After more than 70 years, the end is imminent

Created: 12/22/2022, 7:05 p.m

HC Gauting is about to be eliminated.

© Tom Weller

HC Gauting is completely ceasing operations for the time being.

A dissolution of the association is conceivable.

Gauting

– Handball has been played in Gauting since 1951.

First, the handball players formed a department under the umbrella of TSV Gauting, after its bankruptcy in 2005 the handball club Gauting was founded.

In addition to active sport, the handball players had a lively club life with summer festivals, club trips and regular friendlies against the partner club from Clermont-l'Hérault.

But those times are over.

In the current season, HC Gauting is no longer taking part in the game with a single team.

"It makes your heart bleed, but we had no other option," says HCG Chairman Klaus Laumer.

He has been a member of the Gauting handball team since 1977 and was still active himself until he was 50.

It has been slowly going downhill in recent years.

There hasn’t been a women’s team since 2018, and the men’s team was deregistered a year later.

"We've had problems for six or seven years," says Laumer.

The club remained active in the youth field, advertising at schools and via social media.

In the past season, the Gautinger could still provide a male A, B and C youth team and a girls team.

The girls already gave up during the season due to personnel problems.

Before the start of the current season, the boys' B and C youth should be combined into one team - but despite a persistent search no coach was found.

"We've tried everything, but it's incredibly difficult to find people.

Especially when you don't have any more adult teams to win someone from," reports Laumer.

The result: almost all of the remaining players stopped playing handball completely.

The greatest hopes rested on the A youth, which according to Laumer could have played a good role in terms of performance.

But the most talented players switched to HSG Würm-Mitte, and "with eight or nine people it doesn't make sense to register a team," says Laumer.

In this case, he would have wished for more collegial interaction between the clubs.

"I'm not mad at those who switched.

But I would have wished that not only individual players were approached, but that a common solution was sought for everyone.” For example, according to Laumer, they could have teamed up for one season.

At least handball has been played a little in the past few months: a mixed U11 team trained regularly, supervised by a few older youngsters.

"They had a lot of fun," says the chairman.

But there were again not enough interested parties and no adult coaches to take part in the game.

Therefore, this offer will also be discontinued after Christmas.

"You need a few people who are crazy about handball and keep the shop running," says Klaus Laumer.

But in recent years there have been fewer and fewer of these.

Especially after graduating from high school, many first travel the world, say goodbye to study in other cities or want to try other sports.

"It was completely different in my time," says the former handball player wistfully.

But without an adult area, it's just difficult to keep a club going.

Volunteers were desperately needed for the board elections two years ago, and in the end even the statutes had to be changed because there were not more than three candidates.

Then there was the pandemic.

"Corona was of course not helpful," says the HCG chairman.

Games didn't take place at all for one winter and then only at irregular intervals, and the players' loyalty to the team and club waned.

Irrespective of this, HC Gauting is not the only club that has youth problems.

"The trend is increasingly towards syndicates," Laumer noted.

From 2023, the ball in Gauting will rest completely for the time being.

How to proceed from there is to be discussed at a general meeting in the spring.

There is a possibility that the club will remain in existence for the time being and that new teams can be formed again in the future.

But a resolution is also possible.

“We have to decide that together,” announces Laumer.

After more than 70 years, club handball in Gauting is about to end.