The final event of the Basketball Festival always takes place at the new sports hall in Nova Gorica. This spectacle consists of the so called ALL STARS game for Viko's memorial, to honour and to remember a devoted member of Soncek, Viktor Humar-Viko, who passed away very young.
The charm of the spectacle includes dance and acrobatic groups, presentation of players under the spotlights, Slovenian national anthem, various acrobatic and entertaining presentations, etc.
At the final spectacle, there is also a finale of the free-throw competition and of the three-on-three game in which all the participants of the Day of Soncek compete. They can win skis or a mountain bike.
Santa Claus, accompanied by a big and a small "Soncek", will bring symbolic presents and prizes which will be given to the young athletes by the successful Slovenian Olympic sportsmen and other well-known athletes - their idols and role-models.
We will do our best to prepare a magnificent spectacle and to make the 15th Day of Soncek even more interesting and fun than ever before.
VIKO - Viko's memorial
The Day of Soncek is also a day when we remember our extremely devoted member, Viktor Humar - Viko, who passed away too soon. For those who didn't know Viko - he was involved in many sports - he was an alpinist and a basketball player, he was an excellent windsurfer, skier and kiter, etc. In addition to all that, Viko liked to paint and had an excellent pedagogical approach.
And above all, he was a true friend to all of us, with great personal qualities and with contagious good humour.
Viko was very active in our sports club and his excellent work is now continued by his son Andrej who hands out the cup at Viko's memorial every year.
The cup always goes to a young basketball player who has all the right qualities of an athlete: S/he shows effort during the practice, is a good student and a true friend, etc.
Since 1998, the cup at Viko's memorial went to: Miha Bazato, Blaz Zbacnik, Aljaz Kusar, Rok Zajc and Nejc Djuzic - all members of SC Soncek.
The 6th Viko's cup went to Filippo Franz, Italy.
At the jubilee, at the 10th Viko's memorial, for the first time the cup went to a girl,
to Nika Ursic from Vipava, who is a great athlete and an excellent student.
A year after that, Jernej Banovec from Solkan, a great student and basketball player, made sure that the cup Viko's memorial cup stayed at home again, after a few years.
The 12th cup Viko's memorial cup went to Antibes, France.
It was given to Arno Ricou, also an excellent student. He was just about to become a part of the French Ski Team but at the end, his love for basketball prevailed.
Where will the 15th Viko's memorial cup go and why?
With all the intolerance in the world, sport plays an important role nowadays. Its actions weigh out many said and written beautiful and "smart" words. Soncek and the Day of Soncek are trying to complete this mission as well, in their own way, with various sports events and by granting important awards, such as the Viko's memorial cup.
Children from the Basketball Club KK Uskok have been attending the Day of Soncek since the beginning. In the summer, they often attend our Basketball Camp of Primorska and we invited them to our summer picnic by the Soca River, where they learned how it feels when a kayak turns over in the cold river.
We became friends with the coaches and we immediately found a child in their group who deserved to receive the 7th Viko's memorial cup. This hero was Josip Surina.
For five times so far, our guests have also been the members of the Basketball Club OKK Beograd. Although we enjoy our work and it gives us great pleasure when we see that the work has been done well, we were extremely happy to receive a letter from Mr. Zunjic, PhD., the Head of the OKK Beograd Team. In his letter he wrote, among other things: ".We would like to thank to all those we know and to those we don't know, to the young and the old but always friendly observers who, even in the cursory meetings, proved that the Latin saying GENS UNA SUMUS - we are all one people/family - is still true in sports.And for that, not for achievements, Nova Gorica became a European basketball metropolis!"
Among the children from Belgrade, Petar Dimitrijevic was chosen as the one who had all the qualities of a true athlete and was given the cup at 8th Viko's memorial.
Of course, after Viko's memorial cup went to Croatia and Serbia, it also went to Bosnia and Herzegovina. Children from B&H will be attending the Day of Soncek for the seventh time in a row this year. The 9th Viko's memorial cup went to B&H to Alem Puskar.
Another country from the former Yugoslavia that participates at the Day of Soncek is Montenegro and this will be its third year of participation at our event. The main prize went to Montenegro on 12th December 2010 and in the summer the children from Plevlje also attended the basketball camp organised by Soncek.
Viko's memorial for 2010 went to Milos Jelovac.
We are proud of what Miras Djurovic, PhD., wrote after he brought his team to the Day of Soncek for the first time: ".Your organization is excellent and even the professional teams would envy you."
It is not difficult to guess that this year Viko's memorial cup goes to Macedonia, the country that offered a great surprise at this year's European Basketball Member Championship. We are sure that our friends from Macedonia can easily find somebody who deserves a great prize, such as the
15th Viko's memorial cup.
We believe that Viko would be proud of us, just like we are proud of him.
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