By Heike A. Batzer
Because they are just as ambitious with their appearance as they are in the sports hall, the handball players at HCD Gröbenzell have designed their new jerseys with the greatest possible attention to detail: blue for home and orange for away games, lilac or mint for the goalkeepers. Of course, the sponsor lettering also has to be on it – and as a bonus the silhouettes of the Frauenkirche, Victory Gate and Olympic Tower. Strictly speaking, Gröbenzell is not part of Munich at all, but the perception of the 15 competing teams in the second handball Bundesliga may be different.
HC Damen Gröbenzell is – alongside Freiburg – the southernmost point on the second division map. He was there before in 2016/17 – for one season. A few of today’s protagonists were already there back then, Kirsten Walter for example. She says she has developed significantly in terms of play in the second division season and is therefore “glad that we are attacking again”. They recently dominated their third division season as champions twice in a row; the first time they had to forego the promotion round, and the second time they dominated the round of the five teams applying for promotion.
They want to face the sporting challenge in the new league, “even if it gets difficult,” emphasizes Stefan Weidinger, who is entering his third season with the HCD and, at 29, is the youngest coach in the league. It could be difficult because Saskia Putzke, the person who came up with the idea for the HCD game, has quit and could not be replaced. In order to make up for the loss, “everyone would take on some responsibility right now,” says Weidinger. New to the team are Simone Padberg, who came from previous league rivals Würm-Mitte, and goalkeeper Leni Frey (Haunstetten). It could also be difficult from a financial perspective. The season’s budget should be 200,000 euros, says club boss Rüdiger Hoch, and they already have “a very good basis” for this. But it also means that further support is necessary.
The Bavarian teams have the longest journeys, including to the Danish, Dutch and Czech borders
League rival ESV Regensburg has to do without three players, Amelie Bayerl (formerly HCD), Anna Fuhrmann and Franziska Höppe, among others, who are all taking a break. Robert Torunsky, the sporting director, certainly understands this: Bayerl, for example, commuted from Munich to Regensburg four times a week and now has to concentrate on her exams. Maxie Fuhrmann (Frankfurt/Oder), Carolin Hübner (Würm-Mitte) and goalkeeper Joelle Arno (Allensbach) are new to the squad, and Sophia Peter, the sister of Franziska Peter – the “second division player of the season” 2022/23 – is also joining back after a long outage.
Torunsky only mentions staying in the league as a goal after finishing fifth and fourth in the table in the last two years. That may come as a surprise, but the team is in transition, he says. In addition, captain Nicole Schiegerl will be out for a long time after tearing her cruciate ligament and at the end of the season four teams will have to be relegated directly due to the planned downsizing of the first Bundesliga. In Bernhard Goldbach they have a new head coach in Regensburg, and during the successful last season they decided to part ways with Csaba Szücs.
The only two second division teams from Bavaria now have to complete the longest journeys across the entire republic. Among other things, they lead to the national borders of Denmark, the Netherlands and the Czech Republic. Regensburg starts this Saturday at TG Nürtingen, HCD at title favorites Füchse Berlin. The Berlin women will immediately know who they are dealing with, and not just because of the Munich landmarks on their jerseys. Asterix and Obelix can be seen on the sleeves: Gröbenzell, the small Gallic village of the League.
