2nd Bundesliga
The former TSV Bayer coach arrives in the Rhineland with his new club VfL-Lübeck Schwartau and would like to score two points in the north.
Sign language: Lübeck coach David Röhrig is the communicative type. Last season, Dormagen’s Patrick Hütter and Ian Hütter (from left), whom he met as opponents on Wednesday evening, also appreciated him, but only for the 60 minutes at the plate. Peer Pütz, who was more officially the head coach of TSV in the coaching duo at the time, now works as an assistant coach at Bergisches HC in the 1st Bundesliga. (Photo: Thomas Schmidt)
He is someone who wanted to try his luck in Northern Germany. Because handball is his passion, because he likes to take on responsibilities and demanding tasks, because he considers it a privilege to work as a coach. In autumn 2021, David Röhrig received a call from Lübeck, where managing director Daniel Pankofer was looking for a new coach for second division club VfL Lübeck-Schwartau. Speaking of Pankofer, once a player in the Hanseatic city and after the end of his active career in Neuss with the then Rhein Vikings, the name Röhrig and his field of activity in the coaching area had long since spread: until the end of the 2019/ 2020 season at his home club TSV Bonn rrh. as head coach and sports director, simultaneously four years as coach at the B-Jugend of TSV Bayer Dormagen, since 2020 coach of the A-Juniors and since the beginning of the 2021/2022 series also coach of the Dormagen Oberliga team, to improve the interconnection between advancing the professional area and emerging talent. The people of Lübeck liked it and were looking for exactly someone like that to make a change after three years with rather unsatisfactory results and to rethink things from scratch.
In the end, David Röhrig – despite many family and private ties – saw no choice but to accept the offer and seize the opportunity for a professional leap. The statement at the time: “I am looking forward to a great club in the 2nd Bundesliga with a great environment. The 2nd league is a big challenge for me and VfL Lübeck-Schwartau is exactly the right place for me to do this next step in my career.” first months of 2022: he took over the first team of TSV Bayer together with Peer Pütz after the dismissal of Dusko Bilanovic – and brought Dormagen out of a very difficult situation to stay on his feet. This is again the main topic at the moment: David Röhrig returns to the sports center on Wednesday evening, where he still knows every square centimeter. From there he would like to win both points with the Lübeckers on the 500-kilometer return journey. Röhrig has to do it and also likes to try because his sporting ambition demands it anyway and because the Lübeckers, who started the season without a fixed goal, could do better after 14 out of 36 games with position 15 and 9:19 points. Since the team from Dormagen two places ahead (13th) at 10:16 points is not exactly swimming in points, there is at least one game on the schedule that is important for both sides. Röhrig goes for it with a touch of humour: “It would be better for everyone if we win. Dormagen has enough points, definitely more than us.” Of course, he doesn’t expect TSV and fellow coach Matthias Flohr to look at the situation from the same point of view Röhrig is certain that Dormagen will still hold the lecture: “Of course they can do it.”
VfL, which began preparations in July with a restructured squad and ten new arrivals, has had a difficult start to the season. On the second day of play, there was a 40:29 victory over the current Last Wolves of Würzburg, but it would remain the only one for the next few weeks of September and the whole of October. Röhrig’s team then won 29:28 against SG BBM Bietigheim (sixth), 35:33 against VfL Potsdam (eighth) and 27:25 against HSC Coburg (tenth), thus the bill after these three valuable victories in a row he’s at 9:11 points looked pretty decent again. But what followed was a 30:36 defeat at Third Eulen Ludwigshafen – with which Lübeck could somehow live as Eulen are among the candidates for promotion to the Bundesliga. The three results that followed were much more painful: 27:33 against VfL Eintracht Hagen (17th place/8:20 pts), 20:25 at HC Elbflorenz Dresden (14th place/10:18 pts), 23 :28 against TV Großwallstadt (Twelfth Hour/14:14). All three clubs are practically in the same region as Lübeck at home and at least Hagen and Dresden are very direct opponents in the relegation fight.
“Of course we would all have liked two, three, four more points,” says Röhrig in these busy weeks, “we would like to win more often.” the course of the series. Incidentally, Lübeck’s two best pitchers of 2021/2022 are missing in Niels Versteijnen (at TBV Lemgo) or Matej Klima (since October at SC DHfK Leipzig): Versteijnen’s 192 goals and Klima’s 139 translate into 331 goals which others must now score. Furthermore, the absence of defense chief Dominik Weiß (shoulder) does not make things any easier. Incidentally, despite all the problems, Röhrig also saw the will and the necessary potential in the most recent defeats: “We worked up high-percentage chances, but in the end we missed good chances.” but reduces the coach’s confidence in him. Team: “They’re all very good guys.” Another former Dormagener also belongs to this group: 19-year-old Lennart Leitz also moved from the Rhineland to Schleswig-Holstein in the summer – and the right winger is the youngest player in the Lübeck squad this season.
If homecoming is something special and Wednesday night’s game too? “I’m amazed too,” reports Röhrig, “but I haven’t had the feeling so far.” The preparations for the people of Lübeck proceed as usual – intense as always, focused as always: “And it’s not that we Otherwise, don’t watch any videos.” The Lübeck coach has also been keeping abreast of developments at his former club for some time, where he still knows many players very well and is able to evaluate them very well – without recognizing a decisive advantage in the game. “I see it as a 50:50 game,” says David Röhrig, who knows his personal fan club of friends and family is in the stands and on his side. But that won’t be enough for more than a few moments together afterward, as the 2nd Bundesliga is currently having an English week. In this, VfL continues on Sunday with the home game against TV Hüttenberg. “That prevents me from staying,” says Röhrig. Before signing in Lübeck, he had suspected that handball would sometimes require him to be waived. And still he didn’t regret it for a minute. However, his luck would be a little more complete if he could bring two points to northern Germany with him.
