Handball: Medal maker follows coach: Groener takes over handball women from 2018 onwards

The desired candidate Henk Groener will succeed Michael Biegler at the turn of the year and, from 2018, he will be the national coach of the German women’s team. The highly decorated Dutchman will initially be in charge of the DHB’s selection until the Olympic Games in Tokyo in 2020. The DHB Presidium unanimously agreed to this.

“With Henk Groener, we have engaged an outstanding national coach for our women’s national team. This will ensure continuity beyond the 2017 World Cup,”said DHB President Andreas Michelmann.

Biegler will end at his own request after the World Cup in his own country and will be working as of 1 January 2009. January 2018 for the Men’s Bundesliga club SC DHfK Leipzig.

Groener, who enjoys an excellent reputation in the scene and caused a sensation with a small handball miracle in Oranje in recent years, prevailed against well-known male competitors in an internal casting within the association.

After intensive DHB talks with the candidates Groener, Emir Kurtagic, coach of VfL Gummersbach for many years until March 2017, and Markus Gaugisch, former coach of TV Neuhausen and HBW Balingen-Weilstetten, the Dutchman was chosen.

“We are happy to have answered this personnel question well before the World Cup in our own country. Now all our attention is once again focused 100 percent on the ladies who want to reach the final round of the World Cup in December with national coach Michael Biegler and sports director Wolfgang Wolfgang Sommerfeld,”said Michelmann.

The former international Groener had cared for the Dutch women from 2009 to 2016 and successively led them to the top of the world.

The Dutch team made it into the final at both the last World Cup in 2015 and the European Championship in 2016.

The two silver medals were the only podium finishes in the history of Dutch handball. At the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, the Netherlands finished fourth.

The DHB also dreams of such successes. In April 2016, Biegler signed a definite contract with the world’s most member-strong federation to bring the trickling national team on course for the home World Cup in just 20 months, while Groener is now expected to return to the absolute top of the world.

DHB vice-president Bob Hanning repeatedly emphasizes that the ultimate goal of the association is the fight for Olympic gold in 2020.

“I am looking forward to the new task and challenge of developing the German women’s national team and the work of Michael Biegler and Wolfgang Sommerfeld from the first half of the year. Groener, who himself played 208 international matches for the Netherlands, said:”I am happy to be allowed to continue on January 2018.

Groener also has extensive experience in men’s handball, including many years as coach of the TV Emsdetten and the Dutch national team.