March
12, 2010
The Swedish
Basketball Federation on Thursday announced that American Brad Dean
has been selected new head coach for the Swedish men´s national
team, replacing Greek Kostas Flevarakis who had the job since 2005.
Brad
Dean is a familiar face in Sweden. Although he has spent the last 20
years coaching in Europe, in Belgium and Germany, it all started in
Sweden. Dean came as a player to Sweden and later started his
coaching career in the country. He stayed for 15 years and won four
national championships. At present Dean is coaching Aalstar in
Belgium, a job he has had since 2003. His contract with the Belgium
team runs for another season and he intends to fulfill it. In a
statement Dean says that the two contracts are not in conflict since
the national team program runs only for the summer period.
The
contract with the Swedish Federation is for four years. His assistant
coach will be the Södertälje coach, Torbjörn Gehrke, who´s
contract is for two years. Gehrke was also one of the candidates for
the head coach job, but accepted to be assistant the minute he was
informed that Dean would lead the national team. The third man in the
squad will be Pontus Frivold, at present assistant coach with the
Swedish champions, Sundsvall. Frivold, who also worked
under former coach Flevarakis, will be responsible for scouting.
The
short term goal for the Swedish national team is to qualify for the
European A-division. Qualification games will start this August,
hopefully with the best possible
team available. It is already a fact that Swedish NBA-star Jonas
Jerebko will participate in all qualification games. In the long run,
it is a question of building a team for the future, a team that will
be able to keep Sweden among the best in Europe.
Brad
Dean never hesitated to take the job when he was approached in
December. It has always been his dream to coach a national team, and
Sweden was of course the perfect choice. Dean is also thrilled about
the fact that Swedish basketball is improving steadily and producing
new talent,
able to
compete internationally. Dean´s intention is to bring a more
physical type of defense to the Swedish team, and make the team play
with more intensity.
When
Sweden, last summer, under Kostas Flevarakis, fell against a strong
Montenegro team in the B-division playoffs, it stood clear that the
federation, under new national team program manager Jonte Karlsson,
was determined to make a change in the coaching position. The
selection process for finding the national team coach has been going
on for six months. The federation, after evaluating and deciding a
profile, ended up with a list of 20 candidates. After interviews and
references, Brad Dean was no 1 on everyone´s list. Dean has a good
reputation and record, and is well known for his profound knowledge
of the game and his ability to communicate and get along with players
and other stakeholders.
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