Holding the Ladder in Sport and Leadership
Jul 6, 2026 · 1 hr 4 min · 14 segments
Our guest for this episode is Eugene Postolache. He is a basketball coach and ministry leader from Chișinău, Moldova. He previously served as an underage national team coach for Moldova. In 2018, he…
Eugene PostolacheGuest
Tim RiceHost
Of course, he's been to the United States a number of times, but his specific trip here to West Fargo, North Dakota.
One of the things I wanted to ask is, in your small village, how did you get your start in sports? Did you play a number of sports? Was it just basketball? Tell us a little bit about that.
Probably the biggest you'll know is wrestling because it's kind of traditional.
maybe the second sport would be soccer because everybody now plays soccer it's popular but 35 years ago I don't think sport was pretty popular so I started playing on a fifth grade.
My coach, she was an old lady who played for Moldovan national team handball and basketball.
So she was last and the only coach basketball coach in my small it's not village it's a small city and so she entered in my class I remember the story she chose she picked all the tall guys and said guys let's see I will see you tomorrow on the practice and I was like I was not selected and then I came to her on like uh can i also join the team and she's like no you know whatever i don't remember what she said but basically it was about to be no and then i insisted and finally i came to the practice and basically i i was the only one who remained from all that generation who still graduated from basketball, stayed in basketball, and until this day in basketball.
Yeah, well, and would you say that when you see a young player, like in 12, for instance, or even in your past experience with Admirals Basketball Academy, and you see a young player, Do you think that there are many times where coaches look, I mean, it looks like that's what happened in this case, but coaches look at a young player and they say, well, they're too small, they're too slow, they're not very good, but they don't necessarily look at what could potentially go down the road.
Do you think that, I mean, in other words, yeah, I mean, that they're going to develop, I have a similar story in my own life.
yes i think that's always a battle battle inside but the more you want to win the more you ought to act and select and look for the toughest guy for the tallest guy for the strongest guy but experience or let's say wisdom or life taught me and taught us that sports is not the goal it's just the tool and it's important it might and it will become a goal but for very very small percentage and what you do with the other 99.9% because it's the reality of Moldova by the age by the time we start our players start playing basketball in other countries they are already competing for six years so that's why it's very hard so the more we do that's why like creating 12 and even being in admirals as a ministry especially you always try to look beyond those things Because tallest not always a guarantee.
Well, it's so interesting you bring that up because I believe that there are many times that we really just look at right now.
Of course, he's been to the United States a number of times, but his specific trip here to West Fargo, North Dakota.
One of the things I wanted to ask is, in your small village, how did you get your start in sports? Did you play a number of sports? Was it just basketball? Tell us a little bit about that.
Probably the biggest you'll know is wrestling because it's kind of traditional.
maybe the second sport would be soccer because everybody now plays soccer it's popular but 35 years ago I don't think sport was pretty popular so I started playing on a fifth grade.
My coach, she was an old lady who played for Moldovan national team handball and basketball.
So she was last and the only coach basketball coach in my small it's not village it's a small city and so she entered in my class I remember the story she chose she picked all the tall guys and said guys let's see I will see you tomorrow on the practice and I was like I was not selected and then I came to her on like uh can i also join the team and she's like no you know whatever i don't remember what she said but basically it was about to be no and then i insisted and finally i came to the practice and basically i i was the only one who remained from all that generation who still graduated from basketball, stayed in basketball, and until this day in basketball.
Yeah, well, and would you say that when you see a young player, like in 12, for instance, or even in your past experience with Admirals Basketball Academy, and you see a young player, Do you think that there are many times where coaches look, I mean, it looks like that's what happened in this case, but coaches look at a young player and they say, well, they're too small, they're too slow, they're not very good, but they don't necessarily look at what could potentially go down the road.
Do you think that, I mean, in other words, yeah, I mean, that they're going to develop, I have a similar story in my own life.
yes i think that's always a battle battle inside but the more you want to win the more you ought to act and select and look for the toughest guy for the tallest guy for the strongest guy but experience or let's say wisdom or life taught me and taught us that sports is not the goal it's just the tool and it's important it might and it will become a goal but for very very small percentage and what you do with the other 99.9% because it's the reality of Moldova by the age by the time we start our players start playing basketball in other countries they are already competing for six years so that's why it's very hard so the more we do that's why like creating 12 and even being in admirals as a ministry especially you always try to look beyond those things Because tallest not always a guarantee.
Well, it's so interesting you bring that up because I believe that there are many times that we really just look at right now.
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