Crailsheim Merlins

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Crailsheim Merlins
Founded 1986
Hall Arena Hohenlohe
(3000 seats)
Homepage www.hakro-merlins.com
Head of Department TSV Sebastian Klunker
executive Director Martin Romig
Trainer Tuomas Iisalo
league Basketball Bundesliga 1. Men
2. Bundesliga ProA 2017/18: 2. Place
  Junior Basketball League U19
  Youth basketball league U16
Colours Blue / white / silver
Jersey colors
Jersey colors
Kit shorts.svg
home
Jersey colors
Jersey colors
Kit shorts.svg
Away
successes
First division promotion in 2014 and 2018

The Crailsheim Merlins ( Hakro Merlins Crailsheim since the naming rights were granted in July 2018 ) are the basketball department of TSV Crailsheim . Since July 1, 2015, the professional team's gaming operations have been outsourced from the main club as "Crailsheim Merlins GmbH".

history

The department was founded on January 31, 1986 from a student group. Up until 1994, basketball players were more in the lower leagues and had to struggle with immense indoor problems in Crailsheim . With the complete withdrawal of the American armed forces, the Merlins succeeded in leasing the former US barracks hall from the Federal Property Office in 1995 . With the additional hall capacity, the Crailsheim basketball players managed to advance to the 2nd basketball league in a few years (promotion 2001). Now you had to look around again for a suitable venue and found it in an empty market hall that was converted into a "sports arena". They played in the 2nd Bundesliga South for a total of six years.

With the restructuring of the 2nd Bundesliga, proveo MERLINS Crailsheim just missed qualifying for the new single-track Germany-wide ProA league in the 2006/07 season . The proveo MERLINS Crailsheim, which has now been named after a sponsor, competed in the newly founded single-track, Germany-wide ProB in the following two seasons. In the 2008/09 season they made it to the ProA as first in the table. Since the 2009/10 season they have been back at the start under the old club name. After two sixth places, the Crailsheimers reached the playoffs held for the first time in the ProA in the 2011/12 season with fourth place after the main round, where they failed in the semifinals at Central German BC .

The 2012/13 season under head coach Willie Young turned out to be more difficult for the Merlins. For a long time the team was in the ProA relegation battle and was finally able to end the season in 11th place with 13 wins and 17 defeats.

The 2013-14 season under Willie Young was significantly better than the previous season. The main round in the ProA ended with 22 wins and eight defeats in second place in the table. In the quarter-finals of the playoffs, the Merlins met the Oettinger Rockets Gotha , who were defeated 3-1. In the semifinals, the Nuremberg Basketball Club was also defeated 3-1. For the first time in the history of the Merlins, a play-off final was reached in the ProA. Likewise, the Crailsheim Merlins were determined to have been promoted to the basketball Bundesliga (BBL) when they reached the finals . In the final of the play-offs you met the BG Göttingen . In two finals, the winner was determined by the number of points thrown. The Merlins won the first game in front of their home crowd with 93:91. The 2nd final game then went to the BG Göttingen with 83:69. Thus ended the 2013/14 season as runner-up in the ProA.

2014/15 and 2015/16 seasons - Basketball Bundesliga

For the first time in the history of the Merlins, the team played in the Basketball Bundesliga (BBL), the highest German basketball division. As a result of the promotion to the BBL, the home games could no longer be played in the Hakro Arena, as it did not meet the requirements of the BBL. The new home arena of the Merlins was the Arena Hohenlohe, which holds approx. 3000 seats. However, the Merlins were denied major sporting successes, Willi Young was dismissed after nine match days without a win. Ingo Enskat , the previous sporting director of the Merlins, took over the position of head coach in place of Young . The Merlins remained in danger of relegation throughout the season, as z. B. most of the games against the table neighbors were lost. The negative highlight was the away game against Phoenix Hagen , which was rated 40: 0 against the Merlins due to the delayed arrival; Due to the wintry weather conditions, the team kept getting stuck in traffic with their bus.

In the second half of the season the Merlins stabilized and one could book one or the other surprise success, but it was not enough to prevent the athletic descent into the ProA . At the end of the season there were eight wins and 26 defeats on the account, which meant the last place in the table. Due to the withdrawal of the Artland Dragons from the BBL, the league awarded a wildcard for which the Merlins were the only team to apply. Crailsheim was allowed to play in the BBL for the 2015/2016 season against payment of the fixed wildcard fee of € 250,000. The 2015/16 season ended the Merlins bottom of the Bundesliga table despite a change in coaching position in March ( Tuomas Iisalo replaced Ingo Enskat), the last 19 games of the season were lost and the club was relegated to the 2nd Bundesliga ProA.

2016–2018: Back in the 2. Bundesliga ProA and Bundesliga return

After relegation from the highest to the second highest German division, the Merlins held on to their Finnish head coach Tuomas Iisalo. The squad was rebuilt, but with Konrad Wysocki , Michael Jost and Patrick Flomo , three experienced players were retained. The points round of the 2016/17 season ended in second place, in the playoff quarter-finals the Crailsheimers were eliminated against Gotha (1: 3 wins).

Despite the missed promotion, it was possible to look back on a successful season. With 25: 5 wins they had achieved the best main round result in the club's history in the 2nd basketball league. In addition, major milestones were achieved in the youth field : The U16s reached the playoffs in the youth basketball league (JBBL) for the first time, and the U19s qualified for the youth basketball league (NBBL) for the first time . This was the first time that the Merlins were represented with three teams in a Bundesliga in the 2017/18 season (2nd basketball Bundesliga, JBBL and NBBL).

In the 2017/18 season, coach Iisalo led the Crailsheimers to the final of the 2nd Bundesliga ProA, which enabled them to be promoted back to the basketball Bundesliga after two years of second-class status. In the final, which was played back and forth, they lost to SC Rasta Vechta .

At the end of July 2018, the main sponsor, the clothing company Hakro, took over the naming rights to the team, which changed its name to Hakro Merlins Crailsheim . On the last matchday of the 2018/19 season, Crailsheim secured their stay in the Bundesliga with a 99:87 win over Oldenburg. The team benefited from the fact that competitor Bremerhaven lost at the same time, so that the Hohenloher still climbed to a non-relegation place.

At the beginning of the 2019/20 season, the team caused a sensation and was in first place in the Bundesliga after the fifth match day. At the time the season was interrupted in spring 2020, Crailsheim had 15 wins and six losses, which meant third place. After the compulsory break due to the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus , the team remained in the Bundesliga season-end tournament (which had to be contested without a few previous performers) without a win and ended the game year in tenth place.

Selection player

Several Baden-Württemberg select players have their home with the Merlins in Crailsheim. Homegrown Harald Debelka played for the U18 national team and Femi Oladipo developed into a U20 national player during his time with the Merlins. Blanchard Obiango was appointed to the A2 national team in the summer of 2011.

Sebastian Herrera Kratzborn, an A national player from his country, is currently in the Merlins' squad. The winger was appointed to the Chilean national team at the end of 2017.

Successes / highlights of the club's history

  • 1987: Promotion after relegation games vs TSV Heumaden in the district league A.
  • 1989: Champion district league A and promotion to the district league
  • 1995: Champion district league and promotion to the regional league
  • 1997: Champion of the regional league and promotion to the major league
  • 1998: Champion Oberliga and promotion to the regional league
  • 2001: Champion Regionalliga and promotion to the 2nd Bundesliga
  • 2009: Master ProB and promotion to ProA
  • 2012: Playoff semi-finals in the ProA
  • 2012: Promotion of the 2nd team to the 1st regional league
  • 2014: Playoff final in the ProA and promotion to the basketball Bundesliga
  • 2017: Qualification for the NBBL / U19-Bundesliga
  • 2018: Promotion to the basketball Bundesliga


Well-known former players

Trainer

Term of office Surname
1986-1989 GermanyGermany Dieter Wolfarth
1989-1990 no permanent trainer
1990-1993 GermanyGermany Markus Schmidt
1993-1994 SerbiaSerbia Zoran Borovnica
1994-1997 CroatiaCroatia Zlatko Nikolic
1997-1999 GermanyGermany Matthias Braun
1999-2002 CroatiaCroatia Zoran Banozic
2002-2004 CroatiaCroatia Velibor Balabanovic
2004 RomaniaRomania Marian Thede
2004-2008 GermanyGermany Arne Alig
2008–2012 GermanyGermany Ingo Enskat
2012–11 / 2014 United StatesUnited States Willie Young
11 / 2014–03 / 2016 GermanyGermany Ingo Enskat
since 03/2016 FinlandFinland Tuomas Iisalo

Table position development

season space
2. BBL South 2001/02 10.
2. BBL South 2002/03 9.
2nd BBL South 2003/04 7th
2. BBL South 2004/05 11.
2nd BBL South 2005/06 12.
2nd BBL South 2006/07 10.
ProB 2007/08 5.
ProB 2008/09 1.
ProA 2009/10 6th
ProA 2010/11 6th
ProA 2011/12 4th
ProA 2012/13 11.
ProA 2013/14 2.
BBL 2014/15 18th
BBL 2015/16 18th
ProA 2016/17 2.
ProA 2017/18 2.
BBL 2018/19 16.
BBL 2019/20 10.

Hall

The Crailsheim Merlins played up to and including the 2013/14 season in the HAKRO-Arena Crailsheim (formerly Sportarena) with 1777 seats. This pure basketball hall offers a special atmosphere, as the spectator stands are all around the edge of the field. The promotion to the basketball league required the move to Ilshofen to the Arena Hohenlohe with 3000 seats, in which the traditional Christmas game has already been played.

Games of the German A2 national team have already been played in the HAKRO-Arena. The former venue now houses the Merlins office and is a training and venue for all of the club's youth and amateur teams.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Klaus Helmstetter: Merlins: First team of the Merlins will be organized as a GmbH in the future - unanimous vote. Südwest Presse Online-Dienst GmbH, July 1, 2015, accessed on April 30, 2018 .
  2. ↑ CRAILSHEIM Interview: Department 19 becomes magician - 05/05/2015. Retrieved July 6, 2015 .
  3. ^ Youth team U16 - Crailsheim Kirchheim 90:73 (49:34). Archived from the original on September 27, 2013 ; Retrieved July 6, 2015 .
  4. ↑ Play-off semi-finals Merlins - MBC (75:84) - facts and figures - 04/30/2012. Retrieved July 6, 2015 .
  5. ↑ PM: Crailsheim Merlins: Ingo Enskat resigns. In: swp.de. Retrieved June 4, 2016 .
  6. ↑ Klaus Helmstetter: Around 250 fans say goodbye to the Crailsheim Bundesliga team. In: swp.de. Retrieved June 4, 2016 .
  7. ↑ Crailsheim Merlins - Merlins start preparing for the season on August 15th - Interview with Ingo Enskat. In: crailsheim-merlins.de. Retrieved December 14, 2016 .
  8. ↑ crailsheim-merlins.de: Bitter end of the season despite outstanding support Article from April 16, 2017
  9. ↑ Crailsheim Merlins - rollercoaster ride into happiness: Merlins-U19 in the Bundesliga. June 25, 2017. Retrieved January 23, 2018 .
  10. ↑ swp.de: Crailsheim Merlins return to the BBL Article of April 29, 2018
  11. ↑ 2. Basketball Bundesliga | RASTA Vechta is ProA Champion 17/18 - new external appearance of the 2nd division from July 2018. Accessed on May 6, 2018 .
  12. ↑ https://hakro-merlins.com/pro-a/bbl-news/6377-hakro-merlins-crailsheim
  13. ↑ https://www.swp.de/sport/mehr-lokalsport/crailsheim/Crailsheim-Merlins-Basketball-Oldenburg-K Klassenerhalt- 31003425.html
  14. ↑ WORLD: Crailsheim surprisingly first in the basketball league . October 27, 2019 ( welt.de [accessed October 28, 2019]).
  15. ↑ Total table. In: Basketball Bundesliga. Retrieved June 21, 2020 .
  16. ^ Marbacher Zeitung: BBL: Proud, but without a chance: Bitter ghost tournament of the Merlins. Retrieved June 22, 2020 .
  17. ↑ RASTA finishes the season in ninth place: Seven Vechtaers score double-digit at 95:66 over Crailsheim. Retrieved June 21, 2020 .
  18. ↑ Luca Rück: Merlin Sebastian Herrera plays for Chile. Südwest Presse Online-Dienst GmbH, November 22, 2017, accessed on April 30, 2018 .
  19. ↑ ProA 2013/2014. Archived from the original on September 27, 2013 ; Retrieved July 6, 2015 .
  20. ↑ Stimme.de: A2 international match against Great Britain in Crailsheim with Blanchard Obiango article from July 14, 2011
  21. ↑ crailsheim-merlins.de: HAKRO-Arena Crailsheim