Team Previews 2005-2006

Marienlyst -– Our biggest obstacle has obviously been the loss of two top talents in Mads Ditlevsen and Peter Lyck, as well as our coach from last year - Jens Larsen. Well, out with the old and in with the new.

With Stewart McGrenary already here and Nathan Roberts on his way it looks, if not promising, then solid, for our team this year. Jesper Hansen and BT are as solid as always, which makes us, in my mind, the best passing team in the league. We'’ve still got depth off of the bench: Lasse Westergaard gets better every year and could easily start for a lot of teams in the league, Toke is doing lots of good things in practice both in the middle and on the outside, and Paw is ready to finally get his chance to start for us as soon as he is healthy again. All in all, the team has a lot of the same characteristics of our team from last year. The big question is whether it is enough considering that nearly each team in the league has improved.

HIK Aalborg -- In my mind, the biggest disappointment from last year. I don’t know what happened at the end of the year but they had the talent to be in the finals. Of course there was some questionable officiating at the end of that semi-final against SK (eh, Villa?) but they really shouldn'’t have been in that situation to begin with. The questions surrounding their team this year are: After dying out late in the season the past couple of years, will they be able to sustain their high level of play throughout an entire season? Will Ricky Ziegler, their new American setter, be enough to put them over the top?

I think their main problem this year is going to be replacing the intensity and the passing that Jesper Villadsen gave them last year. It'’s also going to be hard to replace Jesper Madsen in the libero spot.

They've been smart with both Mikkel and Jeppe, limiting their time on the court here in the pre-season so that they are ready for when it is important. Like, the first match of the Pokal for example...…

Gentofte -– This may be the year that Gentofte brings a title back to Copenhagen. With the new players that are coming in and the excellent system that is already in place I think that they have to be considered one of the favorites to win the title. I don’t have any personal experience with him but I have great respect for Peter Borglund and his attitude towards training.

Their biggest problems last year were that it took so long for Lasse Toft to emerge as a quality opposite hitter to give them a presence out of the back row and that they were relatively undersized in the middle. Both of these problems have been solved. They now have an abundance of outside hitters that are pretty much interchangeable. I look forward to seeing the Brazilian, there isn'’t much doubt that he is a top shelf player but how good he is remains to be seen. They’ve also picked up Mads Toubro and Kristian Bech to help out in the middle, a big improvement on last year.

Questions remain: Who will play libero? They've had a kind of rotating libero system the last few years that hasn'’t really worked. I'’ve even seen them play without a libero. This will have to be resolved before they can take their place as one of the elite teams. Also, do they have the required experience to make a run at the title? I know a lot of their guys have been around for quite a long time but I don'’t know how many titles they have won, especially in recent years.

If they can jell quickly and resolve their libero issues, this team will be strong with all the necessary components to win a championship.

Middelfart -– This is the buzz team of the off-season. They have made the most moves, showed the most ambition and been generally the most impressive team during the summer. As opposed to last year when they made some questionable signings they have brought in two quality Canadian players and a number of key Danish players, as well as Chad Grimm to coach.

Big for them will be the arrival of Mikkel Simonsen who will give them extremely solid play in the middle as well as a lot of important leadership. It also won’t hurt to have Lars Hoppe and Jakob Funch around either. I've met both of the Canadians and they seem like good quality guys. At least a class better than Warrren "I hurt my knee by stumbling drunkenly into an open sewer hole" Jarred. This team is a definite favorite to win a title.

The questions: They are still completely untested. Chad is a good friend of mine and I have no doubts that he will be a good coach, but it is still his first year in a relatively new situation. On average this is still a very young team, not many guys with a lot of championship experience. Especially their setters. Both have the talent to lead their team but neither has proven yet that they can do it over a whole season. It will be interesting to see how this team comes together and who emerges as their leaders in crunch time. No doubt this team has the talent to go all the way, but with that talent comes quite a bit of expectation and pressure...