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The history of the Kolubara handball club |
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Kolubara is the handball club with a long tradition. A group of enthusiastic people founded the club in 1960. The founders were: Milinkovic Milenko, Miljevic Petar, Mazalica Slobodan, Loncarevic Dusan, Lazic Velibor, Bajovic Milun, Lakasin Slavoljub, Dramicanin Radosav, Kolacaric Slavoljub, Jovanovic Milun, Mladenovic Tomislav, Kizic Lazar, Andreski Milos and Simic Vladeta.
The first court belonged to Technical School and it was covered with clay. In its place today is the store. With the development of the mining industry, mining giant Kolubara helped sports, and the court became asphalted. Later, another court was made next to the football pitch. The quality of handball matches wasn't very high in the beginning, because the first players were mainly students from the surrounding villages, which had no handball courts. Football was the only popular sport at the time, at it was really hard to motivate children to train handball. The club wasn't part of the official league at start- the matches were organized with the teams from the nearby towns of Valjevo, Arandjelovac and Belgrade. Later, with the improvement in the play, the club started to compete, beginning from the lowest level- The Second Serbian League. Good plays brought new fans, and, together with football, handball is the sport with the longest tradition in our town.
In the year of 1987 large and functional sports hall was built in Lazarevac and that marked the beginning of success for the Kolubara handball team.
In the 1980s the club entered the First Serbian League, and the juniors competed in the Belgrade League. Great attention was paid to the development of the younger categories, thanks to professor Dusan Zagorac. He created the basis for a good handball club, and trained players who play in the best clubs of Serbia and Europe. Some of them were even chosen to play for the national team. Younger selection (players who were born in 1978.) won the championship of Serbia in 1993. Well-known players from that generation are Danijel Andjelkovic-Deni, Milan Vucicevic-Macak and Slavoljub Mitrovic-Mrca.
During the 1990s the club plays in the Second League of Serbia, and in 1996. the Handball Association of Serbia formed the First Serbian League , which was divided into two parts- the ' white' one and the 'blue' one. Kolubara competed in the blue part of the league. Young Dusan Djukic became the coach. He managed to rejuvenate the team completely and to stay in the league. Many players from that team were transferred to the clubs from the Super League, and, as a consequence of that, Kolubara handball club moved to lower level of competition. Finally, in 2005, the team reached the First Serbian League. In the next season the club ranked third in the League, and achieved its greatest success by entering the Super League, which was formed after reorganization of the competition. In its first year of playing in the Super League, the team from Lazarevac ranked fifth and gained right to compete in the Challenge Cup of Europe. |
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