Kircicegi (Eng: wildflower) Women's Basketball Team is aiming to rise to the super league this season.

Here is their story

The signature of the professional basketball player Yigit Ozmen, who has grown on Galatasaray’s infrastructure and had a career 2 years with Turk Telekom and 2 years with Erdemir, is on the basis of the team. Yigit Ozmen, the founder and chairman of the team, said that his biggest dream was to establish a basketball club in Bodrum and answered our questions on the way to the super league.

When was Kircicegi Women's Basketball Team founded? How many years has it been struggling?

Bodrum Basketball Sports Club was founded in 2008. In the first two years, there was the men’s team, we missed a top league in the semi-finals. In the season of 2015-2016, we established a women's basketball team in the 2nd league. We were champions in the first year and promoted to the first league. It was a successful season last year and we missed out the super league on goal. Basketball is a team game and teamwork. I believe that as a team we have come a long way in a short time.

Our goal for the season of 2017-2018 is to rise to the super league as champion and I believe that we have formed a team that could be the champion in this direction. First, we transferred Murat Alkas as the coach, who had succeeded with 3 teams in the super league and also worked in Efes Pilsen with Aydın Örs for years. Therefore he is a very valuable coach. Our successful team this season; Gulsah Celebi, Esra Sencebe, Harika Eldas, Gizem Uca, Gizem Kazali, Sasha Goodlett, Seda Tabakci, Seda Aydin, Saynur Tozlu, Serenay Cakmakci, Deniz Ataer and Irem Cavusoglu are playing. The team captain of last year, Nihan Anaz, who made great contributions and achievements with the team, became the team manager after she suffered an injury.

You moved Bodrum to success throughout Turkey. Can we learn your expectations from the fans for this season?

The organization that started with my personal efforts has been supported by Mayor Mr. Mehmet Kocadon, Kircicegi, Cagdas Holding and Kilic Holding. On our way to success, our biggest supporters are our sponsors. Besides the Bodrum Municipality's basketball court boarding, transportation and accommodation support, moral support is also very significant for us. The support given directly affects the future of the team, so I think we need more institutional touches.

We are the only basketball team in Bodrum. At a team level; Kircicegi Women's Basketball Team is playing in the first league, Male Football Team is playing in the second league and Women's Handball Team is playing in the first league. As I mentioned, the success of our team is indexed to support, this is why we hope that these supports will increase throughout Bodrum.

Our audience is very conscious that they choose a match and make a choice according to that awareness. In short, our audience has filled the basketball courts in order to watch games of good quality and never left us alone.

Are you planning to train players from infrastructure?

Our second major goal is infrastructure. We aim to raise players from the infrastructure and come to the level to play in Europe with a strong Bodrum basketball team.

Unfortunately, local leagues in local infrastructure are relatively small. In fact, the more athletes compete in infrastructure, the more they improve. Unfortunately, Bodrum and Mugla are very limited on this subject. As there are more clubs and organizations in the big cities, young athletes are able to play in more matches. We aim to close this gap by creating our infrastructure and making matches between us.