the essential
A 62-year-old sports club, the Castres Handball Club is struggling to regain its former splendor. However, a small, motivated team fights daily to restore Castres handball to its former glory.
Among the many sports associations found in Castres, there is a historic club in the city – it was founded in 1962 – which, despite a number of licensees that remain to be sustained, is holding on as best it can.
Sixth discipline in terms of number of licensees in France, handball and its 456,000 practitioners perform less well in Castres, with its 170 licensees, a stable number compared to last year. This is relatively little, compared to other disciplines which have, in Castres, nearly 1000 licensees for football, between 700 and 800 for rugby, 500 for golf, 450 for basketball and tennis or even 200 for volleyball.
“Keep our categories”
The president of the CHB, the Castres Handball Club, Mélanie Fécamp, says: “We had more than 200 licensees in 2016… Before Covid, we were stable, with 190 players. But after Covid was terrible: we we are down to 93 licensees!” The club has slowly climbed back up until today. And the short-term challenges for the club are now to sustain its teams, in particular the senior categories, the club’s headliners, which had completely disappeared in recent years. “The objective for us is to develop the seniors, who were recreated last year. We also need to find young players in order to keep our categories in the following years. Some categories are really very fair this year! We let’s also try to develop sponsorship, and work on the visibility of the CHB”, explains Mélanie Fécamp.
“More volunteers to keep the club alive”
The president has been at the club for 15 years: “I started as a player in 2009. In 2015, with former president Jean-Paul Bitaillon, I had the opportunity to be an employee for 2 years, as a coach and for the administrative part I subsequently took the position of secretary When Jean-Paul made the decision to leave, I presented myself and was elected president.
Why does Castres handball remain relatively confidential? There is the context, first. If in the neighboring department of Haute-Garonne there is not a single town with its handball team, Tarn has much fewer. The dynamics are less. There is history too. The achievements of Castres handball go back: a rise to national 3 in 1970, a quarter-final of the French championship among young people in 1988, and some epics in pre-national.
There is the question of volunteers and educators: if today the club is running thanks to coaches and invested parents, the president would like “to have more volunteers to keep the club alive and to bring new ideas!”
Reason for hope: the children’s categories, notably the – 9 and the – 11, are however very full this year: for CHB to succeed in retaining its little handball players, to build in the long term.
