THE CLUB'S STORY
Founding history
BC Hellenen München e.V. was founded in August 1996 by seven Greeks who had migrated to Germany. More about the founding history here.
Modern history
Integration through sport - hardly any other basketball club lives by this motto like our BC Hellenen, which has been training in Munich Neuhausen since 1996. With us, more than forty nations become one team, not only on the court, but also off it. Our slogan is "Uniting Cultures". The integrative character of the club is reflected above all in its youth work and has already won several awards.
More than 200 children from all over the world between the ages of 7 and 18 now train at BC Hellenen. What began in 2010 with a group of five children is now a solid children's and youth program. With a total of over 450 active members in the youth and senior divisions, BC Hellenen is one of the top 40 basketball clubs in Germany out of over 950 (as of 2021). There are now 18 teams from U10 to U18, six senior teams, an academy for the youngest and beginners up to the age of 12 and the club's parents and patrons also have the opportunity to dribble, pass and shoot once a week.
Over the years, youth work has become an integral part of the club and continues to grow. More and more players are taking an interest in youth work and providing support as coaches, referees or organizational staff. Many coaches have taken part in initiatives by the city of Munich aimed at increasing the involvement of migrants in club life. As our coaching team is also international, some of them can draw on personal experience. This means that everyone uses their voice and can be a trainer, contact person and role model at the same time.
The topic of uniting cultures is even practiced internationally at the Hellenes. With Basketball Leben, CEO Sandy Lorenz has launched an ambitious project for Romanian children to give young people there a perspective. Every year, around 20 Hellenes travel to Bögöz, where they not only organize a basketball camp, but also get to know and appreciate the country and people of a different culture.
Jumpball at the camp in Romania (2016)
However, BC Hellenen is not just a recreational club where people just play. Since its beginnings in the district league, almost all of the youth teams have been able to compete at district level or higher.
Since 2018, our U14 and U16(m) teams have been consistently competing in the Bayernliga. Tournaments (Flottweg Cup 2018, SAT Nuremberg 2019) have already been won at this level. With two third places in the league, the U16m team narrowly missed out on qualifying for the Bavarian championship tournament. The club's own youth players are already integrating into the senior team and are thus being encouraged. This steady development is thanks to the many volunteers who invest a lot of time in the club every week. You can read more about the coaching and board team here.
U14m qualifies for the Bayernliga for the first time (2018 - Photo: Salvi Martinez)
Our former board chairmen Konstantin "Kosta" Kirsch and Kenan Koldere, who transformed the Hellenes from a purely Greek club into a multicultural club in 2009 under the slogan "Uniting Cultures", "which should reflect society", should be mentioned here. It was Kosta who had the vision of competing at senior level on a national level. For this reason, we took over the first women's team of FC Bayern Basketball in 2014, even in the 2nd Bundesliga - to see whether they were now ready organizationally to aim for higher leagues. When we saw our development confirmed, we pooled further resources, which led to our 1st men's team reaching the 1st regional league in 2017 after two direct promotions. That year, we also moved from Albrechtstraße and Riesstraße to the Hellenen Dome in Kapschstraße. The first team currently competes in the 2nd regional league. In the women's section, we were in the Bayernliga for a long time and now we play in the Bezirksoberliga.
Regio 1 opening match against hapa Ansbach (2017 - Photo: Salvi Martinez)
In 2020, industry leader FC Bayern Basketball became aware of our club due to our values and continuous development work and became our partner and cooperation club for young players.
Between October and April, there is hardly a day in Kapschstrasse when the orange leather ball is not in play and we are working to ensure that the club will continue to be a point of contact for interested basketball players in and around Munich for a long time to come.
