Head Coach of RGC Hansa from Rostock - Mario Turloff

 Development in Goalball at RGC Hansa - No Success without Talent

My name is Mario Turloff. I am the Head Coach of RGC Hansa from Rostock (Germany) since 2017. I am 48 years old, a sports teacher and have held the UEFA B-Level licence since 1995.

Since 1 January 2021, I am now also the state coach of the state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern in Germany. I would like to share my experience, especially about the youth teams of RGC Hansa.

 

The RGC Hansa was founded in 2014. It is the first pure goalball club in Germany. The founder and CEO is Reno Tiede. RGC Hansa is a permanent member of the Super European Goalball League since 2016, with our national players Reno Tiede and Felix Rogge. We now have a youth team since 2018 and an all-women's team since 2020, with German national players Charlotte Kaercher, Lisa Triebel and Pia Knaute.

 

I would now like to describe the situation when I started as head coach in Rostock in 2017. Germany is divided into 16 federal states. Rostock is in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania with a population of 1.6 million. RGC Hansa did not have a youth team in 2017.

It was important to build a youth team. This was difficult because in Germany, visually impaired people are no longer taught only centrally. Schools are being opened more and more to teach pupils with and without visual impairments together.

Now we have succeeded in making goalball so attractive in our small federal state that more and more young people without visual impairments are enthusiastically playing our sport.

 

 Now there are 5 clubs in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. RGC Hansa won the bronze medal in the youth championship in 2018 and the gold medal in 2019. Our club now has 30 active athletes. Half of them have no visual impairment!

This commitment was particularly recognised by the President of Germany Frank-Walter Steinmaier and the club received the highest awards for extraordinary club work and exemplary youth work. We are proud of this!

 

Rostock now also has a good name internationally. In 2019, the European Championship took place in the city. On the final day, there were 2000 spectators in the Venue Rostocker Stadthalle. Up to 3.5 million people watched the games of our sport on TV. The German men's national team won the tournament for the first time and the German women surprisingly became bronze medallists.

Internationally experienced players, such as Konrad Andrzejuk from Poland or Celeste Troost from the Netherlands, switched to our club after the European Championships and now live in Rostock.

 

The Rostock Goalball Club Hansa - RGC Hansa - succeeds, with the help of its partners, in supporting the athletes in their search for housing, education and work.

We now have 2 students at a private elite sports school.

 

Since 1 January 2021, Rostock has been the sole base for federal squads in Germany. 

Our athletes are coached by a federal base coach Paul Kuring, a state junior coach Heiko Prinz, my co-trainer Christoph Görtz and me.

There are also external coaches from the Olympic training base.

This means that the individual training sessions for throwing or defence training can be coordinated individually and are used on a daily basis.

The game training units are differentiated according to performance.

The use of the gym is free of charge for all athletes and for regeneration, as is the use of our physiotherapist Ellen Kollrep.

 

Despite the Corona pandemic, our club - I think - has been able to develop well. Lately, the 3rd of July, our youth team and the women's team started in the 2nd Bundesliga. 14 days later so in the coming weekend, our top team can prove itself in the first German league. I look forward to seeing you at both competitions....

 

Sporty greetings,

Mario Turloff