Korfball in BiH started in 1998, when a group of young people from the town of Maglaj, N.E. Bosnia, went to Spain for their summer holidays. They spent some time with the Korfball Club ‘La Rotllana’ in Badalona, Catanunya. The korfballers of La Rotllana helped these youngsters learn the rules of the sport and also assisted with the practical matters needed to form a club in Maglaj. On the back of this, Korfball Club Maglaj was born!
In 1999 another group of children from Maglaj visited Badalona under the supervision of Adis Mustabasic, the president of the Executive Committee of Korfball Club Maglaj. This group stayed there for a month as the guests the Youth Association of La Rotllana and they too were able to see, learn and play korfball. It was a new experience for these boys and girls and korfball gave them an excellent opportunity to forge friendships in Spain.
So, just a year after it's formation, K.C. Maglaj was already growing and becoming more serious about the sport. Many new young people were invited to join the club. Throughout this period K.C. Maglaj didn’t have any other teams to compete against in Bosnia, but despite this, the membership of the club increased and the players didn’t lose their enthusiasm for playing and improving their korfball.
In July 2000 a team of players from K.C. Maglaj was invited by La Rotllana Youth Association (Badalona, Spain) to take part on an International Korfball Tournament in Spain. This was the 1st International competition that K.C. Maglaj was involved in. The young team was full of energy and enthusiasm but lacking in experience and tactical knowledge so the focus was not just about winning games but also on discussing korfball with other teams and sharing ideas about developing the sport in region of BiH, with friends from Badalona (La Rotllana, Spain) and Antwerp (Korfball club KWIK, Joules and Lucia de Cock).
Then, in 2001, the opportunity arose to visit Hungary and see how korfball was played there. The 1st of two visits was made in May, when we had an opportunity to play a couple of games against a Hungarian team. A 2nd visit was then made in July to take part in the Hungarian International Korfball Tournament. Out of the 22 teams that took part, K.C. Maglaj finished 11th place. As well as this we had the chance to try playing water korfball, which was very funny. All of us were very happy about this success, as it proved that we can compete against much more experienced korfball teams, even though we are a relatively young club.
On 6 July 2001, largely due to the efforts of the club’s president, Adis Mustabasic, the Korfball Federation of BiH became affiliated to the International Korfball Federation. Then in August of 2001, K.C. Maglaj organised its 1st International Korfball Tournament in Maglaj, in cooperation with A.J. La Rotllana from Badalona. The other participants came from Belgium and Hungary. The tournament winners were K.C. La Rotllana, with KC Maglaj finishing as runners-up.
In July 2002, K.C. Maglaj was involved it’s 2nd tournament in cooperation with K.C La Rotllana. This time it was held near Badalona, Spain. 16 korfball teams to part from all around Europe including: Kwik, Chuffing Spiders, Paal Central, Maurina, Badalona, Maglaj, Nottingham City, Supernova, Norwich City, Can Jofresa, Sandwich. KC Maglaj took 4th place. Here are some photos:
In March 2003 K.C. Maglaj hosted its first korfball school for children. This was once again a first in BiH, and was a great success, with around 50 kids participating. In August 2003, K.C. Maglaj organised its 3rd International Korfball Tournament, once again in cooperation with our friends from Badalona. The participants this year were Maglaj, Badalona, one mixed team ‘Europe United’ (made of players from England, Romania and Hungary), as well as guests from Belgium, Romania and from BiH. K.C. Maglaj came 2nd once again. In October 2003 the first changes to the clubs executive committee took place, with Miss. Mirela Sehic, one of the more senior players of the club taking over from Mr. Adis Mustabasic as president.
In July 2004 we had hoped to be able to go back to Spain, as was the tradition on alternate years, but unfortunately because of many obligations, a lack of time to prepare the trip, and tight finances, we could not go. However one guy from our club (Ali Enzar Hrustic) went to Badalona in December 2004 to work on a 1 year voluntary project dealing with korfball there in Spain. We look forward to him being able to help us a lot with our korfball when he comes back to Maglaj. In November 2004. I (Mirela Sehic), visited Badalona (Spain), where I had a meeting with a main person of Catalonian Korfball Federation, Mr. Toni Jurado.
In August 2005, it was K.C. Maglaj’s turn to organise a 4th International Korfball Tournament, but because of only a small number of teams entering, we decided to move it to 2006. Instead of a tournament, we instead made a small training course of korfball and couple of matches, together with our friends from England (Supernova) and Miss Szilvia Papp (Hungary), who stayed next to us till the end. I have to say we are very thankful to all of them. We had a great time together, we had meetings and we developed many ideas regarding to korfball for incoming period.
Author:Mirela/Dzenana Editor:Kath
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