VILNIUS - When Arvydas Sabonis was asked why he opened his private basketball school in 1994, he gave a simple answer. "I do not want these kids to go through the same experiences I went through as a young player: worn-out sneakers, poor equipment, unheated arenas," he said.
The 800 boys at the Sabonis Basketball School (Sabonio krepsinio mokykla) certainly enjoy excellent facilities, while the school's new training center in the outskirts of Kaunas, which opened last September, contains four modern courts, a fitness area and a shop by the entrance, where "Sabas," the 40-year-old Lithuanian basketball legend, smiles from shirts and calendars. Long gone are the days when 10 professional coaches had to travel to 11 different courts around Kaunas to train youngsters.
At Sabonis' school, one coach is usually responsible for one group. The students that make up each group start their training at the age of seven and leave the school when they turn 18.
The kids normally practice five times a week and play matches at weekends against other teams from the other 50 Lithuanian basketball schools.
"My aim is not only to improve their individual skills but also to teach them team spirit," explains coach Ronaldas Radvilavicius.
The main goal of the Sabonis Basketball School, according to Radvilavicius, is not to breed new stars for Zalgiris, but to make sure that the kids have fun playing basketball instead of hanging out on the streets or taking drugs. But Radvilavicius is proud of his former pupil Martynas Andriuskevicius. The 18-year-old now plays as center for Zalgiris, and enjoys regular action in high-level competitions such as the Euroleague and the Baltic Basketball League.
The links between the school and Zalgiris are inevitably close, given that Arvydas Sabonis is player-president and part-owner of the most successful basketball team in the country. Zalgiris' players sometimes use the school courts for training and dozens of Sabonis pupils follow every on-court move of talented players like Tanoka Beard and Dainius Salenga.
One such besotted spectator is 14-year-old Andrius. "I am proud to go to this school, because it is the best in Lithuania," he says. Few would disagree with him. Sabonis' school has been officially ranked as the best basketball school in the country by experts.
Andrius, like many of his fellow sporting prodigies, eventually wants to play for Zalgiris. Every year one or two players who graduate from the school are signed to the club, while others start playing for clubs in Lithuania, Latvia and Poland. About 20 cross the Atlantic Ocean, according to the school's director, Aleksas Zakis.
Gaining a scholarship in the U.S.A. is the dream of many students because the combination of sport and education is almost impossible in Lithuania. This is why a lot of parents pay the relatively high school fees, which range from 50 litas (14 euros) to 70 litas per week, depending on whether the boys practice there three or five times a week.
But Sabonis is not the only basketball player to have given so much back to the sport he dearly loves. The Marciulionis Basketball Academy, which is based in Vilnius, is the oldest private basketball school in Lithuania.
Sarunas Marciulionis, who like Sabas played in the NBA, opened the school in 1992 after the Olympics in Barcelona, in which Lithuania won the bronze medal.
He wanted to invest a share of his fortune in Lithuania's youth and "to break the stereotype that a basketball player is someone interested in nothing except sport," explains the 42-year-old head coach Algirdas Milonas.
Together with his sister, who is a teacher, Marciulionis introduced supplementary English lessons and computer courses to prepare the boys for life beyond the court. They also learned basic principles of etiquette.
Since last fall, though, these courses are no longer offered, explains Milonas. "The kids learn English at school and know a lot about computers." At the moment he is developing a course on sport psychology for his 850 boys, whose parents have to pay 120 Litas (35 euros) per month.
Every autumn, the school's 10 coaches take a close look at the most promising kids. "They have to run with and without a ball, jump, play active games and try to behave like a snake," says Milonas. After a week the trainers decide who is the most talented and motivated among them.
The facilities in Vilnius are not as modern as those in Kaunas, and the groups are bigger with 30 boys. According to the school's advertisement, "Lithuania does not only need good basketball players 's it needs smart, industrious and honest people, too."
The basketball schools founded by the two superstars are two inspirational examples of an exceptional sporting education system in Lithuania. Three hundred professional basketball coaches work in the Baltic country, while Germany only employs 200.
New talents such as Andriuskevicius are always coming through the system and that is why Lithuanians can look forward to the forthcoming European Championship in Serbia this September with a sense of national pride mingled with an ever-realistic chance of winning.
