Announcing the March Madness Sports Visitor Exchange with Serbian Basketball Coaches

With March Madness – the annual collegiate basketball tournament that crowns a national champion in the United States – heating up, the U.S. Division of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA) announced right now that, as aspect of its broader efforts to empower girls and girls by means of sport, 14 club and federation basketball coaches from Serbia will travel to Louisville, Kentucky and Dallas, Texas from March 21 – April four to engage with their American counterparts, civil society, the University of Louisville, and the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association Conference, which is hosted on the margins of the NCAA Women’s Final 4.

Even though in the United States, these Serbian girls’ basketball coaches will participate in trainings and roundtable discussions on Title IX, the landmark U.S. civil rights law that afforded girls and girls an equal playing field by means of education and sport mental well being disability rights and inclusivity in sport.

Sports diplomacy is a public diplomacy tool that gives a gateway for engagement for the United States with audiences and communities beyond the reaches of government-to-government relations.  The Sports Visitor Plan brings non-elite youth athletes, coaches, and administrators to the United States and pairs them with their American counterparts, on the court and in the neighborhood.  By means of these grassroots sports exchange applications, international exchange participants can encounter U.S. culture, engage with the American folks, and discover shared commonalities as effectively as variations on a selection of problems, like leadership, conflict resolution, democratic values, and public service.

For U.S. Division of State press inquiries, speak to the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs: ECA-Press@state.gov.  To understand extra about Bureau’s sports diplomacy efforts, comply with on Facebook (@SportsDiplomacyDivision) and Twitter (@SportsDiplomacy).