Queens of the court
They wanted a name that would inspire respect, that said something about how good they were. They took the name “Queens”. That sounded cocky and fun.
Some of Sweden’s best 16 and 17 year old female basketball players play for the Queens. This fall they’re playing in the Allsvenskan series, the one just below the top Damligan.
It’s a warm spring day. Inside the arena, the Queens 2000 are practicing. It’s a tough practice at a high level. The players work hard and you can tell that they know a lot about basketball. Jenny, who is the trainer, leads the drills. She breaks off play frequently. Shows the players how to stand, how to move on the court. It’s seldom quiet. If the girls don’t understand what Jenny means, they ask. They look concentrated, talk loudly to each other. They call “Here! Pass!” when they want the ball and warn, “Watch out, behind you.”
Jenny’s little sister Malin dribbles the ball and Olivia is up very tight, defending. She is absolutely glued to Malin. Malin keeps one arm at an angle to protect the ball from being taken away by Olivia.
“A lot of people think playing defence is boring. But I don’t. I enjoy chasing the ball,” says Olivia Kolo, the Queens’ best defensive player. She is the point guard, the player who directs play from down court, and she’s fast as a rabbit. She likes the name “Queens”. It sounds tough. Malin agrees.
“It’s pretty cocky to call yourselves the Queens. But we are the best. A lot of people react when they hear the name. They become interested and wonder who we are.”
“People think we’re nasty, but we’re as nice as can be,” says Camilla Fagerberg, who at 1 metre 81 is one of the team’s taller players.
LIKE A SECOND FAMILY
A short distance away, Albulena Beqiri is practicing jump shots and fake shots. She is normally the team’s best shooter, but she has injured her knee and can’t practice properly yet. She longs to be healthy again.
“I think playing is such fun. I did gymnastics before, but my mum thought all the jumping looked scary, so she’s glad I chose basketball.”
“The fun thing about basketball is that you never know how a game will end. You can be down by 20 points with only minutes to go, but you can still win the game. It’s a fast game, a lot can happen.”
Last year, Albulena won the scoring crown for girls born in 1986, with an average of 18.4 points. That’s a very good average. In one game, she scored 29 points.
“I shoot well, but I need to improve my field goal shooting. And I have to get better on defence,” she says self-critically. Like the other players on the Queens, her best friends are team-mates.
“We’ve been together since we were small, so we know each other well. It’s like a second family to me. If you’re sad, there’s always someone to talk to. Like when my grandfather died, they were all super-nice to me.”
Albulena feels that friendship within a team becomes something special. It can’t be compared with the friendship she has with her other friends. You have an interest in common and have a lot to talk about. Also,
many of the players attend the same basketball school, so they see a lot of each other.
Basketball takes up a lot of space. They practice several hours a week.
“We’ve become very close. We understand each other in a special way. It feels like we’re sisters,” says Malin, who just thinks it’s fun having her real sister for a trainer.
“In the beginning there were times when it was hard having a big sister bossing over you. But now it’s all just fun.” Her father, Kjell, is chairman of the Queens and sometimes all the talk around the kitchen table at home is about basketball,” says Malin and laughs.
“Sometimes it feels like living in a clubhouse. Because sometimes all the players are there, too.”
BASKETBALL – A PASSION
Malin started playing basketball because her sister Jenny played. It was almost the same for Camilla. Her mum played when she was young and that’s why Camilla was attracted to basketball.
“Basketball gives you so much. It gives you self-confidence and teaches teamwork.
You have to be able to listen to each other,” says Camilla, who, like Albulena and Olivia, has been selected for the junior national team.
“Our strength is that everyone can be with everyone else. We’re very united, that’s important. For me, basketball is a passion. I love to play and practice”, says Camilla, who has rapidly become very good. She only began playing five years ago, when she was eleven, but she’s grown into a big, strong player. You can tell she’s had proper basic training. She moves smoothly on the court and gets to the ball well and she pulls down rebounds right in front of the other girls’ eyes.
“I get a lot of rebounds when I set my mind to it,” says Camilla and makes it sound easy.
Both she and Albulena and several of the other girls have the goal of playing basketball at college in the U.S.A., the homeland of basketball. It’s in the USA that the best basketball is played. In the WNBA, the top women’s league, all of the players are stars.
Their games are broadcast live on TV and thousands of spectators go to the games when they play. In Sweden, the best players play in Damligan, the “Ladies’ League”. It’s far from unlikely that, in just a few years, someone of the Queens plays there. But first, Albulena, Camilla, Olivia, Malin and the other girls will face their biggest challenge yet. Playing in the Allsvenskan series, the one just below Damligan. That’s big.