The National Women Basketball Center was opened in Kaunas in October of the current year. The Center is not an individual organization, but rather a team of strong partners: basketball professionals, sponsors and the Municipality who have joined their forces to enhance women basketball positions and promote this sport.
'For women!', 'For success!' – wishing top results and signing on a basketball, four major partners to this project: Public Company ORLEN Lietuva, Kaunas City Municipality, Women Basketball Team AISTĖS LSMU and Basketball School ŽALGIRIS have symbolically approved their cooperation. All seek to pursue the same goal – with the financial basis and ideological support available, to train top level women basketballers from junior category to professional players in Kaunas.
The National Women Basketball Center will focus on two aims. First – recruiting and coaching of young talented sportswomen by providing them with possibility to train under an optimum program meeting their fitness and health. This function will be undertaken by Kaunas Basketball School ŽALGIRIS. 'Together we will build a solid basketball pyramid in the future', Director of the School Martynas Račkauskas was convinced in the importance of the project. 'We, the Basketball School, will contribute to basketball with young and ambitious players who will pursue top results for Kaunas City together with the best women basketballers'.
The second aim is hiring of top level experienced and qualified basketball coaches to coach the professional team AISTĖS LSMU, controlling of the players' athletic proficiency on a regular basis, and sponsoring of their participation in improvement programs. In the opinion of Petras Aleksonis, Team Director, women basketball needs support and long-term partners very much. 'Next to the long-lasting support and faith from Kaunas City Municipality, we now have a private general sponsor', Head of AISTĖS LSMU rejoiced at the decision of AB ORLEN Lietuva to sponsor women basketball. 'Being a sports organization, we can make a step forward each year'.
When signing on a basketball, Kaunas Vice-Mayor Simonas Kairys stressed that the Municipality supports all the City professional teams which pursue long-term and sustainable goals with a wider attitude towards the sports process. 'Kaunas is no doubt a basketball city. We, Kaunas, are very glad to witness such initiatives', the Vice-Mayer expressed support to the project initiated by women basketball professionals. 'With strong men basketball teams, why cannot we have such teams on the women league too? I believe that, in the long term, women basketball will become more notable. This is the goal of our unification', Public Company ORLEN Lietuva General Director Michal Rudnicki confirmed the wish to actually contribute to the development of women basketball in Lithuania.
