Translated material
Southern transit
Currently in Russia there is a championship of youth teams (understudies), tournaments under the auspices of the Student Basketball Association, the Children's and Youth Basketball League, the Youth Basketball Association, and the Mini-Basket club. And at the end of last week, the final tournament of the “Lokomotiv - School League” competition took place in Krasnodar, the organizer of which is the Lokomotiv-Kuban BC, and the patron and general sponsor is “Russian Railways”. At first, the league covered only the Rostov region, but over the four years of its existence it significantly expanded its geography. In the 2009/10 season, teams from 14 regions of the country took part in the championship (entirely the Southern and North Caucasus Federal District), plus teams from the Republic of Abkhazia were invited. Thus, as part of a gigantic tournament, more than 130 thousand teenagers took to the basketball courts.
Last year, the team from the city of Slavyansk-on-Kuban became the champion, and this season, having won all six matches played at the preliminary stage of the super final tournament, students from secondary schools from Rostov-on-Kuban received the right to compete in the main match for gold. Don and Krasnodar. Moreover, if the tournament began in the sports complex of the Kuban State Agrarian University, then the decisive matches of the Lokomotiv - School League championship took place within the walls of the more spacious Olympus Sports Palace. In addition, the finale was shown in full by one of the leading local television companies. The Krasnodar team won (school No. 35) - 88:75. “Bronze” went to the Pyatigorsk team, who turned out to be stronger than their peers from Vladikavkaz (51:47). Players of the champion team, in addition to medals and a cup, get the opportunity to go to the men's world championship in Turkey and cheer for the Russian team there.
Since this project has a very high social and sporting significance due to the huge number of participants, the quality of the competition organization is appropriate. In a number of ways, the organizers of the final even surpassed the level of the continent's junior championships. The league takes place in six stages - from intra-school tournaments to the federal finals. The title draw, held in Krasnodar for the fourth time, became the main sporting event of the month in the region.
“Our club has long been nurturing plans to create a large-scale social project,” said the president of BC Lokomotiv-Kuban, a famous former attacking defender Andrei Vedischev. — At the time of its creation, we received a tournament that had no analogues in Russia. It perfectly serves the task of popularizing sports and a healthy lifestyle among young people. After all, it’s no secret that kids of all ages love to play with a ball. And the main result of the Lokomotiv - School League championship is not the victory of a specific team, but positive emotions, that festive atmosphere that will remain in the children’s memory for the rest of their lives. Our project is growing and developing every year. Now, using the example of our competitions, with the support of the Russian Basketball Federation and the Ministry of Sports, we intend to involve schoolchildren from all over the country in this league.”
RFB President Sergei Chernov also believes that a joint tournament is needed in the future: “The initiative and efforts of BC Lokomotiv-Kuban deserve the kindest words. Not all of our clubs are yet concerned with raising a reserve, preferring to take the easy way and solve only their local problems. The Southerners set a more than worthy example for other Super League teams. I think there is really a need to create a similar nationwide league on the platform of Lokomotiv’s brainchild.”