Sébastien Lambert leaves Chartres
The 43-year-old former Moroccan international is no stranger or novice to the basketball world. This season, he had taken over the promoted Lyon SO, which had become a satellite club of the Betclic Elite giant, Lyon-Villeurbanne, up to 30%. For his first year in the Rhône, Moatassim Rhennam managed to hoist Lyon SO among the best clubs in the N1, finishing 3rd in the Chartres pool. But, like the CCBM, Lyon experienced a very complicated second phase, winning only one match out of ten (79-65 against Rueil). But Lyon, which has just been eliminated in the round of 16 by Caen (2 sets to 1) has, unlike the Eurelian club, fully succeeded in its season and its integration.
He brought up Aubenas and Pont-de-Chéruy
But Moatassim Rhennam was not on his first try in N1. In 2017-2018, he had succeeded in keeping the small Ardèche club Aubenas, finalist of the Coupe de France Trophy (2017), in the third federal division, finishing 12th. A year later, the former resident of the Tours training center had decided to go down a level to direct Pont-de-Chéruy. And again, Rhennam, in the process, gave access, for the first time in its history, to the Isère club in N1.
During the 2019-2020 season, Rhennam and Pont-de-Chéruy would shake up all the forecasts, making life difficult for teams from the East, including Chartres, led by his American Du’Vaughn Maxwell. The formation of Moatassim Rhennam, with in its ranks the ex-international Marc-Antoine Pellin – Rhennam had brought him back to Lyon SO this season -, was going to be the first to bring down the CCBM during the 13th and last day of the first leg (86-64). Chartres will take revenge three months later, after a high intensity fight (97-92), before the Covid-19 stops this 2019-2020 exercise which should have brought the CCBM back to ProB.
“Trust in young people”
“I like to have profiles of people who are hungry or who are vengeful,” said Moatassim Rhennam then during his first season in N1 with Pont-de-Chéruy. “He is a coach who fully lives basketball and trusts young people,” said CCBM manager Milan Vasic on Tuesday evening. It is thanks to a large and homogeneous workforce, including a few young people and not hesitating to shake up an established hierarchy, that Moatassim Rhennam has succeeded with the teams he has led.
During the 2022-2023 season, the Moroccan should arm himself with soldiers to restore the image of a CCBM, which remains on a gaping scar: elimination in the round of 16 of the play-offs. It remains to be seen which players (five still under contract) will be part of the new project. Will he bring in his luggage some young Lyonnais who have performed this season? To see… In any case, it will take new blood for Chartres to leave conquering with always in sight, the ProB.
Jean-Andre Provost
–
