On Wednesday, 23 February, Savremena’s basketball team participated in the municipal basketball competition, reaching the quarterfinals where they played against the team from the Third Belgrade Secondary School. After a very intense half-an-hour game on the court, the final score was 25:18 in favour of the rival team.

Shooting for the stars

This was the debut of Savremena’s young team, which was made up of the following players: Aleksa Belinčević (team captain), Aleksa Rakićević, Ivan Stojanović, Marko Radojković, Damjan Savanović, Jovan Mitrović, Viktor Đurić, Pavle Tomašević, Karim Faris and Vuk Vuković. Aleksa Belinčević justified his role as team captain by scoring the most points for his team as he proudly wore the captain’s armband.

Stefan Radojičić, Savremena’s PE teacher, stated that in addition to demonstrating good sportsmanship on the court Savremena’s team fought hard and with great passion showing that they truly deserve to be on the team:

The way they played and fought makes me very proud of them. Bearing in mind that we are a young team and that our opponent outpowered us physically, as an athlete and their coach, I am extremely satisfied with the achieved result as well as with the players’ attitude towards the game.

Winning isn’t everything, it’s the taking part that counts

Despite the rules of the competition forbidding the presence of an audience at the game, our basketball team was sent off to the competition with great support and moral encouragement by their friends and teachers. We are confident that with that kind of support from their community, our team was able to give their best on the court and living up to the task. This is only the beginning of promoting sports and athletics at Savremena, as they both play an important role in the proper development of an adolescent’s personality. As the saying goes: Winning isn’t everything, it’s the taking part that counts! And taking part means taking in the complete experience.