In Finistère, handball is played for women

On the courts of Switzerland, Hungary and Romania, during Euro 2024, nine players will represent Finistère on the European stage. Nine girls, teams from France, Germany and North Macedonia who play year-round for Brest Bretagne Handball. Ambassadors of an entire department where handball is focused on women.

At the Arena, they are the dream of the 4,300 girls and women licensed in the department, the largest contingent of all French departments. And maintain a dynamic that has lasted since the 1970s. “I strongly believe in the principle of dynamics. The BBH is a locomotive for the entire department, assures Vincent Quintin, head of the development department at the Brittany Handball League. We have girls to relate to. We have structures that have trained national and international level players, coaches qualified to train girls. Clubs see models that work. »

Historically more women than men

As a result, the Women's Hope Center and eight of the largest women's clubs in the region are located in Finistère, which currently has 51.5% of members, a rarity.

. “The department has historically been one of the only ones to have more women than men,” assures Gérard Cantin.

The former vice-president of the Brittany Handball League in charge of Finistère puts forward several reasons for this incongruity. “There has always been a duality between Catholic and secular practice. Private sponsorships and rural handball have, since the 1970s, offered handball to girls. Very quickly, we had a lot of people qualified to specifically train girls, whereas, in other regions, it was almost degrading to take care of women's practice. »

14 national level clubs

A model similar to that implemented in Côtes-d'Armor, but which was boosted, in 2004, by the creation of Arvor 29, a merger of the Penn ar Bed club of the Lesneven-Le Folgoët agreement. “The General Council asked us to set up a joint project to reach the high level, otherwise we would no longer finance the two teams playing in N1,” recalls Gérard Cantin. The club sank in 2012, then rose from its ashes under the name of Brest Bretagne Handball, now owned by the Le Saint brothers. Behind, all women's handball in the department continued to prosper.

Today, the department has 14 national women's level clubs (two from N1, three from N2, and nine from N3, in addition to the BBH) and has a very good territorial network. “Finistère is lucky not to have a generation gap. Which is not the case for all departments,” admits Vincent Quintin. A lack of infrastructure even prevents some clubs from accepting all registration requests at the start of the season, proof that handball is of mass interest. And feminine.