Sport in all day – Alba Berlin’s revolution in the mini area

The announcement sounded as radically as it was unusual. At the beginning of March, Alba Berlin said that from the 2026/2027 season, from the U9 to the U12 you will no longer register your own young teams, neither for the girls nor with the boys. The capital club, which has discovered and developed countless international players over the years-including the current NBA stars Franz and Moritz Wagner-voluntarily refrains from bringing talents into the club early. And of all things in a moment when the financially strong basketball department of FC Bayern Munich threatens to run the rank of the Albatrossen National.

What seems more understandable at first glance is actually the logical next step of a long -term strategy that Alba wants to continue to set standards with the promotion of young talent. Instead of bringing together the greatest talents in Berlin in elementary school age in selection teams, the eleven -time German champion goes where the children will spend even more time from next year: to school.

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»We design nothing less than a small revolution in the German sports system. The all -day school will become standard everywhere from 2026. We don’t see that as a threat, but as an opportunity, «said Alba managing director Marco Baldi in March. If all first graders in Germany are entitled to all -day education and support from next summer, Alba wants to be prepared. If the nationwide full day until the school year 2029/2030 is expanded to grades two to four, the Bundesliga club does not want to compete with other leisure activities for the evening of the children.

The sports club in the all -day school

Instead, Alba continues to expand the cooperation with its 76 partner primary schools in Berlin. Alba trainers have been offering many primary schools-but also at daycare centers and high schools-basketball training and exercise offers for years. With the expansion of all day, these sports structures should continue to grow on the partner facilities. »We want to encourage as many children as possible to exercise and have a positive impact on as long as possible. But of course we also see whether with all the children we have is one thing that the talent has to play with us in the men’s euroleague or the women’s Bundesliga, «says Marius Huth, Alba’s young coordinator in the mini area, in conversation with» ND «.

The Berlin basketball players are now convinced that it does not make sense to have a few primary school children trained in a selection team. At this age, it is much more valuable as possible to take as many children as possible, since it is not yet clear who will develop as. “We don’t want to give eight -year -olds the stamp, you are now one of the chosen ones and are now becoming professional because it often already does something in the minds of children and parents, and we have had the experience that it is usually not so positive.”

Alba has therefore launched the so -called school club teams in which all interested children of a school in the age groups U10 and U12 can play basketball together. Instead of its own young teams, the association has built up 45 such teams together with its partner schools – more are to follow. Girls and boys can train under the professional guidance of Alba coaches and also take part in the game of the Berlin Basketball Association with their school club team. The school becomes a basketball club in the afternoon for an hour or two, and the club becomes an educator.

Everything starts in Wedding

How well this can work is nowhere more evident than at the Albert Gutzmann School in Berlin-Wedding. Alba has been involved in the elementary school on Pankstrasse marked as a focal point. Because the children wanted to play basketball, the school turned to the club ten years ago. A little later the first Alba coaches came. What has emerged from the collaboration has sounded like a small city fairy tale.

“Especially at the Gutzmann School, it was important that the children did not go to sports, but to get sport to school, simply because of the social origin of the children,” says the teacher Sabine Gutschke, who made the first contact between Alba and her employer at the time. The advantages of the additional sports offer quickly became clear: better concentration through movement phases, a new understanding of rules in school cooperation, less violence and the ability to deal with failures.

The effect on the children of the Albert-Gutzmann School was so positive that the desire for more and more greater on the club and school side. Because a new sense of belongings and a greater identification with the school were also faced with the teacher and the employees, it was considered from 2018 whether Alba could not organize the entire all-day offer at the school, explains Gutschke in an interview with “ND”. It took two years until the club actually took over the sponsorship.

Alba as a freelancer

Since then, the basketball professional club with its “AlbasPross” department has been taking care of around 300 schoolchildren in Pankstrasse every day with around 30 employees, social workers and coaches. The movement offers begin in the morning. During the lesson, there are always small interruptions to reduce excess energy and to activate the children briefly. In the second big break, the classes can compete against each other in a break league. Particular attention is paid to the fact that all children with their physical possibilities have an advantage. In the afternoon, in addition to the basketball school club team, there are also other sports offers as well as art and music groups.

Alba’s concept is so successful that the association has now entered three other schools as a carrier. Alba also organizes all day at the LEW Tolstoy primary school in Berlin-Karlshorst, the 49th primary school in Pankow and at the further Albrecht von Graefe School in Kreuzberg. Sabine Gutschke has been leading the club’s pedagogical work at all three primary schools for a year. “We want to make up for what we have now. But of course we are open to people and other schools who are interested in our concept, «says the 57-year-old.

Together for more movement

Alba likes to share his experiences in work and with schools. For this, the usual competitive thinking among professional clubs is also exposed to this. In the “Sports” project, Alba has now brought together 50 organizations and clubs, including the football clubs Union Berlin and Werder Bremen, as well as several other basketball Bundesliga clubs.

Together with schools and daycare centers, the initiative all over Germany wants to create easily accessible and cross -sport offers for all children, in particular at social hotspots. And for all clubs that also think about getting into an all -day school as a carrier, Alba, together with the Berlin Senate Department for Education and the State Sports Association of the Capital, has had one last week Handout Presented how the step can succeed in schools.

The positive example already exists: Alba Berlin has shown how social commitment and sporting talent promotion can not only be combined, but can even benefit from each other. “We are firmly convinced that with this step we not only strengthen our width, but also benefit in the top in the long term,” junior coordinator Marius Huth is certain and leaves no doubt that Alba will continue to continue his small sports revolution.