Mikel Agirrezabalaga ‘Kapaxko’ (Zarautz, 1984) was commissioned in the summer to replace Mikel Alzaga at the head of Amenabar Zarautz. With a playing career … which includes three Asobal leagues, three King’s Cups, an EHF Cup and thirty internationals that led him to compete in the European Championship in Austria in 2010 and the London Olympic Games in 2012, the Zarautz player took on the challenge of returning the club of his life to the Honor Division B and is on his way to achieving it.
– 17 days and 17 victories. You couldn’t ask for more.
– Yes, we have started very well. It is true that we are a recently promoted team and that we had to be at the top, but the trajectory is good.
– Seeing these results and the extent of some victories, it is easy to think that it is being a bed of roses.
– Not at all. We had to start with Romo, which is one of the clubs in our category that signs people and it was not the best thing for them or for us to play the first day. In the results of the other games it seems that we won easily, and I understand that there are people who think that way, but usually we tend to be tight until there comes a moment in the second half in which, due to physicality or whatever, we manage to escape and get greater income, but it is not usually easy.
– How do you motivate a team that wins everything, knowing that the final goal is still far away?
– It is the most difficult thing, motivating players in games that seem easy. My job as a coach is to keep them one hundred percent motivated and to make them know that the goal is achieved in the end. This is a marathon and there is no point in starting well and then going flat. For me, as a player, it has always been important to give one hundred percent regardless of the opponent. Give your best and demand of yourself and that is now my job: demand of them. I try not to change things too much during the week, my way of working is the same and I think the player appreciates that. Having that work dynamic can help.
– Is promotion an inalienable objective?
– The club, since they spoke with me, made it clear to me that their objective was to move up, more than anything because it was a team that had been playing in Silver for many years and because of the sponsor issue. When I took the team, as a personal challenge, and this is what I have conveyed, it is to try to go up because we are a team that had just gone down and because last year’s block has also been maintained except for three players and that helps.
– Has the squad already overcome the hardship caused by its controversial relegation?
– I know that the club is waiting for the resolution of the claim that was presented and it could happen that they give us a place in the Silver Honor Division. It’s something that has already happened. So we are waiting, although I already conveyed to the players from the beginning that we cannot wait to see what a judge says, no one knows when, and that our objective from the beginning was to show that we can go up and do it.
Siblings
«Although we can argue at meals on Sundays, what is in the countryside stays in the countryside»
– You have already coached the second women’s team, now you are in charge of the first men’s team. What is your future goal as a coach?
– Well, I don’t have any challenge. I have a job in which I am comfortable, which allows me to live at home. I have been away from handball for 18 years and now it is not my priority to make a living from being a coach. I have three children, other circumstances and I know what it is like to be away from home for many years and depend on results. I can risk going to a club for a year and having things go badly and being left with nothing. Right now I have stability and my priority is not to aspire to more. I never close the doors to anything because you never know what can happen to you, but right now I’m not considering anything else.
– His brother Alberto is a player and his other brother David is his assistant. How do you handle sharing equipment?
– Well… We’re doing pretty well. My little brother, Alberto, has been a professional for many years and I already know which foot he limps on and he also knows what I am like. Although we can argue at meals on Sundays, what is in the countryside stays in the countryside. And with my middle brother, who started with me training the girls, well, because having someone you can count on and trust is also important. They are different discrepancies but obviously I have more with the player.
