Per the EuroLeague Head Coaches Board press release: “With the first ever 2019 EuroLeague Coaches Clinic as a back drop, the EuroLeague Head Coaches Board kicked off their alliance on Thursday morning at, what is going to become their regular annual board meeting. The association was created at the end of January with the goal of offering coaches in the EuroLeague a possibility to speak in one voice to all relevant stakeholders.
“These kinds of associations exist across all sports. We had extensive talks for over a year and saw a need to establish our own for EuroLeague Coaches”, explains Goran Sasic Executive Director of the EuroLeague Head Coaches Board (EHCB). “We have found that EuroLeague coaches, who are important stakeholders in the decision making of the sport, are often left without a unified voice to be able to give back to the sport. The goal of the Board is to be able to offer this framework so that coaches can offer their expertise in some of the decisions made with regards to the sport.”
All members present were able to discuss the establishment and workings of the board, administrative issues as well as the latest proposal that the EuroLeague Head Coaches Board turned in for approval for the general assembly of EuroLeague Basketball.
Members discussed and approved the hiring of three key consultants to assist them in the development of the EHCB; Jan Pommer as legal advisor, Cem Ceyhun Karamürsel as financial advisor and Kirsten Haack as Communications advisor.
Once the meeting finalized coaches moved on to participate as lecturers in the innovative 2019 EuroLeague Coaches Clinic that was hosted at the Pavello Olimpic, home of the historic club Divina Juventut in Badalona. A clinic that breaks all expectations with close to 200 attendees from over 36 countries. Participants arrived from all over the globe such as Brazil, Chile, Argentina, Japan, Angola, Tunisia, Russia, Finland, Iceland, Lebanon, and Israel.
“We are very excited to be able to host this first clinic here in Badalona, a place that has strong and deep roots with the basketball community”, Zeljko Obradovic president of the EuroLeague Head Coaches Board and Head Coach at Fenerbahçe Beko Istanbul said. “We were very excited to have Joventut host us here and see such a positive response from the basketball community. This is the first of some very exciting future clinics”.
The clinic was a 3 and a half day event that offered attendees a lecture on offense and the same topic on defense by Ettore Messina, Georgios Bartzokas, Pablo Laso, Sarunas Jasikevicius, Xavi Pascual and Zeljko Obradovic. HUDL as the 2019 EuroLeague Coaches Clinic partner held a workshop showing top of the arc technological solutions.
The association confirms that they will be hosting a yearly clinic such as this, and will announce dates shortly, however, it was decided that next year´s 2020 EuroLeague Coaches Clinic will be held in Turkey”.