JUNIOR FRANKEN – an alliance for children’s and youth basketball

The idea for JUNIOR FRANKEN (“JUNIOR FRANCONIANS”) comes from Michael Stoschek, who will continue to fund the project out of his own pocket for the next three years. His mission is to secure the long-term future of top-class basketball in Franconia.

That is only possible through good youth work in basketball and in the social sphere. And that is precisely where JUNIOR FRANKEN comes in. It supports the first-division clubs Brose Bamberg, medi bayreuth, s.Oliver Würzburg together with Post SV Nuremberg as part of their lead function in working with the basketball clubs throughout their catchment area. Project manager Martin Will notes: “JUNIOR FRANKEN helps the partner clubs put even greater focus on kids. That alone is the project’s first big success. Our goal is to support our future talents bit by bit by means of regular actions, transparent funding and an ever-improving quality of coaching.”

The campaign is sponsored by Maurice Stuckey. There is probably no other current Bamberg player who embodies the philosophy of JUNIOR FRANKEN as well as he does. Stuckey began his career in the Southeast Regional League with BG Leitershofen/Stadtbergen, where he played until 2007. A year before that, he was called the “Most talented young German player” by Michael Jordan in his “Jordan Classics Camp” and named most valuable player (MVP). That was followed by two years in the ProB division for Ehingen/Urspring, before he signed a three-year contract with Brose Baskets (as the club was named back then) at the start of the 2009/2010 season. After Stuckey was not able to have so much time on court as he had hoped for due to an injury, he was loaned to s.Oliver Baskets Würzburg for the 2012/2013 season and then signed up by the club permanently the next year. In the 2014/2015 season, he moved to EWE Baskets Oldenburg, where he signed a two-year contract, but returned to Würzburg in 2015. Maurice Stuckey therefore has first-hand knowledge of two of the four JUNIOR FRANKEN clubs from his spells there. So when he was asked to sponsor the project, he did not think twice: “Every project that helps children and youngsters enjoy basketball is important. That’s why I like supporting JUNIOR FRANKEN so much. I’d also have liked to have been given the intensive encouragement in young years the players now get in JUNIOR FRANKEN. There are still far too few projects like it in Germany. So I’m all the more delighted to be part of it. My explicit thanks also go to Michael Stoschek in this connection. People who dig into their own pocket to promote budding basketball talents are few and far between,” said Stuckey.