Aldis Sproģis

Aldis Sprogis
(22.10.1958 - 26.07.1997)

Aldis Sproģis was born on October 22, 1958 in Rūjien, Ķoņi parish "Circos", in the family of Ilga and Emīlas Sproģi. Already in his early childhood, Alda's parents divorced. When the mother remarried, Alda's younger brother came into life - Dainis Bertāns, the father of Latvian national basketball players Dāvja and Daira.

Little Aldis attended the kindergarten in Rūjiena, but during the summer holidays he lived in "Topši" with his grandparents. Aldi had a particularly close relationship with his grandfather Ernests Zvirbuli.

On September 1, 1966, Aldis started school at Rūjiena secondary school. He was fond of sports from the first grades. Alda's persistence made the big boys in the neighborhood put up with the little athlete's presence at the basketball hoop. Aldis himself said that he is grateful to his teacher Đirtas Bischofs for his love of sports. During his school years, he also drove 40 kilometers to Valmiera for basketball training with coach Arvīdas Kaufmani.

Work at Aldi didn't scare me either. During the summer holidays, he worked at the collective farm, hoeing beets and later worked in construction, thus earning what he needed for school.

After graduating from Rūjiena secondary school in 1977, he entered the Latvian State Institute of Physical Culture, where teachers Uldis Grāvītis and Olģerts Albergs made a great contribution to his further professional development. After graduating from university in 1981, Aldi was assigned to work in the Gulbene district, where he started working as a physical education teacher at Dauksti eight-year-old school, teaching other subjects at the same time. The young teacher proved himself as a knowledgeable specialist and a skilled pedagogue.

In 1985, he started working at the Gulbene Children's and Youth Sports School, initially as a basketball coach, then for a short time as an acting director, but already on December 1 he was approved as a director. He performed the duties of the director and coach of the sports school until the last day of his life. When Aldi Sprogis entered the sports school, children's basketball in Gulbene began to improve, new training groups were created, the people of Gulbene achieved better and better success, and the coaching staff strengthened.

In an interview with the newspaper "Dzirkstele" in December 1996, Aldis himself says: "As a basketball coach, I can say that I have had only two groups - boys born in 1972, 1973 and now boys born in 1978, 1979 and 1982. Those boys were eight or nine years old when I collected them and started training them. Then I told my colleagues that I would show them how to do it. It was in 1989. I always tell my students that not everyone will be a master, but everyone will be human. And so it has been that all my boys who wanted it have entered universities and they are all good people." Several of Alda's students have played in the Latvian Basketball League and in the youth national team. Alda Sproģ's dream was also fulfilled - to play with the Gulbene team in the LBL top league, unfortunately Aldis himself did not experience it....1997. On July 26, Alda's life ended tragically.