Boutouris: “The roles in the eternal derby are reversed from last year – Two weeks ago I would have said Panathinaikos, but…”

The first big EuroLeague derby in ages is just around the corner as Panathinaikos hosts Olympiakos to a packed house OAKA for the 8th matchday (08/11, 21:15, Novasports Prime, News Bulletin 247, sport-fm.gr).

The veteran basketball player Nikos Boutouriswho has played with both big rivals, made his own comment on EOK Web Radio ahead of the derby of the top European competition, while also referring to the work being done in his academies Olympic Volos.

In detail what he said:

For this year’s Panathinaikos-Olympiakos match: “These games are very interesting. I would say that this year the roles have changed, because last year when they asked me the same question, I said that Olympiacos has stability while Panathinaikos was “searching”, because it was a new effort and team. Starting this year, I can say that Panathinaikos is in the position of the “old”, because it is a team that found its way last year, achieved very important things, has the mentality of a winner and knows how to win important games. Olympiacos this year, due to many new faces, is trying to find roles and steps to perform what they want throughout the game. It has a lot of volatility, which is normal, because there are many new players.”

For tomorrow’s (08/11) “eternal” derby: “While the pace was very much backwards for Olympiakos two weeks ago and we could see it, now, because he has successfully passed 2-3 very strong tests, the pace is close to him again. I really like watching Panathinaikos play, they play very nice basketball. If you asked me 2 weeks ago, I would have said Panathinaikos. Now, however, Olympiacos is also very strong, so there is no favourite. Panathinaikos is really playing very nice basketball, but Olympiacos is coming tougher than two weeks ago. He will try to go for victory and… apotheosis. He comes “with a knife in his teeth”. It will be a very nice game from that point of view.”

On how the player prepares for such matches: “The player has to have his own routine. His daily life should not change. The people may be eager for such a match and be alert all day long as to what will happen, but the player should not do that. He must eat at noon, sleep before the match, be calm. It’s a matter of routine. There are techniques that players know and apply. A player’s nap or lunch break should not be lost. You think more about the process, what you have to do all day, the video, what the coach said, having a good meal, a good sleep and two hours before the match you start to get into a concentration mood until the time comes of the match. There is so much information that a player has to remember, that his passion has to be controlled.”

Regarding the situation in Volos regarding the part of the academies: “Certainly the last 2 years are different than in Athens, in relation to the academies and the work I do. There are some peculiarities in the district, the kids don’t have many opportunities to see many matches up close, they don’t have much opportunity to play many matches during the year. The games are limited, so their images are few. We need to adapt a bit to these ages and give more matches to ages from 1st to 2nd grade. Athens kids have more images at these ages, they play more games, with more teams, so that improves them faster.”

For the work he does in the academies of Olympic Volos: “For the last 12-14 years I have specialized in young children. And in Vrilissia and Gerakas I had two teams, I was in two private schools, so I had my academies there. There were too many children. I have experience and expertise in these ages and I wanted to bring it to Volos as well. The first years trained and trained by me are children from 5th to 6th grade and below. I met a lot of older, high school kids, where several of them did not belong to Olympiakos Volos, but, learning of my arrival, wanted to get to know me as a coach. We are fortunate this year to have enough children to go down to all the leagues, to have worthy groups and to be competitive.”

For Red Special Team: “It’s a team we’ve created, they’re Olympic Volleyball players, kids with mental disabilities. I collaborated with the Association of Parents and Guardians of Disabled People of Magnesia. We have about 20 children, we are in our 3rd year of operation. It was an idea that started in Athens because I had worked in an institution, where I had been hosted and I had done some training, next to Vrilissia. Coming to Volos, I thought that a team should have such a department. Through basketball, we gave the children the opportunity to do one or two training sessions a week. In the last year I worked with volunteers from the University of Thessaly and the Department of Special Education, where students come and help me train voluntarily. I can say that this training is a purification for me, because you meet children who show love, have no second thoughts, embrace you and are happy with what you give them. It’s really a terrible experience. I started it with one goal, to have imitators. I am very happy and proud because several teams have entered the process of creating such teams.”