Last week, Spar Girona qualified for the Euroleague, solvently beating the previous one against the Romanian Sepsi and, only three days later, they got the victory in La Seu d’Urgell by 21 points. But the club wants to take a new step forward. He wants to play better, offer more spectacle in Fontajau and be more reliable when it comes to fighting for titles. And that’s why they have shaken the tree by dismissing the coach of the last five seasons, Eric Surís from Girona, and opening the door to the premiere of veteran Alfred Julbe in the elite of women’s basketball with a clear commission. “When you go into mid-season everything you say can sound offensive to the person coaching the team, no matter how you say it. I have great respect for Eric, but I know the assignment they have given me and I see myself as capable because I always dare to try to make a group play better in basketball “, said Julbe yesterday in his presentation, just before to leave for Bembibre, where this evening is already premiered on the leather track (19.30), with a clear idea: “Take the team to its maximum.”
Recalling that, “1,000 years ago”, she had already led the senior women’s team of Sant Josep de Badalona and that, in Anna Caula’s time, she had already worked as a technician in the first team of Uni, which is a club that I continue with admiration as a citizen of Girona, where I arrived at the age of 29 ”(to train Valvi), Alfred Julbe said that he is able to get“ a group to play very close to its maximums ”. To achieve this, a squad with very experienced players and their own basketball ideas such as Laia Palau, Chelsea Gray or Sonja Vasic … A meeting of talent that, in Julbe’s opinion, will make her job easier. “You work better with people who play basketball there. I remember that the week I led Barça’s training sessions in the transition between Sito Alonso and Pesic was very easy “, said yesterday the veteran coach from Badalona, who, without naming him, praised the work of Pere Puig in the time to make the templates of the Uni. «It is a very well thought out group, for years players have been brought to the Uni with a lot of sporting and aesthetic criteria that makes Girona, without being one of the biggest cities, one of the ten best in Europe in women’s basketball “, He pointed out, before making it clear that, in view of this evening’s match in Bembibre,” I can’t overwhelm the players with a lot of information and, therefore, you have to be guided by the assistants who were already there. that is to say, also by the work done by the previous trainer ”. Alfred Julbe will work with the same coaching staff as Surís with David Muñoz as second coach.
The departure of Eric Suris
Prior to Alfred Julbe’s presentation, the club’s sporting director, Pere Puig, explained the reasons for Eric Suris’ departure, revealing that he had been offered the chance to replace him at the head of the club’s sports section. “I stepped aside,” and admitted that, “surely,” they had been wrong to renew it this summer when they were already unhappy with the team’s performance last season. “We were clear that it was a very complicated summer with the pandemic. It was not easy to find coaching jobs, and as we are a club that likes to take care of our people, we decided to renew Eric and here, surely, we were wrong “, explained Puig, who wanted to make it clear that The departure of the Girona coach is not due to any kind of bad personal relationship with either the board or the dressing room: «The players are sorry for Eric’s departure, but they know that it is a club decision and today, when we spoke to them, we also made it clear to them that although, as always, the rope has been broken by the weaker side, the coach, they also have their share of responsibility both for the level they are giving this season as, in the case of those who were already there, for last season ».
Despite qualifying for the Euroleague, the club believes that the team was now in a similar dynamic to last season – “when we lost games here at home against affordable rivals” – and that the players were not performing at the level which is presupposed by names and resumes of many of them. “It’s not a criticism of Eric, we take responsibility for it and on a personal level I feel that for work reasons and other circumstances I haven’t been enough with him,” said Puig, who, like the rest of the board of directors, believes that now, before the matches against Bembibre and Ensino and the stop for selections, it was time to make the change.
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