Susijengi will meet Holland in the European Championships on Thursday at 15:00. Live broadcast of the final match of the first group on TV2 and Areena from 14:40.
EUR. A few bounces of the ball, a sharp step and a strong effort. The hand lifts the ball to the heights and finally presses it into the basket sock. We are in Eura, which has been mostly known before From Daru and Daltonsbut nowadays, to a growing extent, also about basketball.
– This Eura is not the world’s biggest basketball venue, but when two basketball families happened to be next to each other, we wanted to keep this thing going here, young basketball star Elias Valtonen laughs and dunks the ball into the basket of his childhood home.
In the backyard of the sporty Valtosten family, there is an entire sports park, and in the front yard, of course, there is a basketball hoop. In fact, there are two baskets and courts, because the godfather who lives next door is also a basketball player through and through.
The 23-year-old Valtonen, who made his breakthrough in the Spanish league last season, has arrived to spend the summer in his home region of Eura. Ari-father’s and Tarja-the red-brick detached house built by his mother was already a base from which his basketball dream was built when he was a little boy.
– I have lived here all my life. This was probably completed around the time I was born, i.e. in 1999. Nowadays, the seasons go elsewhere, but the summers are always here, unless I’m at camp in the direction of Helsinki, Valtonen says.
As a child, Valtonen played a variety of sports, and in addition to basketball, his selection of sports included football, ice hockey and athletics. Running several sports eventually became difficult and in November 2010, Elias’ father sent the godfather Vesa Nuija an email asking for help in choosing a species.
– Then I wrote my assessment of the different sports on a piece of paper and stated that at least a Korisliiga player is on hand. He would certainly have become a very good football or ice hockey player, but when you are almost two meters tall, there are fewer places to play in football, Vesa recalls.
The godfather saw that 12-year-old Elias is a player in every sport, but about basketball he wrote: “At the Finnish level, he is a top ten player and even on a world scale with a school grade of 8-9”. He concluded his assessment with the fact that in basketball Elias would have the best chance to reach the top and “European courts are also possible”.
– But my most important point was that the boy himself must love what he does, the godfather continues.
And boy did he love it. Elias’ fire for basketball was burning with the greatest flame, so the family decided to invest in the basketball hobby. It paid off, because the godfather’s prediction about Korisliiga came true already at the age of 14. Now there are already national team games and two seasons as a professional on European courts.
A common family hobby
A bunch of jerseys hangs on the rod in the wardrobe of a detached house. Valtonen browses through the selection and picks up a black shirt with the Euran Veiv logo emblazoned on the chest.
– Here is an old Veiv shirt, the only one left. I’ve played this when I was maybe 8-10 years old, probably around that age. Then the next shirt is the first league shirt from Korihai and the game number has changed from four to five, Valtonen smiles.
Valtonen started his basketball hobby in the local Veiv under his father’s coaching, but he could not build a path to the Korisliiga, let alone to the courts of Europe, based on his home town alone, when a team could no longer be assembled from Eura.
The solution was found about 60 kilometers away. First from the junior team in Loimaa and then from the league in Uustakaupunki. During Elias’s teenage years, the whole family became familiar with trips for hours to practice.
– They were four-hour trips. An hour there, an hour and a half of training and an hour back. Sometimes textbooks and a meat guide made by Tarja were included. We ate and studied on the way, the father of the family Ari laughs.
Many acquaintances were amazed at the Valtosten family’s ability to travel, but it felt natural in the family. You are used to driving in the countryside because of the longer distances.
– We have grown up like this. Maybe something else could have done it, but what else would it have been? This has been a common thing for our whole family. We have made acquaintances from the localities and this hobby has brought all kinds of things that would not have come otherwise, says mother Tarja.
The fact that Elias was able to be fooled was also a matter of chance. It was partly influenced by the part-time pension due to father Ari’s illness. In a household with two full-time working parents, training rides could have been more difficult to arrange.
– Financially, of course, money has been spent on gas, training fees and so on. But I don’t feel that I have missed anything myself. This has been our family’s system and it has been great to follow Elias’ journey. We have enjoyed ourselves on the side of the field, it has been a part of our lives, Tarja states.
– Elias’ enthusiasm and desire to play was so easy to get along with. It took with it and also fueled my own resilience, father-Ari continues.
On the wall of Valtoten’s dressing room, next to the jerseys, hangs a framed Susijengi t-shirt, with the handsome autographs of the Finnish national team players who participated in the 2013 European Championship in Slovenia.
Players from the then national team players’ breeding clubs had been selected to watch the games on the spot in Slovenia, and 14-year-old Valtonen was one of the selected.
– It was the first time you could see the action of that level up close and talk to the national team players. From that, the desire to make it to the national team started to grow even more, Valtonen recalls.
Now Valtonen himself is one of the players on whom Susijengi builds its expectations of success in the European Championships.
– I remember the first training sessions at Susijeng, when I thought that now I’m here, but pretty quickly it changed to the fact that I want to challenge them more than fan them, Valtonen grins.
– At the moment, I also expect from myself that I am one of the key players in the team. It feels good. I feel that you also have to help the team and be one of the players who help you win games, Valtonen continues.
The Euro of many possibilities
After the afternoon coffee ice cream enjoyed in the yard, Valtonen does the same as the child. When the home is practically located next to the sports fields, playing and competing are the best pastimes.
– Sprint trips, ball throwing and long jump. They were probably the sports with which the most time was spent, Valtonen says as he walks towards the athletics field.
My brother was often my racing partner Samuel, who is also a basketball player. The younger brother made his debut in Korisliiga last season in Korihai’s shirt.
– The result is not satisfying at all. We went to get six meters, but they say that without a warm-up and with quite a bit of sipping, 563 is quite a good result, Valtonen laughs as he takes on a fast long jump race with his brother in honor of old times.
Even though Valtonen had to travel to pursue basketball, Eura gave him an excellent environment to play a variety of different sports as a little boy.
Futsal was played at “Euran Wembley”, basketball was played at the Urheilutalo maintained by the godfather, and competitions were held on the athletics field whenever and wherever. It is certainly no coincidence that Valtonen’s bounce is elastic both on the basket floor and on the long jump.
– This has been really important, that he has been able to practice in a variety of ways. Those basketball skills have probably been honed elsewhere, but versatility and eye for the ball have certainly been gathered from these corners, Valtonen praises.
At the end of the interview session, a few juniors approach and ask Valto for a friend picture. In the same way as in Slovenia in 2013, Valtonen is now the star of Susijeng himself, inspiring the following young people to play basketball.
– This doesn’t happen very often here, Valtonen smiles and says modestly.
So Darude may still be the better-known Eurasian, but Valtonen is pushing hard.
– It’s nice abroad when Sandstorm starts playing in the game, then you know that you and Darude are coming from the same angles. That button is also nice to tell your gaming friends, Valtonen laughs.
You can watch Elias Valtonen’s Juuret episode on Areena. In the series, you can also get to know the stories of Mikael Jantusen, Sasu Salin, Lauri Markkanen and Lassi Tuov.