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Warren Wilson College Athletics
Aleksandar Spasovki gets bid for National Team
Basketball madness is brewing across the nation; bets are made in office pools on who will win the 2008 NCAA tournament; a freshman at Warren Wilson College gets a call from his mom from hometown of Skopje, Macedonia. Mrs. Lence Spasovska had a personal visit from the coach of the Macedonian U20 National Team, inviting her son Aleksandar to be one of twenty-four to train for the European National Championships in Romania this summer.
Practice for the National team will start as soon as he gets home in June. His teammates will be guys he grew up playing in club teams across the country. “Basketball is getting really big in Macedonia,” he said. Macedonia, about the size of Vermont, lies north of Greece.
During June, Aleksandar will live at home and train two to three times a day. In July, he will travel with the team for ten days, playing other countries in friendly matches in preparation for the National Tournament. On his ten-day tour he expects to do fitness at 5:30 am, skills at10 am, and have practice games at 1:00 and 7:00.
“Twenty four players that have been picked will train together,” he explained, “Twelve will be cut and twelve will officially play in the European Championship in August.”
Aleks feels confident he will be a part of the final cut as he played with the U16 national team before he moved to North Carolina to attend Veritas Christian Academy in Hendersonville. He had the chance at that time to play full time with the younger National team, but decided to finish school and compete in the states instead.
During his junior year at Veritas, he averaged 22 points a game. His senior year, a seven foot player from Romania joined the team and the coach asked him to play point guard instead of being an active shooter. Veritas was ranked 25th in the nation at that time and went on to the finals of the NACA DI National Championships. The team lost by three points in the final seconds of the game; Aleks and the other four starters of Veritas were chosen for the All Tournament team.
Warren Wilson College Coach Jay Lively recruited Aleks last year. Jay was impressed with his toughness on the floor. “He was surrounded by great players,” Jay said, “and continued to be a leader on the floor. He did what he needed to do to help the team win.”
Aleks played shooting point guard this year with the Warren Wilson team averaging 24 points a game on a squad with only two extra men on the bench.
This year, the Macedonian U20 team will compete in Division II – based on how the team performed last year, and will play Croatia, Germany, Finland, England and Sylvania.
Aleksandar’s parents have yet to visit him in the US – as Visas are difficult to get. He has gone home the in the summer, but stays during term breaks and works on campus. After finishing his degree in Business at Warren Wilson, he hopes to return to Macedonia and play professionally.
Even though the Warren Wilson Athletic director is an alumni and All American from Chapel Hill, Aleksandar’s pick for the NCAA Tournament is Duke.
In memory of Andy Summers
For an auditory message, copy to your browser: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K67nAuKfugo
Intramurals: Anyone interested in scheduling the gym for dodgeball please contact Rob Shook in Devries
Intramural basketball coming soon.
Molly McMillan - Sports Information Director.
Molly started at WWC in 1989, and contrary to popular belief, has never left. Her qualifications include running the first snack bar at Warren Wilson in 1989, ( the infamous Boar’s Head Café), running the Outdoor Program, the Service Learning Program, the Bonner program, (that with an awful lot of help), coaching soccer, and building the Bryson climbing wall and the Meditation Hut (with the help of Tom Lom and the rock laying crew, Doug Bradley and the carpentry crew, and two years worth of Work Day volunteers.)
As the SID, she takes the pictures shown here, manages the athletic website and does an occasional game re-cap. She has sworn by the yellow journalism code that there is at least one fact in each write up.
If you have comments or suggestions, please write them on a $20 bill and send to the Athletic Director. She screens all correspondence.
