Juniors begin preparations for the European Championship, Prga: "No one can take away our self-confidence, pride and fighting spirit"

The Montenegrin women's junior basketball team (U18) gathered in Podgorica and began preparations for the European Championship, which will be held in Stockholm from August 1 to 9. The team, led by Dragan Prga, is the only one of our younger teams competing in the A division.

After many years of working in Primorje, Dragan Prga is in the position of coach for the first time. The experienced expert from Herceg Novi has discovered and developed a large number of players during his career, and some of the current junior national team players have also grown under his supervision.

"Being the head coach of the Montenegrin national team in a global sport, such as basketball, is a great honor and pride, and also a responsibility. I hope that my experience and my work so far will meet the needs of the national team and that it will bring some new work and success to all of us who support the Montenegrin national team," said head coach Prga at the gathering.

The previous generation won the junior women's place in the A division, and the current generation aims to preserve that and show as much as possible in competition with the best teams of their age.

"We are a small base, that is known, so we invited practically everything that is valuable in that generation and we will try to make quality out of it. What I say to the players and everyone is that the quality is what we have, but no one can take away our self-confidence, pride and fighting spirit. That is how we will position ourselves, we will go to the championship perhaps as an outsider, but with an attitude and fighting spirit, and we will see what it will bring us. As a coach, I always pursue the highest goals and first places, and as a selector, regardless of the reality of what we have, our goal will be to get a result, and whether that will be good, will be judged by the people in the Federation. For me, a good result is to be first," Prga emphasized.

The juniors gathered a little later than their group stage rivals at the championship, Spain, Turkey and Slovenia, and during the preparations they will play two friendly matches against Croatia away and Slovakia at home. The selection will be joined by three players who are currently with the youth national team – Blanka Jovović, Marija Sekulović and Milena Vujović.

"I can complain that I miss training, but what's the point? We've gathered and are leaving, and we're missing three players who are with the U20 selection and are very important for our game. We have great conditions that the Federation has provided for us, and on July 15th we're going to Croatia where we'll play two games, and upon returning to Podgorica we'll have two more games with Slovakia. We're leaving for the championship on July 30th and the first game is on August 1st against Turkey, then Slovenia and finally Spain. When we mention them, it should be pointed out that Spain was the European champion with this generation, Turkey was third, and Slovenia is also a great team, I know their players very well. A difficult group, but I didn't expect that there would be an easy group among the top 16 in Europe. These are all serious national teams, we'll have quality rivals, but everyone from the group advances and the round of 16 follows, then the playoffs, so a large number of matches. It's difficult, demanding because the girls are certainly not used to so many "We have a game in a short period of time, and we are leading with 12 players, there are no reserves. That's why we have to prepare ourselves physically well, to be strong and we will see what it will give us in the end," added the coach.

The result is not the only goal at the championship, but rather that the players make further progress during preparations and matches.

"The goal is, and that's why I hired 3 assistant coaches, to implement the work and system that I have in Primorje, where the players must constantly improve. The main goal is, when we return from the championship, for them to be better players and to be the mainstays of the national team in the coming years. The ultimate goal is for them to stay in basketball and eventually make it to the senior national team. We have big problems with going to America, and that's why it's important to have as many players together for the national team as possible, to cultivate the famous Montenegrin spirit in them and to bring them to the highest possible level through work," concluded Dragan Prga.