Small-town club going places
When Argyris Pedoulakis took on the coaching job at provincial basketball club Makedonikos less than a year ago, he knew that the task would entail more than just an unambitious stint with one of the country’s less renowned teams. Following two years of survival in the top league, the time had come for the team to consolidate its position. During the first meeting between club president Costas Mesaikos and Pedoulakis, who is part of the newer generation of coaches emerging, there was no talk of European aspirations when the objectives were set. A mere nine months later, Makedonikos finds itself with a Final Four berth for the ULEB Cup, where it will meet Serbia and Montenegro club Hemofarm in the semifinal. The club’s domestic form has been less impressive, but its campaign in Europe more than makes amends. «It goes without saying that we wouldn’t have said no to a good European campaign,» Pedoulakis told Kathimerini. «Makedonikos is still taking its first steps in the A1 [top-level] league, and may have avoided the threat of relegation this season, but that doesn’t mean that we’re content with a place somewhere in the middle of the standings. European competition can help toughen up a team because players become accustomed to playing a game every three days and adapting to the requirements of each,» he added. When asked whether he believed Makedonikos’s rise in European basketball was premature, Pedoulakis admitted that his team’s recent arrival in the top Greek league did give that impression. But he added that «at no point did we feel that we were taking risks and needed to give up one of the two objectives.» Despite the team’s amazing ULEB Cup run, Pedoulakis remained low key about Makedonikos’s prospects. «Reaching the semifinals alone ranks as a great success for the team, administration, and the city of Kozani. We’re now better known in Europe, the city’s getting publicity, and the players, especially the Americans and Europeans, feel much better because European distinction highlights their reputations,» Pedoulakis said. Greece’s top-level basketball league is dominated by mostly Athens and Thessaloniki clubs, with some contribution from Patras and Iraklion. Makedonikos president Mesaikos’s decision to establish the club in Kozani, a provincial city without a past in basketball, was a risk. But it seems to be paying off. To generate attention for the club that turned professional just 16 seasons ago, Mesaikos, in one of his first key moves, signed established players, among them the national team’s former captain Giorgos Sigalas, Dimitris Papanicolaou, Panagiotis Liadelis, and Nikos Boundouris. They have helped draw crowds. As a second step, the team’s boss has almost completed construction of a self-financed, 5,000-capacity stadium, to which the club plans to move in the near future from its more modest current base. The team’s coach said the relatively new basketball club had managed to draw a considerable local following that had «begun to love basketball and the team.» The new stadium, he added, would raise the club’s standards «as long as the team remains competitive, serious and continues to draw crowds. We’re on the right track.»
