The Children’s National Team is ready for the European U16

After her very promising presence in the friendly preparations, h Children’s National Team is thrown into the battle of the European U16 that will take place in Skopje, from August 12 to 20.

The National Children’s National Team is also officially ready to step on the floor. Our representative group left Thessaloniki, where it played its last preparatory games, and is already in Skopje, in order to take part in the U16 European Championship that will be held August 12-20.

The federal coach, Vangelis Ziagosspoke about the preparation, the three main axes around which it moved, but also the clear goals that have been set with an eye on the present, but mainly on the children’s future.

“Our preparation has been completed, having already gained great sports and interpersonal experiences, which is always one of the demands of our lives”, emphasized Ziagos to add: “This period was planned based on three central axes and on them it will be accounts and our own evaluation at the end: First, the formation of a positive and pedagogical training environment in which every athlete feels important and develops. Secondly, the formation of our competitive identity and its acceptance by all. The children come from different teams, have different basketball recruiters and are invited within 40 days to work together and assimilate a possibly different philosophy. It sounds easy, isn’t it, as we are talking about children with little training age, but also athletes from regions of the country with poor competitive performances. Thirdly, the formation of a supportive and family atmosphere in which one will trust and respect the other for who he is. We feel satisfied with what we have achieved so far».

Ziagos continued referring to the competitive part: “On a purely competitive level, there is a surrounding atmosphere of heightened and premature expectations due to the good performances in the pre-season matches and we understand that. However, let’s be grounded and careful in our demands, because a European championship is a completely different condition from the preparation games. We must not forget that we will be competing against the elite of Europe’s development programs, which have a consistent and stable presence at the highest level. I think that this year’s summer events are an excellent opportunity to define precisely where we are today, where we want to reach and how we will achieve it. This work is long term and we will not reach the highest level overnight as we are used to demand in our country».

The Greek team is invited to face one of the tournament’s favorites in the premiere, an opponent they already know, having faced – and defeated – them in a friendly match: Spain. The speech belongs to the federal coach: “We play the first game against Spain, he knows us and we know them. They are one of the favorites for the medal podium, while as a basketball school they have remained steadfast at the highest level in Europe for decades and we respect them for it. We have several common features in our game, consistency in the energy part and tolerance and resistance to pressure will play a decisive role in the result».

Epilogue with the goals of the Children’s National Team in this mission: “Our goal is clear: The National team to remain in the highest division of Europe by presenting a good competitive person who will leave a clean basketball imprint. A team that will compete with a fighting spirit, at high speeds and with good teamwork. With these we built, with these we will march wherever it takes us. We are confident and optimistic because above all we believe in each other».

The composition of the team

Name Date Gen. Height Group

Andreas Patrikis 13.11.2006 1.98 TEN

Yannis Komnianidis 02.08.2006 1.83 Herakles

Epaminondas Epaminondas 13.03.2006 1.93 CHANTH

Eleftherios Havoutsas 21.02.2006 2.02 Peristeri

Stefanos Spartalis 27.07.2006 2.04 BAOL Chios

Filippos Tsachtsiras 05.02.2006 2.04 Mars

Anastasios Rozakeas 26.02.2006 2.00 EFAOZ

Lefteris Liotopoulos 02.08.2006 1.92 TEN

Nikos Soilemetzidis 13.01.2006 1.90 Prometheus P.

Benjamin Abosi 15.01.2006 1.94 Olympiacos

Stelios Ioannis Maragoudakis 01.02.2006 1.80 Peristeri

Neoklis Avdalas 04.02.2006 1.96 Panathinaikos

Coach: Vangelis Ziagos

B. Coach: Dimitris Varvounis, Thodoris Siares

Gymnast: Thanassis Alexandrakis

Doctor: Giorgos Nomikos

Physiotherapist: Tassos Papagiannidis

Head of Mission: Lambros Takis

The program of Phase I

12.08 22.00 Greece-Spain

13.08 19.45 North Macedonia-Greece

14.08 15.15 Montenegro-Greece

*All matches will be live streamed on the FIBA ​​YouTube channel (youtube.com/fiba)

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