VALDOSTA — A dream a long time in the making has finally come to fruition for the Jonstrup Kangaroos.
The Kangaroos, from Jonstrup, Denmark, are a girl’s age 14-15 basketball team that has come overseas to spend two weeks in America absorbing United States basketball.
The team arrived in Atlanta from Amsterdam on Monday night and made the drive straight to Valdosta. On Tuesday, the weary Kangaroos were in the Valdosta State P.E. Complex playing a game against the Valdosta Lady Pride, a local AAU team.
Despite a lack of sleep, the Kangaroos couldn’t have been happier. They were living a dream two years in the making.
“We didn’t come to U.S. to sleep,” assistant coach Jens Arpe joked. “Two years ago we had a meeting with the girls and parents, and we wanted to set some big goals on how far to go with the girls,” Arpe said. “I think it’s important to really challenge them so we started saving up for a trip to the U.S.”
The plan was finally set in motion for the Danish team to come to the U.S. last December when it was put in touch with Tom Hughes, the marketing director at VSU. Hughes is also involved the Yes I Can Basketball Camps and once worked one with Jim Kelly in New York. Kelly now teaches basketball in Denmark, and when he heard the Kangaroos wanted to come to the U.S., he put in a call to Hughes. The rest is history.
“We got the feeling that every American wants to do something special for us because we have traveled so long to be here,” Arpe said. “We feel appreciated and welcome.”
Now that the Kangaroos are here, they’re ready to work, learn and have fun. They played against the Valdosta Lady Pride on Tuesday and a Brooks County team on Wednesday. Now they are headed to Florida to play games in Tallahassee and Orlando.
“We have a very good team,” head coach Søren Laursen said. “We hope we can win a game or two while here, but it’s not the most important thing. Right now it’s just learning, learning and learning.”
Unlike the United States where most organized sports are in school, Denmark has club teams. Laursen said the Kangaroos are one of the top five club teams in the girl’s 14-15 age group in the country. He feels next year the team can be one of the top two teams in the country. That’s why this trip to the United States is so important. He feels the best basketball in the world is in the U.S. and his team can learn some valuable lessons by playing Americans.
“There is defensive and rebounding over here,” Laursen said. “In Denmark maybe the basketball is a little weak, not fighting so much, not rebounding so much. We hope the girls are going to learn a lot about that part of the game.”
Arpe added, “It’s going to be nice to see how determined the American players are, the attitude.”
So far the Kangaroos have been impressed. They watched the Lady Blazers’ highlight video from last year, and two of the girls, Camilla Belmaaani and Sofie Martens, were especially awed by the Complex. They got a kick out of how big it was, the scoreboards and floor with the Blazers logo.
“It’s so cool,” Belmaaani said.
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