Dhe father as coach of his sons, that’s not unusual in basketball. For example, John Patrick coached his offspring Johannes and Jacob in Ludwigsburg last season before he sought a new challenge in Japan. Father and son, on the other hand, are more unusual as a coaching tandem, especially when the filius bears responsibility and the father takes on the role of assistant coach. Christian and Ralph Held work in this unusual constellation for the league newcomers Rostock Seawolves, who surprisingly are still undefeated after three match days.
However, the decision to work together was not planned well in advance. After two years as head coach at the second division club from Trier, Christian Held moved to the Baltic Sea in 2020 as assistant coach to Dirk Bauermann. When the long-term cooperation between the Rostock team and the former national coach came to an end after just one year, Held was appointed the new head coach. One of his first official acts was the call to his father, who had exemplified and conveyed his love and passion for the game.
“At that point I was thinking about retiring,” remembers Ralph Held, who worked as an assistant coach in the Bundesliga for over 20 years and had won titles with Trier and Oldenburg. The 63-year-old at the time saw his son’s request as an immense vote of confidence, but was also aware “that we would be extremely questioned if we failed”. So far, however, this has not happened. Instead, the Helds led Rostock to the Bundesliga in their first season together.
Competence to guide the son
Ralph Held makes it unmistakably clear that although he is happy to contribute his knowledge and diverse experience, the authority to set guidelines rests with his 34-year-old son. Both emphasize that this works without any problems and without conflict. The tasks and areas of responsibility are distributed exactly as is usual. “Things are going excellently for me,” says Christian Held, who has a lot of respect for his father for being able to differentiate between the professional and family situation, so that there are no stresses in the private sphere. “I am a young coach,” he continues, “and I wanted an assistant at my side who has been through a lot and on whom I can rely 100 percent. Is there a better solution than the father?”
This often leads to situations in which different ideas are discussed. But with Christian’s decision, the topic is closed, even if there were tough arguments on the factual level beforehand. “We’ve always exchanged arguments about basketball. If something were to change in our dealings with each other, it would be a reason for me to stop immediately, because family has top priority,” the father clarifies.
“Decision security of the players”
Under their boss Christian Held, the Rostockers around the outstanding JeQuan Lewis and Derrick Alston Jr. got off to a perfect start in their first-class debut season, which many skeptics didn’t think was possible. The conscious decision to keep eight players from the promotion team was also classified as a risk within the club. But the head coach was convinced of this measure because it was a path that many successful climbers had taken in recent years. Two other factors were even more important for him: “Our system thrives on the decision-making security of the players. It helps if the players have already gone through this process. I also wanted to take the confidence of the promotion season with me.”
The Seawolves have obviously succeeded in the latter. Because the belief in their own strength has characterized the team so far. Even backlogs didn’t faze the team. The Rostock team were twelve points behind in Ludwigsburg at the break, only to triumph in the end 102:95. This game was an example of how the Hanseatic League can turn a game around with their ability to score a lot of points in runs. The enthusiasm in the area is correspondingly high.
But Christian Held remains realistic and warns that his team needs to be more consistent. Club chairman André Jürgens, on the other hand, is already talking about a medium-term play-off participation. After four years in the third division (2014 to 2018) and four more in the second division (2018 to 2022), this would be the logical step for the constantly evolving project that Christian Held and his father Ralph have been working on on an unusual but highly effective Combo on the dugout features.
The author was coach of the year twice in Germany.
