Endesa Women’s League: Leganés settle the ‘Hillsman case’ with the hiring of Ángel Fernández Julià as new coach | sports

After three changes of helm in five days, Ángel Fernández Julià will finally be the coach of the Leganés Basketball Club in his debut season in the Endesa Women’s League. Quentin Hillsman, Coach QThe 50-year-old, a famous American college basketball coach and famous signing of the Madrid team, will not finally come to Spain.

The difficulties in obtaining his work visa in time to start the league (which starts in 20 days) and the negative repercussion generated by the announcement of his signing, due to the open investigation against the coach for his alleged “inappropriate behavior” with various players, have led Leganés to break the agreement reached with Hillsman for one season. The American coach was targeted since leaving the Syracuse team last month after 15 years on the bench. Eleven players applied for the transfer at the end of the season and denounced Hillsman’s behavior that included vulgar and threatening language in his dealings with the players, kisses on the forehead and despotic attitudes.

Leganés, which this week had terminated the contract of coach Antonio Pernas for “internal issues”, assumed the wear and tear of the hiring of Hillsman as an ambitious, consecrated and quick solution to face the season. But bureaucratic problems consolidated the unease caused by the negative impact of his signing. “We are overwhelmed, saddened and devastated. We take a big risk, but we are not kamikazes ”, explained on Friday the president of the club, José Jacinto Ramos, to EL PAÍS. “Hillsman’s last salary was $ 1 million, which is way more than our entire budget. He decided to withdraw after the appearance of those testimonies, he was without a team and, through his representation agency, with whom we have already signed more players, the possibility arose. The extreme difficulty in finding a coach 20 days before the start of the season and the sporting leap involved in signing a coach of this level made us choose him, ”explained Ramos. The generous severance he received after his departure from Syracuse allowed Hillsman to lower his cache by more than 10 times to reopen another experience in Europe following his work as an assistant coach for the Dutch and Estonian formation teams over the past decade. But the opportunity became a problem due to the open investigation against the technician.

After discarding Hillsman, the Leganés coach will be a classic on the bench: the Valencian Ángel Fernández Julià, 58 years old. With a long curriculum in training categories, he directed the laureate Ros Casares more than a decade ago, where he also served as sports director, and has also been the absolute women’s national coach of Mexico and Guatemala.

“I am a man of projects and when the president explained to me his idea to make Leganés grow, I did not think about it for a minute. I have to thank the Claret [donde actualmente ejercía de director técnico] the facilities they have given me to accept this new challenge. I am very excited to start working fully and to return to one of the best leagues in the world such as the Endesa League ”, declared Fernández after meeting his players and directing his first training session on Sunday morning at the Europe Pavilion.

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