last June those responsible for the Gijón handball squeezed their heads to complete the template of their senior team. After … The departure of a good part of a generation of its first team, the club had ten chips to compete in Silver Honor Division and made accounts to reach twelve. Almost a year later and against all forecast, the club has managed to finish the season playing the ‘play off’ of promotion to the Division of Honor Gold, falling with Sabadell, and with its children’s teams and cadet crowned as champions of Asturias. “We would not have imagined this year or our best dreams,” says Daniel Fernández, president of the entity.
The bulk of the season has ended, in the absence of its children’s teams and cadet disputing the Spanish Championship, for which they have qualified after being crowned in Asturias. The planning of the next campaign is already underway and, again, it will be to reinvent itself. But in the Gijon club they have a clear thing: the model is not changed. Convinced that the formula of being an entity of quarry is correct, the purpose for this summer is the same with which they faced last year’s summer: complete a competitive template with people from home and stick to the Asturian territory when signing. «We are so accustomed to having to reinvent ourselves that we see it as normal. We are a base team and what is seen in the senior is the reflection of the quarry, ”explains the president of the club.
The concept of reinventing itself is not accidental in an accustomed club to lose one of its basic pillars every year. In next season three they will disappear from the list: goalkeeper Zoe González, who claims rest after time compatible with work, studies and handball; the lateral Laura Pérez Zamanillo, who will make an erasmus; and the central and cornerstone of the Saray Trabanco team, who will follow the same path as Laura. «The first thing to look at is the club and other entities of Asturias. We are a very good option, no player who has come has regretted. Who comes will be very good, ”says Ángel Gulín, who will sit this week with the board to discuss the next campaign.
-The Gijón handball began the season with the idea of maintaining the category. With urgencies during the summer to complete it they threw themselves to the adventure of competing in Division of Honor Silver. “If in August they tell me that we would have ended in ‘Play off’ would have said it was impossible,” says Ángel Gulín. However, the coach recalls an anecdote before the first game of the campaign that served as a moral injection. «We saw some advanced results and the players asked me which teams would end up in the ascent phase. I put ours and answered me really?
The answer, with a lot of coach truck, ended up being correct. The keys to be so are several, in the opinion of the technician. «The first, the work and seriousness of the team. Here people study and work and it is the year that less people have lacked to train ». Together with the commitment, the physical condition has also been, recognized by Sabadell himself after the ‘Play Off’ tie, and good work in defense. «We are not a team with a superjugator, beyond Saray, which has given us a lot. We had the need to defend very well and have a good positioning for the counterattack ».
With these wicker, Gijón handball has made one of the best seasons in recent years. And with the same tools he wants to compete the next campaign, always with the aim of maintaining the category. «We are an economically stable club in Silver Honor Division. We do not renounce to climb sportsly, we can compete in gold. But we are not going to change the model and start signing with money, ”explains Daniel Fernández. Following the national category is also an important incentive for players who arrive from the quarry. “We need a reference team where young women are reflected.”
