The champion of the men's Super League "Prometey" on Monday began the second stage of preparation for the 2021/2022 season. The first, lasting only a few days, took place in Zaporizhia in the Palace of Sports "Youth", with the participation of Ukrainian players. In the sports complex "Slobozhanske" of the eponymous urban village, where "Prometey" moved this summer, our team has gathered almost in full force, with a large group of young players from "Prometey-2-DDTU" training with the base. Vladimir Dubinsky, the president of Prometey, spoke about the new hall and the initial stage of preparation for the 2021/2022 season of all club basketball teams.
- I think that now in the summer everyone in our club did a good job. We have at our disposal a hall that currently seats 1,048 seats and we are working on how to increase its capacity, as there is an opportunity for this. The parquet was "late", fortunately, only for a week, so the team was forced to go to Zaporozhye to hold a weekly training camp there. Now all the players have arrived at her location, and we have another week to close all the small issues.
Thanks to Slobozhansky, the help from the local authorities was maximum - something that, unfortunately, we did not see in Kamyansky. Moving is always very difficult, and the hall was not suitable for training professional teams. For example, we had to completely change the air conditioning system and now the guys can work in a comfortable room at a temperature that can be adjusted. A lot of work has been done that is invisible at first glance.I will say that we will not be ashamed of the hall, we will not be ashamed to host our rivals in the championship here. In addition, the construction of a hall for children and our team of the Major League is now in full swing. We are also preparing for the construction of a new complex, which awaits us ahead.
Today I saw the team for the first time after vacation. The day before, all the legionnaires arrived and the first impressions are very good: the guys are ready to go and are already working in full, Ronen will be joining the other day. Everyone is in a good mood, everyone is healthy, they have passed a medical examination.
The women's team started working even earlier, in the near future we will announce the signing of another player. She will be a basketball player of a level that Ukraine has not seen yet, but we will not reveal all the secrets yet.
The men's team is formed entirely with the exception of one player. Ronen is watching, planning, we are in no hurry, because there is already someone to play. In one or two weeks, Ronen will see what position needs to be strengthened and then we will make a decision. We have already signed a contract with the Italian physical training specialist Matteo Del Principio and I already see a different, very interesting approach to the training of boys. I think this will also be of great benefit to the team. I hope that good preparation will help to avoid serious injuries to the players in the future.
I also want to say that I was pleased that literally all employees agreed to move to the new city. Everyone stays in the Prometheus family and thank you very much for that!
- Vladimir Mikhailovich, if we talk more about the sports component, what are your expectations from the performances of both men's and women's teams in the upcoming season?
- It is no secret that now in the men's Super League there are 4-5 financially stable and ambitious clubs that are confident that in the end will be the first. But the phrase "Only Prometey!" "Only victory!" Did not arise out of nowhere. Our teams have a clear task to take only the first place! For men, the end result - just getting to the finals or three winners, will not be considered a tragedy, but the guys clearly understand what we will fight for. For example, DJ Stephens came up to say hello and asked, "Well, boss, are we going for first place again?" Yes, we set ourselves such ambitious goals without offending anyone. We see how the Budivelnyk, Dnepr, Kiev-Basket are getting stronger.
I think that this championship will be even higher in level and quality than last year. There will be more interesting games and in our new hall we will get completely new emotions. For the sake of the audience, for the sake of all of us, all this is done!
If we talk about the women's championship, on the eve of the new season there was a women's "Budivelnyk", which also has great ambitions. In general, I hope that the women's championship will be more spectacular and the matches will not end with the victories of one of the teams with a difference of 30, 40, 50 points. Clubs are strengthened by legionnaires, even those who have not thought about it before. I hope that women's basketball will be much better and will bring pleasure to the audience.
Returning to the men, I will say that thanks to Neno, we have taken players who can help the club advance to the group round of the Champions League, and then to the 1/8 finals of the tournament. The hardest question is getting to the group stage. Preparation for the "bubble" will take no more than 30 days, and the "bubble" itself is always a matter of chance. It's one thing to play on the principle of "match away - match at home", because the houses and the walls help and in such cases there is always an opportunity to work on mistakes.
Everyone is well aware of their responsibility before the start of the tournament. We need to start showing a certain level in Europe as well. For me, this is important primarily because we will represent the basketball of Ukraine and will try to somehow promote it. The tasks for the European tournament have also been set, and in a month we will understand whether we have managed to solve them.We are in constant contact with the head coach, I believe in him and the team! I hope that we have a very good and successful season ahead! It will definitely be interesting and the quality of games in the championship will definitely be higher. Every year our championship adds. We have high hopes!
