Other Croatian good practices examples

Here some development goals of “Anda Jelavic Basket Academy”:

● Organize sports activities for children and youth more efficiently, especially through school basketball club programs and basketball training; ● Greater care for professional work and employment of new professionally educated coaches in clubs; ● Appropriate programs and customized basketball infrastructure enable as many children as possible to play basketball in an organized manner; ● By organizing international basketball tournaments, promote Croatia in the world and thus significantly contribute to the tourist promotion; ● Greater care for basketball facilities and encouraging the construction of new ones.

The vision is to achieve more, to increase the popularity of basketball successes and make the sport even more popular, and to recognize and retain talents in Croatia in order to attract as many young people as possible to play basketball. The opening of the Basketball Academy "Anđa Jelavić" contributes to the increase of girls who want to play basketball, so that in the 7 years of the club's existence there are over 50 girls. The hope that this number will grow from year to year because there is a need for better work in clubs, hiring coaches who are qualified for such a responsible position. The popularity of the early deceased most famous basketball player in Šibenik - Dražen Petrović, is not waning and he is becoming an integral part of a kind of sports culture of the city. Many children who decide to play basketball see a role model in him and his dedicated commitment to training and the eternal desire to be better day by day in the sport you love.

Other Croatian good practices examples

The Croatian Federation joined a special program launched by FIBA Europe, called ‘Her World, Her Rules’. It is a unique project launched by FIBA Europe and implemented in partnership with national federations with the aim of promoting women’s basketball across Europe through various activities. The Croatian Basketball Association joined the project in 2019, when it was launched, but in 2020 it had to stop both competitions and this project. The primary goal is to attract our sport girls of primary and secondary school age (6 to 15 years) through a global campaign called "Her world, her rules". The ambassadors of the project in Croatia are the legendary basketball player and president of the Women's Basketball Professional Council Danira Bilić (r. Nakić) and former captain and former senior national team coach Anđa Jelavić and Vedrana Grgin, former national team member and winner of two WNBA rings, both also members of the Professional Council. Despite the fact that the COVID crisis has not yet passed, the conditions have finally been met for the project to continue in 2021 and again allow girls to love basketball and, in the future, continue or start training.

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The Croatian Olympic Committee set the program “Development of women's sports in the local environment”. It helps former athletes in their careers after their sports careers.

Playing sports from an early age brings many benefits, both physical and mental. It teaches them skills that can be applied outside of sports fields. Pierre de Coubertin, the father of the modern Olympic Games, in addition to the importance of sport for a better society, emphasized the role of sport in the overall development of the person and the preservation of human dignity.

Anda Jelavic Academy designed 4 tournaments throughout the county. The goal is to attract as many girls as possible to the halls. Coaches, Anđa Jelavić and Tihana Jurić, top basketball players, senior national team players, who are the greatest role models for the girls of our academy, have a big role in that. The two of them also take care of the psychological development of the girls and try to provide a sports environment in which the girls will feel safe. The emphasis is always on personal growth and development, not on the results of competitions in their early stages of sporting development. Through the program, they will try to provide girls with equal opportunities to participate and play sports in order to equalize that number with the number of boys who play sports. Playing sports is a human right - one of the fundamental principles of Olympism.

Here a proposal of women basketball development flow:

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