Newsletter

Brose Bamberg – energy supplier and identity builder – sport

From the new coach Johan Roijakkers, the basketball Bundesliga club Brose Bamberg hopes to gain emotional impulses. The Dutchman has already proven that he can work with modest means: Now he feels ready for a higher level.

The modern media made it possible for the Bundesliga club Brose Bamberg to present his new coach this week, even though he wasn’t there at all. Johan Roijakkers was still at his previous job in Göttingen, about 220 kilometers as the crow flies; he had been added to a video conference, as is now common in these times. But the 39-year-old promised to stop by in Bamberg this week. On the occasion, he will be shown some apartments, of which he will soon move into. Ideally, it stays for three years.

As long as the Upper Franconia signed the Dutchman, and he is not afraid that within three years he will be the sixth head coach Brose presents: “Bamberg has also shown in the past that there can be continuity in the coaching position,” recalled he to colleagues like Dirk Bauermann, Chris Fleming, Andrea Trinchieri. They worked for seven, six and four years, respectively, and won the nine championships with which the city now adorns itself.

Johan Roijakkers does not have to be measured by these successes, not even by the merits of his immediate predecessor Roel Moors. The Belgian had come from Antwerp as Champions League coach of the year and was released after only one season in the basketball Bundesliga (BBL), right after Brose was eliminated in the first knockout round at the final tournament in Munich . “It didn’t work out as we expected it to for a number of reasons,” said managing director Arne Dirks.

Dirks briefly summarized what they imagine in Bamberg: “Fight and passion.” Anyway, those were the two most heard words at Roijakker’s performance on Wednesday. “In Bamberg one always speaks of passion, which is very important here,” sports director Leo De Rycke quickly realized, who came from Antwerp with Moors in 2019, but in contrast to this may stay. When De Rycke described the job profile with which he was looking for a successor for his compatriot, it was possible to find out what had failed: “We were looking for a coach who had experience in the BBL and, at best, also knew German.”

Roijakkers can prove both, he came to BG Göttingen in 2012 when she had just relegated from the Bundesliga. In 2014, he led the club back to the top league, in which he continued to fight regularly to stay. “He never made it into the playoffs,” said De Rycke about the new coach, “but he always worked with low budgets.” Nevertheless, Roijakkers and his Göttingen team got as far as Bamberg at the Munich tournament, namely into the round of 16. Seventh place in the final ranking of this Corona season is Göttingen’s best result since the BBL’s return.

“I was ready for a new challenge, for a higher level,” said Roijakkers now and assured: “For me Bamberg is still a top club.” Even if he has to save in the future, as the shareholder boss Michael Stoschek has announced, Roijakkers is still likely to have a significantly higher budget and thus greater opportunities than recently in Göttingen.

He didn’t want to call out big goals anyway, “first see what kind of team we can put together,” he said. Dirks and De Rycke had already included him in the most recent decisions. Shortly before Roijakkers was welcomed, captain Elias Harris, Center Asem Marei and winger Tre ‘McLean had been said goodbye: the contract had expired at Harris (as had previously been the case with Louis Olinde, Jordan Crawford and Retin Obasohan), and the other two had dissolved. That doesn’t fit the prescribed austerity program any more than the separation from Trainer Moors, but “the contracts are designed in such a way that there are opportunities for both sides to dissolve,” said Dirks: “Of course it costs money, but we still decided to find a new one Way to go. ” Roijakkers also avoided the term “reset”, which was recently overused in Bamberg, preferring to speak of “new energy”. He also noticed “that in the end there wasn’t enough emotion in the team”. He wanted to change that, he said: “I think Bamberg is looking for a new identity and I think I can bring it with my staff.”

His staff are co-trainer Hylke van der Zweep, athletics trainer Domenik Theodorou and scout Julian Meier. The trio has already passed in Göttingen, but has not yet been contracted in Bamberg. Details still need to be clarified, it is said. Some professionals are only getting final advice, especially about playmaker Paris Lee. He still has a valid contract for next season, but has recently made himself unpopular with derogatory comments on social media. What the club officials said last did not sound as if they were trying to persuade Lee to stay. Especially since they certify their new coach that they have had “great success in acquiring players” and there is obviously a consideration of getting one or the other professional from Göttingen. We will see. Now Johan Roijakkers has to come first.

.

Comments

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Trending