The Wonju YKK Basketball Class is living up to its name, winning the championship for the second week in a row.

The Assist For Youth (AFY) project, which Assist has been running since 2022 to develop youth basketball in Korea. The YKK Basketball Classroom in Wonju, a partner in the project, won the primary division of the 2023 National Youth Harmony Basketball League Club Division Chungcheong Province tournament, which ended today.

The Harmony League, which is being held to revitalize youth club basketball, is held by region. YKK Basketball Class in Wonju competed in the Chungcheong region and won a valuable victory.

Just a week ago, the Wonju YKK Basketball Club, which won the primary and secondary division of the KBA 3×3 Korea Tour Inje held in Inje, Gangwon-do, defended its pride as the best youth basketball club in the country by standing at the top of the Harmony League Chungcheong Province tournament.

Competing in the primary division of the 2023 National Youth Harmony Basketball League Club Division Chungcheongnam-do, held at the Cheongju Naesu Life Sports Park Gymnasium on March 21, Wonju YKK Basketball Classroom went on a winning streak from the preliminary round and boasted the most outstanding performance among the participating teams.

Facing Typhoon and Sejong Max in the group stage, Wonju YKK Basketball Class easily won two straight games to top their group and advance to the finals.

Typhoon, a basketball school run by Jeon Tae-pung, was no pushover, but they were no match for Wonju YKK Basketball School. As for Sejong Max, they were one of the favorites to win the tournament, having lost to Wonju YKK Basketball Class in the quarterfinals of the previous tournament. However, Wonju YKK Basketball School, which was prepared by Coach Lee Ji-woon with changes to their defense, succeeded in upsetting Sejong Max and won their second straight group stage game.

Facing Chuncheon JKK Basketball 안전놀이터 Class in the quarterfinals, Wonju YKK Basketball Class was able to outplay their opponents and advance to the finals with a big win. Their final opponent was once again Sejong Max.

Facing Sejong Max again after the preliminary round, Wonju YKK Basketball Class struggled until the beginning of the fourth quarter. This was due to the players’ lack of concentration.

However, after the beginning of the fourth quarter, the Wonju YKK Basketball Classroom once again used their defense to increase their lead to more than 10 points and defeated Sejong Max once again to win the tournament.

Coach Lee Ji-woon of Wonju YKK Basketball Class said, “I’ve been working at Wonju YKK Basketball Class for about eight months, and I think the team is getting better and better as I have better communication with the kids compared to the beginning. At first, there were many difficulties because the children had strong personalities. But nowadays, we play basketball in class, but we also communicate with the children a lot and unite our hearts, which is why the team is getting better and better,” he said, explaining the reason for the recent victory.

“It’s because all the kids gave their best until the end. We’ve got some good players coming in, we’ve got better organization, and I think that’s why we’ve had two good results in a row. We’ll continue to work hard with the kids so that we can continue to show good results.”

Meanwhile, Kim Chan-yeop of Wonju YKK Basketball Classroom, who led the team to the title, had a great day as he was named the tournament MVP.

assist For Youth is a project in which assist will join forces with youth basketball classes across the country to promote youth basketball starting in 2022. For more information about the project, please visit the official Instagram account @assist_for_youth.