In women’s basketball, we fight for the Finnish championship, but also for the superiority of Kaakonkulma. Kouvottari coach Reetta Piipari explains what the medal already means to the club.
The Kotka Game Bears have won the Finnish Women’s Basketball Championship three times in a row, but immediately in the first final match of this spring it was knocked out: Kouvottaret, who survived for the first time until the finals, sought a valuable away victory from Kotka and even 95-78.
The battle of hegemony in the Southeast Corner has taken fierce rounds. The final spring is the best time for both the players and the coaches, says the coach of Kouvottari Reetta Piipariwhich is also well remembered for the Game Bears shirt in the 2011–15 seasons.
– We have practiced for this and now we are playing. All winter work will be rewarded this spring, Piipari, who was reached by phone, is in the mood.
The final of PeKan and Kouvottari is a real dream event for Kaakonkulma and it makes a unique contribution to the games. In the past, Catz from Lappeenranta has played against Peli-Karhuja in these hegemony encounters in Kymenlaakso, but now the multi-year success team was left in the lower series.
Kouvola, on the other hand, enjoys the fruits of long-term work and the first Finnish Championship medal, which has been hunted since Piipari and his teammates promoted the club to the league at the end of the 2015–16 season.
– The medal is a really, really big thing and will definitely mean a lot to the club and the whole of Kouvola. Although the league history of Kouvottari is short, this has been a long way in a way. I think it is well deserved that we are at this point, says Piipari, who will return to coaching Tapiola Honga this spring.
Piipari himself has been able to experience the derby spirit of Kymeenlaakso as a player, so now as a coach he is able to identify well with what his defenders are experiencing. Piipari thinks the games against PeKa are always great events.
– They always have their own thing. It is easy to travel between locations and fans can easily get there. For example, on Monday in Kotka, we had a lot of people from Kouvola. It even felt like it could have been our own home game.
The victory of the Spirit in matter
Whether it’s fan encouragement, coaching insights, or player skills, Kouvottaret hasn’t lost a single time in these playoffs. According to Piipari, this is due to seven months of hard work and commitment to the team.
– Everyone from coaches to players believes in what we have done during the season. We have trusted in our own work, and we have not had to change anything at all, and now it pays back, says Piipari, a long-time national team player and one of the legends of the Finnish basketball.
Peli-Karhut has been able to celebrate the Finnish championship in the spring of 2021, 2019 and 2018. When the season was interrupted in the spring of 2020, Kouvottaret led the regular season by two points. PeKa has been stronger in the duel’s encounters, as before that it has won Kouvottaret 15 times and lost 4 times.
This season, the regular season was won by the reigning champion PeKa, who according to Piipari has the most player material in the league and has only strengthened further this season.
– None of the women’s basketball teams have the kind of material that the Game Bears have. There’s a lot of top reinforcements in the series and experienced, national team-level players for whom these finals aren’t the first. We have a big part playing our first medal games.
– Our special feature is a good team spirit. Everyone blows one coal and encourages each other. If someone has a worse day, then others are helping and lifting a guy’s head up. That, I think, is the most important feature of why we have gotten to this.
Although Kouvottaret took the first final match, Piipari still expects a steady twist from the finals.
– In the finals, the final result does not matter when we start the next match. Game Bears will definitely be back and I expect the whole series to be very smooth.
Separated from the common umbrella – and immediately a historic medal
In Finnish team sports, the general trend is to get men and women under the same umbrella, but in Kouvola the opposite has been the case. In Kouvola, the activities of Kouvo were reorganized last spring and the activities of men, women and juniors were separated.
The Kouvot men’s league team will continue to play under the limited company, and the Kouvottaret and junior activities will continue as separate associations. Kouvot Basket oy, Kouvottaret ry and Kouvot ry now have their own boards, each of which looks at the economy from its own perspective.
Last season, Kouvot even had to lay off two of its U.S. reinforcements in the men’s league to get the necessary savings. With the money saved, Kouvot and Kouvottaret and Kouvot ry, which is responsible for junior activities, were able to leave this period without debt.
The men’s games ended in the first round of the playoffs, but the women still continue to play. Kouvottari team leader Terhi Vikström assures, however, that the men were by no means a burden on the team.
Differentiation takes better care that one does not “go to the jar of jam”, ie the other’s income does not finance the other’s expenses. According to Vikström, the restructuring has facilitated operations this season.
– Now we’ve got to dry and we’ve got to start from a clean slate. Everyone collects their own money and is also responsible for the costs themselves, Vikström said.
In practice, differentiation has been seen differently by supporters and employees. Fans now need more cards to watch the men’s and women’s games, but the office still sits under the same roof and the crew has remained the same.
According to Piipari, the differentiation in the everyday life of the teams has not been reflected in any way.
– In the same way, one coal is blown here as before. On paper, we’re different teams, but otherwise we’re all still under the same roof, Piipari said.