SERBIAN-AUSTRALIAN basketball coach Jelena Todorovic wants to be more than just the first woman coaching a male team in Brazil.
The 31-year-old is working hard to reverse the fortunes of the Fortaleza squad who finished bottom of the table last season.
She is preparing the team for the country’s elite men’s basketball championship which starts in October.
“I don’t want to be just the first woman. I want to be someone who left a mark,“ Todorovic told AFP.
“I want to be someone who made this team better, who made my players better, and I want my results to speak for themselves.”
Todorovic arrived in Brazil in August after playing for Red Star Belgrade before becoming a coach at age 20.
She worked on the club level in Australia before joining the coaching staff of men’s national teams in Serbia, Spain and Greece.
During her time in Greece she coached star Giannis Antetokounmpo, who has since become a two-time NBA Most Valuable Player award winner.
The NBA most inspires Todorovic, notably former player Becky Hammon, the first woman assistant coach in the league.
Hammon became the first and only female head coach in the NBA for a single regular season game in December 2020.
“Becky Hammon was one of the first, biggest, inspirations for me because as a little girl, I didn’t have many people to look up to, someone that looked like me,“ said Todorovic.
“So, having her there as a trailblazer… was super inspiring, and it gave me the extra motivation to follow my dreams.”
In the country where football is king, she wants to ignite a passion for basketball, which she describes as a “religion” in Serbia.
“I didn’t doubt for a second coming to Brazil. I accepted it straight away because I really enjoy the new challenges, like coming to a new culture, a new basketball atmosphere.”
She said her dream is to create such a new basketball fervor in Fortaleza.
And if, along the way, “I’ve inspired one girl to take my path, my job is done.”
Brazil has one of the strongest basketball traditions in South America, and the top men’s league increasingly attracts foreign players and coaches. – AFP