Biologist scouts talent for women’s basketball

Ece Çelik - ISTANBUL

With the goal of training successful athletes, a biologist, who has also dedicated herself to women’s basketball for more than 20 years, introduces gifted girls from underprivileged neighborhoods to sports.

Funda Onar, an ex-basketball player who works as a researcher at Istanbul University, spoke about her sports journey to local media.

Onar started her basketball career in 1983 with the dream of becoming a professional athlete, yet she had to pursue another career path due to a serious arm fracture. Despite her injury, she has continued to stay involved in basketball as a player, coach and sports administrator.

Apart from her career as a researcher, Onar is a part of Istanbul University’s talent scout team that raises gifted athletes and introduces disadvantaged young girls to sports.

“Since 1996, I have been working as a research biologist at Istanbul University. But I also continued playing basketball. After a while, I got the title of coach. I worked as an assistant coach and then as a coach in men’s teams. Then I was offered the position of assistant manager at the Sports Union, which I accepted with pleasure,” Onar told local media.

Emphasizing that she passionately works to raise honest and successful athletes, Onar said she, accompanied by qualified coaches, visits schools in underprivileged neighborhoods, where they seek out talented children to train them professionally without any charges.

Also, while speaking about the history of Istanbul University’s women’s basketball club, Onar stated that the club has trained dozens of very important athletes, such as Işıl Alben, Nevriye Yılmaz and Meltem Topaloğlu.

“In the early days, the athletes were students from Istanbul University, but this changed after the club became autonomous. Currently, the club is both affiliated to the university as a public institution and has an autonomous structure.”