Today, May 5, the 16th season of the Lokobasket – School League Championship ended in Chelyabinsk. Among the youth teams, the team of the Republic of Adygea became the strongest.
The championship started on November 17, 2022 with a zonal tournament in the village of Staroderevyankovskaya, Krasnodar Territory. Since then, the qualifying stages have been held in 43 regions of Russia, as well as in the Republic of Abkhazia. The total number of schoolchildren who participated in at least one match of the 16th season of the Lokobasket – School League exceeded 310,000. But only 420 of them became participants in the Superfinal – the decisive round, which started in Chelyabinsk on April 30th.
420 superfinalists are 21 teams of boys and 21 teams of girls, 10 people in each of the teams. Age – no older than 16, but this is not the only restriction for participation in the tournament. At the start of the tournament, each team must be made up of students from the same school. And only in the case of reaching the superfinal, players from opposing teams in the regional or district qualifying round can be strengthened.
However, some teams do not need external strengthening – such as the youth team of Adygea, which is fully staffed by students from Maikop Lyceum No. 34. Adygean schoolchildren won the Lokobasket – School League Superfinal in a brilliant style: throughout the tournament they won 100% of the matches, in none of which the difference in the score was less than “+10”. In the match for gold medals, the Adygea team did not give the opponent – the Kaliningrad region – not a single chance: the final score was 60:45.
– We have been collecting this composition for several years. In the last draw of the “School League” the same squad took 8th place, but then the guys were a year younger than their rivals. And now they played with peers – and here is the result! – says the head coach of the champions, Heisam Bittar, who, by the way, has recently participated in the Championship as a player himself.
In the competition for girls, the Krasnodar Territory was represented by the team of school No. 6 of the municipality of the resort city of Anapa. The girls won this right, becoming the winners of the final of the South of Russia. According to the results of the competition, they took ninth place.
— The scale of the competitions and their organization are impressive. All at the highest level. The opponents are very strong. These competitions brought together representatives of different regions, different styles of play. For our team, this is an incredible experience, – said the head coach of the team Vitaly Korolev.
The first Lokobasket – School League tournament was held in 2006 by Lokomotiv-Kuban with the support of the Russian Railways.
“For 16 years in a row, PBC Lokomotiv-Kuban, with the support of Russian Railways and the Ministry of Sports of the Russian Federation, has been holding one of the brightest, most significant and massive youth tournaments, Lokobasket – School League,” notes the president of PBC Lokomotiv-Kuban. Kuban” Andrey Vedischev. – The best players of our project, people from the Lokobasket – School League competitions, are already showing themselves in the youth reserves of the Loko team and, perhaps, in the near future they will be able to take part in the fight for medals of the highest professional level. I want to express my deep gratitude and appreciation to the Administration of the Chelyabinsk Region for their help in organizing the Lokobasket – School League 2023 championship. Congratulations to all the participants of the superfinal – you are already handsome, well done! I congratulate you on becoming a participant in this bright sports festival. Our motto: “Learn and win!”. Not only on the sports field, but also in life. Lokobasket, go ahead! Happy holiday everyone!
“Lokobasket – School League” – Basketball championship among students in grades 7-9 of educational organizations within the framework of the All-Russian project “Basketball – to school!”.
