3×3-Streetbasketball-Tour
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Important advertising for basketball in Mönchengladbach
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There were three-on-three basketball games at the Hans Jonas Comprehensive School both outside and in the sports hall.
Photo: Ja / Knappe, Joerg (jkn)
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Basketball The “NRW3x3 Street Basketball Tour” visited Mönchengladbach this week. Even if the number of registrations was manageable, the event was an important stimulus for a sport that is idle in the city.
The rain started at 2 p.m. when the tournament started. From Tim Schmitz’s point of view, that was the only thing that didn’t fit that day. The West German Basketball Association (WBV) made a stop in Mönchengladbach on Tuesday with its NRW3x3 street basketball tour – the venue was the Hans Jonas Comprehensive School in Neuwerk, where Schmitz is the deputy headmaster. “We wanted to offer the students an event again after the long Corona period. Football is always very prominent, but many students also play basketball during the breaks. So when the city approached us with the application idea for the 3×3 tour, it was a good fit,” says Schmitz.
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For many years, the WBV has been traveling through NRW with the street basketball tour every summer, visiting many cities in the state. However, Mönchengladbach was last part of this tour 16 years ago. Why was Vitusstadt not part of the program for so long? “Cities can apply to us. But since there has only been one basketball club in Mönchengladbach for a long time, no one seems to have bothered,” says Georg Kleine, who is responsible for popular and school sports at the WBV.
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At the moment there is only the Raiders from Odenkirchen in the city, with the Scorpions being a second club that is about to be founded. After some delays, chairman Ahmed Osman expects the club to be officially registered in June.
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The city justified this year’s application for the basketball tour by saying that it wanted to “intensify again” popular sports events. The school and sports department looked for possible school locations in advance and then applied together with the Hans-Jonas comprehensive school. A total of 31 teams in different age groups took part in the tournament on Tuesday – the WBV had set up twelve fields with basket systems at the Hans Jonas Comprehensive School, some outside, some in the sports hall for bad weather. In addition, the association organized the schedule and the supporting program including music.
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“31 teams are ok to start with, but we were hoping for 40 to 50,” says Kleine. At the start of the tour on Sunday, 86 teams took part in Oberhausen. However, Oberhausen is also an established location for the 3×3 tour – Mönchengladbach has yet to become this again in terms of basketball. “That’s why it was good publicity. That’s why we’re doing it, to bring basketball to the public and to schools,” says Kleine. The organizing Hans-Jonas-Gesamtschule and the Comenius-School were there with five teams. According to headmaster Schmitz, there were also teams from Krefeld, Düsseldorf and Grevenbroich. The Scorpions also took part in the tournament with several teams, eventually winning the men’s class as well.
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The Scorpions are also there for the tour finale of the 3×3 tour in Recklinghausen. Nevertheless, they will also compete in other tournaments on the tour in Düsseldorf and Cologne, says Moritz List from the Scorpions, who was unable to play actively due to an operation on the cruciate ligament and meniscus. “Until now, apart from the Odenkirchen team, it was downright fallow land. Perhaps there will be a lot more happening in this regard in the near future,” says List, with a view to the further development of sport in the city. After all, the Hans Jonas comprehensive school, together with the city, is planning to be the venue for the 3×3 street basketball tour in the coming year. “We hope for an advertising effect that word of the event gets around,” says Schmitz.
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