Humans of Beach Handball: Alexander Novakovic

In the early and mid 2000s, Germany was a regular guest at international beach handball tournaments, winning the Women’s EHF EURO in 2006 and qualifying constantly for the semi-finals. In 2007, the German Handball Federation (DHB) decided to no longer promote beach handball at a professional level until the revival in 2014.

Alexander Novakovic, who was a beach handball lecturer in the Bavarian Handball Federation for 18 years starting in 2004, highlights the possibilities of the beach variant of the sport.

“For me, beach handball has a huge opportunity to make our sport, which we all love, much more modern, much more upbeat, and even more attractive. In the summer, beach handball has a huge potential to get more children and young people interested in the sport, who perhaps find traditional indoor handball a little dusty at their level.”

The starting point

Alexander Novakovic’s home club TSV Ismaning is located just outside of Munich. Its beach handball department has a rich history of hosting beach handball events since 1999.

“In 2014, we played in the under-18 Bundesliga with the girls born between 1995 and 1998. And at the end of this period, we were looking for a final event,” says Novakovic, who was the coach of the team. They participated in two events on the beach handball tour and were granted a wildcard for the German beach handball championships that year by the DHB.

“We then travelled to the German Championships in Wildeshausen (near Bremen) and became German champions in the women's category.” That’s how ‘Brüder Ismaning’ came to life.

2014 was also the start of a revival. “It was the year in which the German Handball Federation decided to form national teams again and lift beach handball back into competitive sports. I was successful with Ismaning. At the right time, in the right place. And that's how it all started with the national team.”

But how do you put together a national team while having to start from scratch?

“In my time from 2015 to 2020, I had three generations of national youth teams. There was a sighting via video in the youth Bundesliga and in the third division. We asked ourselves, where are young talents already playing somewhere at a higher level? We did not have the infrastructure back then to do large-scale scouting, which is why it was still focused on regional beach centres,” Novakovic explains.

After the scouting process, Novakovic and his team assembled two separate training courses with 25 players each.

“We then decided on 15 to 20 players with whom we wanted to continue working in two or three further training courses until the European Championships,” he adds.

Over the last few years, the DHB has developed hugely in their scouting system, combining indoor and beach handball sighting events to deliver the strongest possible pool of players for their youth national teams.

During his time as women’s youth national team coach, Novakovic achieved four bronze medals between 2015 and 2019. It seemed only a matter of time before this generation would also collect medals at the senior level. And who better to trust with this process than the coach of this generation, who is not only about setting up the right tactics, but also creating a perfect environment for his players.

The keys to creating a record-breaking team

“Of course, it's also about setting a framework in terms of tactics. Hendrik Sander (assistant coach) and I have to make sure that we play beach handball in a way that suits our team. However, you only get those last few per cent out of every player - and that has always been my big goal - when everyone is happy to be going to the national team. It's not just sport at a high level, it is also where they meet friends within the team. I think we have managed that brilliantly with this generation,” Novakovic says.

Having a positive player-player connection is one part. Creating a good relationship between the staff and the players, is as important for Novakovic.

“I have a lot of conversations with the team, but also a lot of one-on-one conversations. I don't think two or three days go by without talking to someone from the team on the phone thinking together about how we can take the whole story one step further. I try to communicate on an equal footing and try to get everyone on board. I hope that the team’s experience reflects this and that it will be acknowledged. It's going very well so far,” says Novakovic with a smile on his face.

Riding the wave

Looking back at the track record of his team in the last few years, it’s fair to say that his approach has led to success. Starting in 2019, a young German team ended the EHF Beach Handball EURO in 10th place. Only two years later, the most dominant phase in women’s beach handball began, winning the EURO in 2021 and 2023, the World Championship and World Games in 2022 while being undefeated for 34 matches.

“That was completely crazy. We were in such a frenzy. The first EURO title was also very surprising, to be honest. After finishing 10th in 2019, you couldn't expect us to be at the top in 2021. That was great. That's when this wave started. This flow. There were only ten days between the World Championships and the World Games. So, it wasn't possible to process it at all in that time. To be honest, I was only able to enjoy the success last year after winning our second EURO title,” reflects Novakovic.

After all the success in the past years, the soft factors drive him to keep going: “This passion for the sport. This passion for the people in this team. The support of my family. A lot has happened since 2015 with two children, so I’m thankful that I can still do it.

“I'm the type who predominantly remembers personal moments. I'll never forget how we rode the rollercoaster with the European Championship trophy at a public festival in Varna. Those are personal moments that you simply don't forget,” he continues.

“After the European Games, we went to McDonalds, only the McDrive was still open, so I went through the drive-through with my assistant and ordered for everyone. Those are the little things, the personal moments that stick in your mind,” reminisces Novakovic, who will experience a full circle moment this year when he returns to Varna as an EHF Expert to lecture the EHF Coaches' Course - Beach Handball Specialisation 3.

Photos © Kolektiff Images