Moscow Youngsters Making a Basketball Tour

Fourteen young basketball players from Moscow began a 12-day, five-game tour of south Louisiana Friday, playing electronic games at a retail franchise, checking out the clothes at a Western wear store and watching their friends from St. Amant High play a game at Tara High in Baton Rouge.

The visit follows a December trip by the St. Amant basketball team to Moscow for four games against Soviet prep teams. St. Amant was 3-1 against the Russians.

St. Amant High raised about $50,000 to send its team to Moscow and another $15,000 to defray expenses of the Soviet team here, most of the money from corporate sponsorships, said St. Amant Coach Kent Schexnaydre.

From such simple beginnings, it is hoped, great bonds will be forged between the world’s two super powers.

“You know this is a wonderful opportunity our countries have. If we start doing it at that level--you know, small, 15 or 20 kids--that’s how you’ve got to start,” said David Young, owner of a Gonzales consulting firm who helped set up the trip.

“And so I mean it’s been a good project to me because of that. If we’re going to start building a bridge between our two countries, you’ve got to start at that level.”

The team’s itinerary includes sightseeing throughout the bayou country of southeast Louisiana and games games at St. Amant on Feb. 12, in New Orleans against Archbishop Shaw on Feb. 14 and St. Augustine on Feb. 15, at East Ascension High on Feb. 17 and at Catholic High of Baton Rouge on Feb. 18.

Between games, the team and six chaperones have a full itinerary of sightseeing, including boat tours of the Mississippi River and Blind River, a visit to an alligator farm, a tour of the Houmas House plantation, a rodeo at Louisiana State, a visit to the French Quarter and a taste of pre-Mardi Gras festivities in New Orleans.

Young said the exchange was unique in that it brought together teams representing schools instead of national teams.

Young, who arranged Louisiana chef John Folse’s culinary exhibition in Moscow during the 1988 summit meeting between President Reagan and Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev, said St. Amant coach Kent Schnexnaydre, a longtime friend, approached him with the team exchange idea early last year.

Vladimir Gomelsky, a basketball commentator for Soviet national television serving as a team interpreter, said he was elated when Young brought up the idea.

“I had two thoughts in my mind when David explained to me about the exchange,” Gomelsky said. “First, it will be very useful for the youth of both countries to get acquainted to communicate with each other on the basketball court and out.

“The other thing is that I am from a basketball family. My grandmother, my mother, my father, all of them are coaches ... I like basketball so much that any possibility to enlarge basketball contacts between our two countries is good.

“On every age level, I would like to enlarge basketball contacts between the United States and the USSR. That’s why I liked the idea very much and tried my best to make it possible.”

Gomelsky’s father, Alexander Gomelsky, is the president of the Soviet Basketball Federation and coached the 1988 Soviet basketball team that won the Olympic gold medal. He arranged the Soviet end of the exchange.

The dangers of capitalist distractions were not lost on some of the Soviet players, however.

Slova Zeshienov, 15, was already sizing up the possibilities -- five minutes off the plane.

“The people are very nice. They are very interesting,” Zeshienov said. “And all the television and everything is different and is fascinating. But I want to try to concentrate on the games.”

And just how confident was the teen-age good will ambassador from one of Moscow’s elite prep sports schools?

“All of them, obviously,” Zeshinov said when asked for a prediction on how many games his team would win in the United States.

Sergei Bezrodnov, 17, the oldest member of the Soviet team, said he hoped to hone his skills against the Americans.

“I would like to see the American style of the game. I want to gain the experience and become a better all-around basketball player,” Bezrodnov said. “Basically for me, the basketball experience will be -- speaking about my future career as a basketball player -- more important, but I am still very excited about all the other parts of our staying here.”

And like the smart American athlete, Bezrodnov was a little more cautious in assessing his team’s chances in the series.

“We’ll win one, for sure,” he said.