The first coach ejection of the new season in the Handball Bundesliga is perfect. After just five games, Stuttgart parted ways with Spaniard Roi Sanchez. Long-standing Bundesliga player Michael Schweikardt will take over on an interim basis.
But this defeat was too much of a bad thing. After the 24:29 at newcomer VfL Gummersbach, TVB Stuttgart had an acute need for action. “That was underground”, had Stuttgart’s new goalkeeper Silvio Heinevetter chose drastic words on the TV microphone right after the end of the game last Thursday to describe the non-performance of his team over long stretches of the game against the ex-champion. The TVB was at times even ten goals behind, national keeper Heinevetter prevented even worse with his saves. Only in the final phase did the Swabians in Gummersbach achieve cosmetic results.
Five games, five crushing defeats
Nevertheless: The fifth defeat in the fifth game of the season was representative of the mostly undisputed performances of the still young season: Technical errors and misthrows all the time. As a result, less and less self-confidence, lack of ideas, easy game for every opponent. Interim result: 0:10 points. Table bottom of the Handball Bundesliga.
Michael Schweikardt prepares the TVB team for the next games
This Sunday, those responsible pulled the sporting ripcord: change of coach. The Spaniard Roi Sanchez, in office since July last year, has to go. Michael Schweikardt, currently responsible for scouting and follow-up funding at TVB, will take over the coaching position on an interim basis. The A license holder already has experience as a head coach, the 39-year-old coached the third division club TSB Horkheim for three years until the summer.
Michael Schweikardt trains the TVB Stuttgart on an interim basis
And as a member of the “Schweikardt handball family”, Michael Schweikardt is anything but unknown. Until the end of his career, he worked as a playmaker for TVB Stuttgart for seven years, and before that he was also under contract for Göppingen and Melsungen in the German Handball League for a long time. Born in Waiblingen, he knows the scene in and around the TVB and the Bundesliga very well. Brother Jürgen Schweikardt is managing director of the TVB, father Günter once led the village club from Bittenfeld to the top.
Uncertainty in the team too great
Actually, according to the TVB in a press release, Roi Sanchez was part of the future concept in Stuttgart, “however, after the uncertainty in the team had reached a worrying dimension, we were forced to react at short notice,” said the spokesman for the shareholders of the TVB , Christian May. The decision was made with regret, “but the extent of the uncertainty with which the team acted in the last few games left no other choice,” says managing director Jürgen Schweikardt.
Even if there were three top teams among the five previous league opponents with Kiel, Berlin and the Rhein-Neckar Löwen: You can’t present yourself that weak. Especially since Stuttgart didn’t want anything to do with the relegation battle this season with well-known newcomers like Heinevetter or Bergendahl.
Can Michael Schweikardt get the TVB back on track?
So now Michael Schweikardt is supposed to bring the TVB team back into shape until a new head coach is announced. Together with assistant coach Vicente Alamo and athletics coach Steffen Hepperle, he will prepare the team for the upcoming games. Training under the new coach was held in Bittenfeld for the first time on Sunday afternoon. TVB Lemgo is coming to the Stuttgart Arena on Thursday, and Bergische HC next Sunday. No question: points are urgently needed here against two opponents that the TVB should actually meet at eye level on paper.
Nothing is lost yet. There are still 29 Bundesliga games to play and with Hamm and Minden two other teams are currently pointless in the table basement, with Wetzlar and Lemgo (one point each) two teams just ahead. And who knows, maybe a Michael Schweikardt will become Stuttgart’s long-term solution? In the end, only success counts anyway.
