Academy

Since 2018, Zenit has actively started working on the development of its own young and talented players. However, until the summer of 2019, the club did not have its own academy. The club analyzed the existing approaches to working with reserves in leading Russian and foreign clubs and concluded that without its own system for identifying and training talented basketball players at all levels, it would be difficult to organize and ensure a seamless and high-quality process of nurturing their own players, from youth teams to the main roster.

In the summer of 2018, Zenit began to establish its own system for developing sports reserves, the Basketball Academy, and a year later, it was presented to the public.

The Zenit Basketball Academy is not only a multi-level system for identifying, selecting, and promoting talented basketball players; it is also the home for all reserve club teams and the main training ground for the main team players.

Academy Structure

Infrastructure

How to Join

Administration

Contacts

21 📢 teams

Includes the Zenit Basketball Academy currently

At the top of this pyramid is the team Zenit-2, competing in the Superleague. This is the closest reserve for the main team of the blue-whites.

One level below is Zenit-M, representing our club in the VTB Youth United League. In the 2021/22 season, our youth team won the gold medals of the tournament for the first time in its history.

The main supplier of athletes to the youth team is the team Zenit-UOR #1, competing in the Children and Youth Basketball League (CYBL) and being the champion of the 2021/22 season.

Another successful and effective experience in joint work to train talented basketball players is the collaboration between Zenit and the Olympic Reserve Sports Schools of St. Petersburg aimed at creating and organizing CYBL departments based on sports schools: ORSS Kalininsky District, ORSS Kupchinsky Olymp, ORSS #1 of Central District, ORSS #1 of Admiralteysky District.

In addition to the CYBL departments, which unite the most promising players of the corresponding age, the club's structure includes 15 groups of initial training, training at the sports schools of St. Petersburg, Voronezh, and Veliky Novgorod regions.

Despite its relatively short history, the Zenit Basketball Academy is already producing noticeable results. Graduates of the Zenit BC system perform in Russian Superleague, a number of players not only compete successfully in competitions but also participate in training sessions with the main team, and some have already participated in the training camps of the national team.