Annual Zalgiris Youth Camp comes back in largest-ever scale in 2023 0

Zalgiris Kaunas continues to develop its cooperation with the Danish Basketball Federation and the basketball schools of Denmark, which started in 2018.

Throughout the years of cooperation, the Lithuanian powerhouse has hosted a camp for talented youth in Denmark and organized the annual Zalgiris Youth Camp in Kaunas.

In the latest iteration of the camp, young basketball talents from Denmark spent almost a week in Kaunas, most of them coming from the Ajax Basketball Academy in Copenhagen, which has been made Lithuania a regular stop now.

As every year, the future of Danish basketball received individual and team practices, as well as exhibition games against the youngsters of the Zalgiris youth ranks.

One of the main organizers of the camp Gediminas Navickas, the head of Zalgiris’ youth program, was pleased with the growing popularity of the camp overseas.

“This is an ongoing project with the Ajax Copenhagen Basketball Academy and the Danish Basketball Federation. This year sets itself apart with the camp’s size. This is the most participants there’s ever been, a total of 70, with three boys’ teams and one girls’ team, and all the guests are training with Zalgiris-2 and Zalgiris-3 coaches and playing friendly games with our EuroLeague youth team, which has already started preparations for the EuroLeague Youth Qualification Tournament in Munich,” said Navickas.

“We are working hard and trying to make sure that the youngsters get to know the culture and take away bits and pieces that they haven’t experienced before. Then we’ll see if they can use it in their game,” said Ajax coach Pascal Colman.

The specialist also added that the interest in Zalgiris’ camps in Denmark is growing.

“Our program is growing, so this year we came with a bigger group of players. Other teams were also interested in this trip, and the girls who came here are not from the Ajax Basketball Academy. It’s great to see everyone joining in,” the specialist reflected.

Just like each year, the youngsters from Denmark who came to Lithuania to learn the secrets of basketball also had the opportunity to watch the Zalgiris’ EuroLeague home games at Zalgirio Arena.