Aleksandar Todorov: A team needs to play in a second competiton in order to grow up

Balkan will once again be a part of EUROHOLD Balkan League. The last time during 2010/2011 season the team finished with a 1-7 record and certainly now the hopes are bigger. Here is what the head coach of the team Aleksandar Todorov had to say about the decision to play in the competiton:
"Personally I think that in order to grow up a team needs to be a part of another competiton. It′s normal that one game per week doesn′t allow a team to develop to a level we want Balkan to be. I think that the experience that we′ll get playing in two competitons cannot be achieved playing only in the local competiton, no matter how strong it is. Our main goal playing in EUROHOLD Balkan League is the team to grow up.
Surely we are entering the competition with ambitions to have more that 1 win and surely not with ambitions to settle for the bronze medals.
Our goal for the new season was to have nine local players and three foreigners. This now seems to be a difficult idea as all Bulgarian players want to go and play abroad and nobody wants to sign for the local teams. I′m not a coach that will want to wait for somebody until september. I want players who want to play for me and my team and not to come because they have no options. I′ll try to sign all Bulgarian players for the team in the next ten days and then turn the attention to the foreigners. Four of the five from last season will not continue to be in the team and the last one is questionable depending on what we do with the local players. We will include also four yongsters from the junior team.
As always Galil Gilboa is Nr.1 favourite in EUROHOLD Balkan League, Yes, they have a new coach but he has a lot of experience, has coached a lot of teams in Europe and last year led the U20 national team of Israel. I′m hearing that Sigal Prishtina is taking the best Kosovo players and signed also Dardan Berisha who is a regulat in the National team of Poland and has also Albanian roots. I also heard they′re negotiating with one of the top Balkan coaches so we have to include them among the favourites. Levski is always between the strong teams and will be one of the main competitors. Kozuv will have practically the same roster, with the same foreigners and the same coach. These are four team that I can say are among the favourites. I still don′t have any info about the two teams from Montenegro and the Romanians from Craiova. First though we have to make our team and then to look at the others.
I′m not a coach that is satisfied to reach the quarter or the semifinal. The new gym will give Balkan a new authority as organization and infrastructure that are still missing. We are going to speak to the management of EUROHOLD Balkan League to play the first 2-3 games away and then to start our home games in the new gym. This is our desire - if they can wait until the end of November and then to have home games only in the new gym. If we make a good team and have good results, I′m sure we′ll be a candidate to host the Final 4. However there is a long time before that."