Bjorn Harmsen

Bjorn Harmsen
Player information
birthday	July 19, 1982
place of birth	Goettingen , Germany
Clubs as coaches
2005-2006	POM baskets Jena ( AC )
2006-2008	Science City Jena
2008-2011	Central German BC
2011–2012	LTi Gießen 46ers
2013-2019	Science City Jena
2019-2020	SYNTAINICS MBC

Björn Harmsen (born July 19, 1982 in Göttingen ) is a German basketball coach . Harmsen only played basketball at a high level in his youth and then concentrated on a career as a coach due to the lack of perspective as a player. In 2007, at the age of almost 25, he was the youngest Bundesliga basketball coach in the top German division when he was promoted to the BBL with the POM baskets professional team that emerged from TuS Jena .

career

Harmsen, who comes from Göttingen, came into contact with basketball during his school days, which has a great tradition in Göttingen. Later he practiced sport at the sports high school in Jena after moving . After graduating from high school, he was a junior trainer in Jena during his community service. To begin his studies, he moved to Bamberg in Franconia , where he finally devoted himself to teaching basketball. During his work as a youth coach , he sat in on the Bundesliga team of brose Baskets , which was trained by national coach Dirk Bauermann . After a year he returned to Jena and became a junior coach and also assistant to Frank Menz at the POM baskets in the 2nd Bundesliga . In 2006, at the age of 24, he followed Menz as head coach. In his first season as head coach of a senior team, he surprisingly came first with the POM baskets in the group south in the second division, which was then replaced by the nationwide ProA . As a newcomer to the BBL under the new name Science City Jena , the team with the young coach, in whose team some players were older than their coach, had little success, also due to the low budget compared to the other teams, so that Harmsen as head coach was replaced in February 2008. After his release, Harmsen attended coach Sergio Scariolo in Spain , who later became the coach of the basketball world champions Spain .

For the 2008/09 season Harmsen was head coach at Mitteldeutscher BC from Weißenfels and was able to lead this again in the first year to the ProA championship and promotion to the BBL. For this he was voted coach of the year in the second division for the second time after his promotion with Jena in 2007. His second first division season was more successful than his first with Jena. Despite a comparatively small budget, the MBC under Harmsen was temporarily in the area of ​​play-off places and had nothing to do with relegation. The following season started with high expectations, wanted to establish itself further and play for the play-off places. After a moderate start to the season, they found themselves in the last four places in the league for most of the season. After a pancreatitis in February 2011 Harmsen took a leave of absence due to illness and his previous co-trainer and representative Anton Mirolybov could not turn things around, so that the MBC was overtaken by the promoted BBC Bayreuth and relegated again in the end of the season. After relegation, the MBC and Harmsen separated for good.

He was then introduced as the new head coach on May 30, 2011 by the Gießen 46ers . As in previous years, Harmsen fought with the 46ers for the entire 2011/12 season to stay up. Nevertheless, the club backed the coach and extended the contract by two years at the end of March, although it was only valid for the top division. On the last day of the match, the Gießen team were relegated to a defeat against direct competitor Phoenix Hagen . The contract extension was therefore no longer necessary. Although the Giessen officially announced the application for a wildcard to stay in the first division, they did not reactivate the contract with Harmsen, but ended the contractual relationship at the end of the season.

After a long break, Harmsen was again head coach of Science City Jena in the ProA for the 2013/14 season . Harmsen worked for the association from 2005 to 2008. It led Jena to the ProA championship title in the 2015/16 season. In mid-December 2017, his contract in Jena was extended for an indefinite period. In the battle for relegation in the Bundesliga, Harmsen resigned his position as Jena coach in April 2019 and handed over responsibility to his previous assistant Marius Linartas . In mid-November 2019 Harmsen returned to Central German BC as a trainer. In mid-February 2020, the club parted ways with Harmsen after only two wins from 13 games. This was preceded by Harmsen's public criticism of players as well as his demand for the team management for consequences. According to the MBC, there was an “unbridgeable hardening of the fronts” and a “breach of trust”.

Achievements and honors

• Champion ( 2nd Basketball Bundesliga / ProA ): 2007 , 2009 , 2016
• Trainer of the Year ( ProA ): 2009 , 2016

Publications

• Emotional basketball: with mental skill level to success . 1st edition. Draksal Fachverlag , 2002, ISBN 978-3-932908-86-6 .

Web links

• Björn Harmsen on Easy Credit BBL website; Cologne, 2019. Retrieved February 18, 2019.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Anja Hädrich: Björn Harmsen - success-hungry leader, ambitious perfectionist and avowed coffee lover. On: Mitteldeutscher Basketball Club website; Weißenfels, March 20, 2010. Retrieved February 18, 2019.
2. ↑ NN: Sean McCaw new trainer in Jena. ( Memento from July 24, 2012 in the web archive archive.today ) Archived from Beko Basketball Bundesliga website; Cologne, February 11, 2008. Retrieved February 18, 2019 (in English).
3. ↑ NN: ( Page no longer available , search in web archives: Title allegedly: Awards 2009: Harmsen, Bernard and Lischka have the nose ahead - Pelzer's best ski. ) From April 23, 2009.
4. ↑ MBC and Harmsen separate. In: easycredit-bbl.de. Basketball Bundesliga , April 28, 2011, accessed April 28, 2011 . 
5. ^ LTi Gießen 46ers extend Björn Harmsen's contract by two years. Gießener Allgemeine Zeitung , March 30, 2012, accessed on May 24, 2012 . 
6. ↑ LTi 46ers Giessen apply for wildcard. Gießener Allgemeine Zeitung , May 9, 2012, accessed on May 24, 2012 . 
7. ↑ LTi Gießen 46ers part with trainer Björn Harmsen. Gießener Allgemeine Zeitung , May 24, 2012, accessed on May 24, 2012 . 
8. ↑ 2. Basketball Bundesliga | ProA Champion 2015/16: Science City Jena. In: www.zweite-basketball-bundesliga.de. Retrieved May 20, 2016 . 
9. ↑ Tom Prager: Agreement for Eternity: Harmsen receives an open-ended contract. In: Ostthüringer Zeitung. December 16, 2017. Retrieved December 16, 2017 . 
10. ↑ Björn Harmsen gives personal impetus in the fight to stay up ( memento from April 10, 2019 in the Internet Archive )
11. ↑ Tonio Bierhoff: New Head Coach - Björn Harmsen takes over at the Wölfen. In: syntainics-mbc.de. Mitteldeutscher Basketball Club , November 14, 2019, accessed on February 16, 2020 . 
12. ^ "Public, provocative statements": MBC trainer Harmsen has to go. In: kicker.de . February 15, 2020, accessed February 16, 2020 . 
13. ↑ Tonio Bierhoff: Björn Harmsen no longer Head Coach of the SYNTAINICS MBC. In: syntainics-mbc.de. Central German Basketball Club , February 15, 2020, accessed on February 16, 2020 .