Sports
Toms Trautmanis
Office of Sports Affairs
tomstrautmanis@yahoo.com
News
Sports Office Director’s Report (Executive Summary)
ALA Sports Office organizes and supports amateur Latvian individual and team competition in many sports, including basketball, golf, hockey, novuss, shooting, soccer, tennis and volleyball. The Board members and the various sports division coordinators comunicate regularly and hold formal planning meetings twice a year.
USA Latvian championships
Tournaments in basketball and volleyball have been held every year since 1954 in cities across the USA and in Toronto, Canada. In 2007, the ALA Congress in Chicago approved the holding of the the tournament at a definite time each year – the Saturday and Sunday of the weekend before Memorial Day in May and declared these days „Latvian Sports Days in the USA”. In 2009, hockey between USA and Canadian Latvian teams was added to the tournaament.
In 2011, the 58th tournament was held in Cleveland, with 19 teams and over 150 athletes participating. The volleyball and basketball matches were held in the Ohio Nets Sports Complex in Parma. The hockey game was played in the Thornton Park Ice Rink in Shaker Heights. Latvian teams from Chicago, Cleveland, Kalamazoo, Los Angeles, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, Toronto and Washington DC participated in the tournament. In the championship match in basketball, Toronto defeated New York, 102-90. In the men’s volleyball finals, Toronto defeated Kalamazoo 2-0 and Kalamazoo defeated Chicago 2-1 to win the women’s volleyball championship. The hockey match between the USA and the Canadian Latvian team from Toronto was won by Canada for the third consecutive year.
Sports tourney in Latvia in 2011
Starting in 1991, the Sports Office has organized trips to Latvia every three to four years for the ALA men’s basketball and men’s and women’s volleyball teams. The players are selected from the teams that participate in the annual Latvian championships. This year’s group, consisting of 26 players, six coaches and four members from the Sports Office, met at the Hotel Māra (by the airport in Riga) on the 10th of June for the start of the tourney, which ended on June 24, (after celebrating Jāņi in Valmiera the night before). On the tourney, we were accompanied by friends and relatives from the USA, pretty much filling up our 50 passenger bus.
The first matches were in Jelgava, with 2 games in the new Zemgales Olympic Center. We had one day to shake the jet lag and practice, but the teams clearly could have used another practice session to allow the players to get „better acquainted” on the floor. The Jelgava teams were strong as the results showed. The Jelgava basketball team, which included several players from the local professional team, beat the ALA team by scores of 101-80 and 98-83. The women’s volleyball team also lost both games to the Jelgava teams by same scores of 3-1. However, both teams, even in losing, showed that they had the potential to improve rapidly. The ALA men’s volleyball team, already in the first two matches, showed that it was a team from which we could expect great results, winning 3-1 and 3-0. And that is exactly what happened during the rest of the tourney. The ALA teams won their one scheduled game in Tukums and all 5 matches in the Burtnieki tournament, going undefeated. As a result, all three teams received gold medals, which were presented by former Latvian Olympic medal winners and other dignitaries in an impressive outdoors awards ceremony. The team records for the tourney were 8-0 in men’s volleyball, 6-2 in women’s volleyball and 6-2 in basketball. These were outstanding accomplishments againt very competitive teams. It should be noted that the majority of the starters on both ALA volleyball teams were or had been members of USA Division I university or college teams.
This was my fourth Latvia sports tourney and I feel this year’s ALA teams were the best of all the teams we have sent and the competition the toughest we have faced. The tourneys have provided a great opportunity for our athletes not only to compete against fellow Latvians, but to get to know and understand them better. In our travels through the country, we have had the opportunity to see the beautiful sights, tour the historical places that are so plentiful in Latvia and meet many people. The consensus of the participants after the tourneys has been that they ended too soon and, if possible, they want to go again the next time. They are greatful to ALA for providing the opportunity to participate and for the financial support. The next sports tourney is being planned for 2014. We have a big job ahead if we want to repeat or improve on this year’s accomplishments.
Anyone who wants more information on ALA sports can contact the Sports Office director, or the other officers or sports division coordinators. The names and contact information is available on the ALA website, http://www.alausa.org.
Visvaris Giga, Director
ALA Sports office board and division coordinators
ALA Sports Division meeting in Chicago, March 24, 2012