Witnessing the History

When I first started refereeing wheelchair basketball in 1999, there was no Junior Turkish National team, no Turkish clubs participating Eurocup Events, no international Turkish referees, no Women Turkish National team, no media interest in our sports, no sponsors. Men Turkish National team was in Division B losing all their games by big differences, there was only 7 or 8 teams in the country, no international organizations in the country.

Then in 2001 we had the first team, Izmir BŞB SC, participating in the Eurocup events and our first international referee,Selçuk Kaçın. Then in 2002 Junior Turkish team played the final in European Championship and in 2003, Turkish Men team played the final in B Division European Championship, then again in 2003, İzmir BŞB Sports Club played the final in Andre Vergauwen Cup in Spain. Then in 2003, Turkish Men team participated in the A Division European Championship and redelegated to B Division and in 2004 they became the champion in B Division European Championship and delegated to A Division again. In 2003, National Women team was formed. Junior National team represented Europe in 2005 in World Juniors Championship in Birmingham. Meanwhile in 2004, 2005, 2006, Finals for the Andre Vergauwen Cup and Willi Brinkmann Cup was organized a couple of times in our country in İzmir and Adana. BJK organized the Champions Cup Finals in 2006 in Istanbul. In 2007, İstanbul Cadbury Kent Engelli Yıldızlar played the final of Willi Brinkmann Cup and finally Galatasaray SC won the Champions Cup and the Intercontinental Cup in 2008, the biggest success achieved by a Turkish team in this branch.

Now the National team is in A Division, there are 6 international referees, Women National team is participating in international tournaments, the Juniors are having a European Championship organization at home, there are sponsors for the teams, the games are broadcast by TVs. Turkey is the only country represented with 6 teams in Eurocup events. There is one Champions Cup winner and two Eurocup Finalists. For a country who has met this sports for a decade, this is an incredible success. In addition, there are three leagues with more than 50 teams and 700 players and 100 referees.

And the best part of all these is, to be able to be the part of this development and to witness the history while it is being written.

I love this game…

Utku ERTAN