Coach Igor Bojic has made the women of the third division handball team HSG Freiburg into championship contenders.
After eight wins in a row, the third division handball players at HSG Freiburg suffered their first defeat last weekend against table leaders SG Schozach-Bottwartal. Before the winter break, the Red Sparrows will meet on Sunday for the next top game against third-placed SG Kappelwindeck / Steinbach.
Igor Bojic is a man of numbers. The head coach of the female handball team at the HSG Freiburg prefers measurable things to emotions. He does not believe in the appeal to mentality. The 42-year-old Croat prefers to analyze throwing rates, his team’s chances of success in the second wave of attacks or the stability of the HSG defensive, which can be quantified in terms of data.
Bojic also knows that he is celebrating an anniversary with his Red Sparrows at the top game on Sunday against SG Kappelwindeck / Steinbach. The penultimate game of the year is the 100th joint unit that Bojic and his team play – including league games, training sessions, meetings, test and cup games. And yet Bojic says: “We don’t yet know our processes by heart, we are still getting to know each other.” The frustration of the past weekend still speaks from the former European Cup player.
After nine games in a row, his team lost against the also undefeated hosts of SG Schozach-Bottwartal. “I’ve watched the game three times in the video to get a better understanding,” says Bojic. He works so meticulously.
He thinks: “Little things have decided the game.” The qualified lawyer refers to some “wrong decisions” of the referees at the wrong time, which promoted his team in a shortfall five minutes before the end if there was a tie. In the end, the Red Sparrows lost by one goal. And slipped from first to second place. No broken leg, Bojic thinks: “The second leg is in January. We can make up one goal difference in a direct comparison.” Overall, the mood among the handball players from Breisgau is currently excellent. After two defeat seasons in the 2nd Bundesliga and relegation last spring, the HSG has established itself as a championship favorite in the third division. No team defends more effectively, only two teams have scored more goals. And that, although the upheaval at the coaching post this summer could not have been greater. After 16 years and five ascents and one descent, Bojic’s predecessor Ralf Wiggenhauser left the sails this summer. All the more astonishing how strong the red sparrows are currently presenting themselves. Bojic made the relegation team a championship contender.
The Croatian knows how to do it at the highest level. While studying law in Osijek, he played as a left-wing sow for four years in the Croatian House of Lords and played two seasons in the European Cup. When asked about the current success, the highly acclaimed says: “The girls are exemplary in terms of their attitude and relationships with one another. I am very satisfied.” The trainer attributes the current high to this diligence. “In handball you need continuity in training, only then can you make progress.” Christiane Baum embodies exactly this continuity that Bojic loves so much. “She is exemplary, she works in both directions, acts well in the second attack wave and defends strongly,” says the head coach. And because Nadine Czok, Rebecca Drr and Hannah Person are playing a strong season as well as Baum, the Red Sparrows are involved in the championship in the third division.
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