The new players of Ural Great Ralph Biggs and Ivan Koljevic joined our team in Rogla. Assistant coach Roman Dvinyaninov tells about the teams preseason camp in Slovenia:
The road to Rogla was quite long, we felt a bit tired at the end. The flight for Ljubljana was late for about thirty minutes so we arrived there only at 6 pm local time. Ralph Biggs already waited for us. We then took the bus and departed for Rogla. So the road from Perm to Rogla took about twenty hours.
Rogla is the highest point of the local mountains, it has a terrific view. It is very unusual to look the clouds downwards and not upwards as we are used to. The weather changes every fifteen minutes. Here in Rogla we met a couple of old friends. Split (former Yugoplastika) and Bosna from Sarajevo are having their camps here too. Maccabi Tel Aviv is arriving soon. The stadiums here are big, enough place for everyone, a pool and gym are also at our disposal.
Our first practice was on the 23rd of August. Ivan Koljevic joined us the same day. In the morning we have athletics, evenings are for basketball practices. We also pay attention to physical conditioning and tactics. Everybodys fit and practice at their full strength. Varlamov turned his ankle but his injury is not so bad.