Heimo Forester

Heimo Forester
Player information
Full name	Heimo Herbert Forster
birthday	December 12, 1964
place of birth	Graz , Austria
size	190 cm
position	Point guard
Clubs as active
1984–1986 TSV Bayer 04 Leverkusen 1986–1987 TSV 1860 Hagen 1987–1997 TSV Bayer 04 Leverkusen
Clubs as coaches
1997–2002 TV Leichlingen 2002–2005 Bayer Giants Leverkusen 2005–2006 U-18 national team male 2007–2012 Grevenbroich Elephants 2012–2013 BSV Münsterland Baskets Wulfen

Heimo Förster (born December 12, 1964 in Graz , Austria ) is a German basketball coach who was a player in the squad of the last nine championship teams of the German record basketball champions Bayer Leverkusen. As a coach, he later looked after his home club for three years in the German basketball league . The trained precision mechanic has two children and works in gastronomy, initially full-time for Bayer Gastronomie and since 2013 with his own restaurant. In 2015 he will also operate Leverkusen on Ice.

Förster learned to play basketball at Bayer and went through all of the club's youth teams from the Minis (age group 10 years and younger). Since 1984 he has been in the senior squad of the Bundesliga team, although initially he was mainly active for the 2nd team and only made short appearances in the Bundesliga team. During his military service near Hagen , he joined the second division team of TSV 1860 Hagen. After differences with the Hagen coach, Förster returned to Bayer in February 1987. As a result, Förster mostly did not get beyond the role of a supplementary player in the dominant Bundesliga team at the beginning of the 1990s. In view of his loyalty to the club, however, he was one of the favorites of the audience in the Wilhelm-Dopatka-Halle in Leverkusen , which often chanted his first name during home games.

Förster has been in the squad of all Bayer championship teams since the mid-1980s, so that he was able to win nine German championships as a player, and he also won six cups from 1986 to 1995. In the 1980s he was also on DBB selection teams , including the military WM, where he was appointed to the all-star team of this tournament in 1986, as well as for the then B national team.

After finishing his career as a player in 1997, while working as a youth coach for Bayer, he became the senior coach of the TV Leichlingen, which he led from the district league to the regional league. In 2002 Bayer changed its concept to consciously rely on German players. In addition to national players like Denis Wucherer , young talents should be introduced to higher tasks. Förster as head coach and Thomas Deuster , with whom Förster already played in Bayer's A youth team, were chosen as managers , were responsible for this concept . This concept did not produce the desired results. After having narrowly qualified for the play-offs twice, they were eliminated in the first round. In the third year they missed the play-offs in the 2004/05 season and reached only a disappointing 13th place in the championship after twelve wins in 30 games. As a result, the collaboration with Förster was discontinued and the previous assistant coach Achim Kuczmann became head coach at Bayer instead of Förster.

Förster then worked for two years as the coach of the youth national team (U-18) of the DBB, before he became the coach of the second division relegated Konstantin Elephants from Grevenbroich in 2007 . The targeted promotion from the first regional league to the ProB did not succeed in the past seasons. When you were finally athletically qualified for promotion to the third highest division in 2010, you had to forego promotion for financial reasons.

In March 2012 the ProB -Ligist BSV Münsterland Baskets Wulfen announced the engagement of Förster as head coach for the season 2012/13. With Wulfen, however, Förster could not play for the play-offs in the ProB as hoped. Rather, at the end of the season there was a sporting descent back to the Regionalliga West. Förster then announced his resignation and also gave professional reasons for this step. In mid-October 2019, he took up the post of regional coach at the West German Basketball Association .

Web links

• Heimo Förster - Trainer profile on the statistics pages of the Basketball Bundesliga

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Schoenen-Dunk.de: Heimo Förster is the new trainer of the Elephants , press release of the Elephants Grevenbroich by Tim Wellbrock, published on May 2, 2007, accessed on March 8, 2010
2. ↑ leverkusen.com: A gastronomic meeting point for everyone in Leverkusen - Schloss Restaurant reopens its doors. Message with video of the press conference
3. ↑ leverkusen.com: Förster takes over Leverkusen on Ice announcement with video of the press conference
4. ↑ dorstenerzeitung.de: Förster takes over BSV Wulfen , published on March 14, 2012, accessed on March 14, 2012
5. ↑ New national coach: Heimo Förster strengthens the WBV coaching team. In: West German Basketball Association. Retrieved October 19, 2019 .