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The new Skyliners coach Ocampo wants to form a team for the upcoming season in the basketball Bundesliga with patience and exemplified energy.
Diego Ocampo holds a pipe in his right hand. He has just given the starting signal for the five-man attack team, which is supposed to sprint towards five defenders and score a basket. The ball misses, now it’s the turn of the other five to attack. “Movement, movement”, Ocampo calls out energetically. In the public training session, the new head coach of the Frankfurt Skyliners gives everything physically. He waves his arms around and shows Bruno Vrcic how to defend the player who is approaching him, sometimes he speaks urgently but gently to Alvin Onyia to show him where he has to stand as a defender.
“It’s important how you teach the players something,” says the 44-year-old. As a coach, he has to exemplify what he expects from his team with energy and body language. Since last Monday, the Hessian Bundesliga basketball team has started preparations for the 2021/2022 season, which begins with the home game against Braunschweig on September 26th. “We have to try patiently to build a solid base,” says builder Diego.
It is true that he has a structure of players who already know each other from last season. However, as head coach, he will want to realize his own ideas and must teach this not only to the old, but also to the many new players, of whom only national player Lukas Wank (24) has experience in the basketball Bundesliga (BBL). “We don’t know how some players will develop and how they will get used to the BBL,” says Ocampo. In addition, apart from captain Quantez Robertson (36) and Rasheed Moore (26), no player is older than 24 years.
A guard is still coming
The new Dutch center Matt Harms (2.21 meters) is 24 and comes from college, Brooks DeBisschop (2.05 meters) is 23 and played in Belarus last season. Playmaker Donovan Donaldson (24 years) last played in the weak leagues of Madezonia and Hungary. Lorenz Brenneke (21), who comes from the Alba Berlin Kaderschmiede, only has 18 BBL missions with a few minutes under his belt. And there are also the homegrown Bruno Vrcic (20), Len Schoorman (18) and Jordan Samare (19) who should take the next step. Richard Freudenberg (23) should also be brought back after a year without a game.
It takes patience and time. How high it can go depends on many factors. Are all players staying healthy? Are the many young players in the squad developing individually as desired? And can a unity grow out of it? “We have to be competitive with ourselves every day in order to be able to compete with others,” emphasizes Ocampo.
He consciously sought this challenge. Out of his comfort zone in Spain, where he last trained first division team Zaragoza, and into a new adventure. He is supported by assistant coach Klaus Perwas, “who helps to understand the league,” says Ocampo. Together they want to observe the skills of the players in the first training units in order to then deduce how this team can play and win. “We want to grow and improve knowing that we will lose games too.” Defense, rapid attacks and moving the ball should be the key elements.
A new combo guard should be signed, then the team is complete. Almost all players have either recovered from coronavirus infection or have been vaccinated. Only Robertson is still waiting for his second shot. How many fans the Skyliners can play in front of is still uncertain. The Frankfurters want to use 50 percent of the capacity in the ball sports hall, that would be 2500 spectators. However, this will depend on the infection rate and the requirements of the health department, which the Skyliners will only have a limited influence on.
In contrast to the formation of their team. Ocampo does not want to formulate a season goal yet. “We want to stay healthy, develop further and establish mental strength,” he says. So it remains to be seen which floor of the league the builder Diego can go to. For a playoff place, however, a lot of stones would have to lie perfectly on top of one another.
