Cartonas: “We built a family – Diamantidis and Kalambokis played a big role”

The National Children’s National Team may not have managed to get on the podium at the U16 EuroBasket held in Heraklion, finishing in fourth place, but this does not negate its excellent course that created lifelong bonds among its members. One of them, Mr Vassilis Cartonas who competes in DEKA, spoke to EEC Web Radio and evaluated the effort, while making a special mention of the coach’s contribution Yannis Kalambokis and the general leader of the mission, Dimitris Diamantidis. He spoke in detail:

On whether he is looking forward to the new season, based on what he experienced this year: “This year was a dream for me. Every day that passed was fantastic, everything I experienced was incredible really, I didn’t expect it either. I’m looking forward to getting back on the court this year. May I experience as many things as I can. The work now begins.”

For the moments he has left from this season: “Two moments were the most intense. The first is when we won the World School Championship, there was fantastic joy, I can’t describe it, it was incredible. The second is in the semi-final match against Spain, where we had the match with 11, even I cannot understand what happened. We left the match, got a huge upset by the Spanish and lost a place in the final. There was too much regret, because we thought we could do it. At 4 minutes before the end we were at +11 and we believed in it very much”.

On how much more mature this tournament made them: “We feel very mature. We knew some kids from the whole year, and the coaches, but these 45 days that we all lived together as a family “tied” us and day by day we became more and more mature, that’s why this result came.”

For the health that this group produced: “The coach played a big role. Dimitris Diamantidis was with us the whole time, just having such a person next to us was really incredible. He told us so many things, he gave us things every day, and he and all the staff told us to be loved, family and that we have nothing to lose. Day by day we “built” a family. This brought us health, joy and we showed this image”.

For the support of the people in Eurobasket U16: “We thank from the bottom of our hearts all the people who supported us all the days. He was there from day one. They helped us a lot in the group matches, especially in the round of 8 match against Turkey. In the semi-final, almost the entire stadium was filled, a lot of people came, helped us, cheered us on. If we had made it to the final, this whole process would have been a dream, the stadium would have been full.”

On what it was like to have teammates with guys he faced as opponents this season: “All the children, one by one, were very good. It played a big role that we became a family and we didn’t have rivalry between us, we didn’t argue about who gets what. We did what the coach told us. We had a very nice atmosphere.”