Different year, different players, same goal: 20 international basketball talents attended the third edition of the Pro Skills Academy in Bamberg to improve their game. Besides basketball skills they also learned about socializing on and off the court, got the meet one of Brose Bamberg’s professional players and topped their time in Franconia with witnessing Brose’s BBL win against Oldenburg.
“We were extremely happy to host the next group of talents from three countries. Not only were we able to grow the pool of young players to 20, but this year we also had girls attending Pro Skills Academy for the first time”, Stefan Weissenboeck explained and added: “We had a great time, put in some good work and most importantly: we had a lot of fun.”
With the help of PUMA Basketball and NBA player Jakob Poeltl, the third annual Academy event took place in the Brose Bamberg training facility in Strullendorf. During two days of hard work, four coaches including Stefan helped the teenagers taking the next step in their game. “With Kevin Kositz, Jessie Miller and Samuel Gloser I had excellent help by my side. Those three brought a lot of expertise with them and helped dividing the kids into groups to be able the focus on each individual even more.”
Shooting, ball handling and finishing were key aspects of the basketball side of things. Besides that, Stefan also made sure the players focused on their social skills. “In today’s game, mental skills are becoming more and more important. Whether it’s taking on a specific role in one’s team or acting responsible off the court.” What hard work and discipline can do for a player was then explained by Kevin Wohlrath. The Berlin born wingman explained how his basketball journey has gone so far and how important it is, to focus on basketball. “I was always playing important roles in my youth teams but then I wasn’t able to make the final step into ALBA Berlin’s BBL team”, Wohlrath said. But the 28-year-old didn’t give up and fought his way into professional basketball. “After a good year in Bayreuth I got the chance to join Brose Bamberg and got the reward for a lot of a hard work.”
After hard work in Strullendorf, the youth players also were rewarded. Not yet with a contract at the nine-time German champion but they got the see the game of Brose Bamberg against EWE Baskets Oldenburg. In a close game Bamberg and Kevin Wohlrath managed to pull away with an important 89:79 victory. The talents saw Wohlrath hit two three pointers going along two rebounds and two assists. It was the end to a successful weekend for every participant.
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