Elina Koskimies helps colleagues in her second job – “Eyes opened”

On Wednesday Kotkan Peli-Karhut, the champion favorite of the inaugural women’s Basketball League, got a rare returnee, when a player in the starting five of the national team Elina Koskimies returned to Finland after no less than nine seasons abroad.

Koskimies, 27, played in the Korisliiga for two seasons in Tapiola Honga, until he left in 2015 for four seasons in the American university league. After that, he played two seasons in the second tier of Spain before moving to the German Bundesliga for three seasons.

Last season Koskimies played in Keltern’s team, whose championship in the previous season changed to silver in the spring.

Koskimie also played in the Eurocup in Germany. The possibility of Europeli now influenced his decision to return to Finland.

PeKa is the first Finnish team to participate in the current Eurocup and is also the first Finnish women’s team in the European basketball cups of this millennium.

“The Eurocup had a big influence on my decision to return. The role offered by PeKa also felt good when I got to my place in third place”, said Koskimies in an interview with STT.

Koskimies, who thrives as a throwing winger, is looking forward to his first domestic league games in more than nine years.

“It’s nice to see Finland’s league level. There are a lot of young people in the basketball league, including 16-year-old European champions,” Koskimies said.

Elina Koskimies works in sports also in a big role as the vice-chairman of the board of the Läpimurtosäätiö.

The Koskimen family company has significantly financed this sports support foundation, which aims to promote the international breakthrough of promising young athletes and also to create opportunities for children to participate in sports.

“My work at the foundation has been an eye-opener to the financial reality, especially with individual athletes. Their financial situation is even more difficult than that of team athletes”, Koskimies, who has played professionally for years, estimates.

PeKa, who won eight golds in the Women’s Basketball League, finished last spring in silver behind Torpa Poikie, but is now the only champion favorite.

In addition to Koskimie, PeKa received two other national team players from Germany Linda-Lotta Lehtoranta and By Anissa Pounds after returning to Kotka. Lehtaranta has an option to return abroad in the October-November comprehensive contract.

PeKa has a tough Seven of players who returned from Germany, the national team player who continues in Kotka Roosa Kosonen and with the foreign trio. The trio includes an American quarterback who also played in the Greek league Lauren Heardin and the center by Jade Williams in addition, a winger with Australian and Latvian passports Eve Braslis. In the Eurocup, the team may include three foreigners, one of whom must be European.

Sensitive in the initial group of the 48-team Eurocup, Keltern, known to Koskimie and Lehtoranna, will face the Belgian silver team Castors Braine and the Romanian champion CSM Constanta. The two best in the group advance to the next round.

“We’re going smaller to challenge others,” said the former head coach of PeKa Roope Mäkelä.

“In October and November, we will have weeks of up to three games and trips abroad. In the fall season, our main goal is the Eurocup, which can be reflected in our lineup. In Korisliiga, we still only have one goal, which is the championship, just like PeKa in general,” Mäkelä emphasized.