XENIA, Ohio – Rising junior Dave Buchberger has been chosen as one of 12 current and former collegiate basketball players from across the United States and the world that will come together and embark on a 16-day competitive tour of top level teams in Bulgaria and the Czech Republic as one of 12 Athletes in Action international-touring basketball men’s teams this summer.
Joining Buchberger on the traveling team are: Jerod Adler (Indiana State), Ben Beran (South Dakota State), Andrew Brown (Mercer), Jawan Carter (Delaware), Jahaziel Howard (Central Florida), Tim Lyle (James Madison), Turner Phipps (Angelo State, and Casey Wohlleb (Florida Gulf Coast) . These American players will be joined by three Bulgarian professional players: Ludmil Hadjisotirov and Hristo Nikolov (both of CSKA, Bulgaria) and Yuliyan Radionov (Levski, Bulgaria). Morris Michalski, longtime college head coach and current AIA Staff member, will coach the team with Travis Persinger, a graduate assistant coach at Marshall University flanking him as his assistant.
The team arrived in Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria, on May 24th and then headed off to the city of Sliven for a four-day training camp before beginning to compete with professional and national teams. While there, the team will conduct two youth clinics and engage in two exhibition games.
Following time in Sliven, the AIA team returns to Sofia to engage in four games in three days as well as conduct a coaches clinic for the upper echelons of the Bulgarian Basketball Federation. On June 1st the team transitions to Czech, settling in at that country’s Olympic Training Center in Nymburk. While there AIA will engage in three straight games vs. the Senior and Junior National Teams of Czech as well as serve an orphanage again that AIA visited last year.
Finally, the team finishes its tour in Prague, the Czech capital. There the team will sightsee, conduct further service opportunities and play two more games with pro teams. The goals of this tour are to provide a rich cross-cultural experience for each team member, serve and love all the people they meet, provide worthy competition for some of the best teams in Bulgaria and Czech, build the Athletes in Action ministry in both these countries, bring honor to Jesus Christ through sharing God’s love and truth, and prompt good spiritual movements within this part of the world.
Since 1966, Athletes in Action has been a global pioneer, innovator, and servant leader in sport ministry. AIA exists to change lives by building spiritual movements everywhere through the platform of sport: on the field, in the locker room, and under stadium lights.
As of 2008, AIA has a ministry presence in 75 countries, on nearly 125 U.S. college campuses, and on 35 U.S. professional sports teams.
