Pro D2 – From Cuba to Béziers, the crazy story of Joel Guillen, ASBH video analyst

If you are introduced to Joel Guillen, ASBH video analyst, near the Stade Raoul-Barrière, there is a good chance that you will be made to guess his nationality. For sure, you won't find it, as this country is not famous for rugby. The smiling man with a Spanish accent in front of you was born on a Caribbean island 29 years ago. “Everyone answers me: “What are you doing in rugby? There isn't any in Cuba! Why don't you do boxing or baseball?”“ If the oval planet is surprised to see a Cuban, the opposite is also true. “Over there, people ask me if it's sport with the helmet and protectionshe continues. I tell them that that's American football and I explain rugby to them. When you talk about the All Blacks and the haka, the Cubans know. But very few know how it works.” But it was not on his native island that Joel Guillen discovered rugby.

Cárcel Street in Havana, at 51, on the corner of the street, the Spanish Embassy is a magnificent and imposing white building. During opening hours, there is often a queue outside. Cubans are trying to obtain a visa to emigrate in search of a better life, their country still being plagued by serious economic and structural problems, as evidenced by the general power cut depriving the 11 million inhabitants on the island. island of electricity, last October. When the future Biterrois was six years old, he followed his family to Madrid, to escape the situation in Cuba, the dictatorship and social problems. “From my childhood there, I remember going to school, but not being coldhe says. The landscape was different: when I arrived in the city center of Madrid, there was no sea. The mentality is not the same either. In Cuba, despite the problems, we are at peace. It's very different from the Spanish but especially from you, the French, nervous, under tension. Since Covid, I haven't gone back because the situation has gotten worse: there are even fewer resources, food problems have worsened… It's not the right time.”

The revelation during a Bath-London Irish

During his childhood in the Spanish capital, the Havana native indulged for many years in popular sports there, such as football (he became a fan of Atlético Madrid), handball and basketball. Until love at first sight. “One day, on TV, I saw a rugby matchhe plays again. It was super ugly! It was Bath against London Irish. There were I don't know how many forwards and scrums… Today, I know rugby, so I would say it was a catastrophic match. But I loved the spirit of the game, the fight, the players who fell and got up, the referees who didn't talk to the referee, the public… I discovered something completely different and I wanted test. I looked for a club that I could get to by metro. And so I joined the French high school in Madrid, even though I had no links with France. I didn’t even know how to say hello!”

His first tackles confirmed this revelation. Installed as a hooker, he quickly wanted “transmit this love for this sport”. At the age of 17, he began training his club's chicks at the same time: “It was a great experience because I got along well with them. I started spending my days at the club, playing and coaching. I managed the juniors then the cadets. I found it interesting because it was becoming structured, you had to study the game. When at 25 I had both damaged knees, I just trained. I always have this regret of not having started younger, before 10 years old. in a favorable country for that. Rugby didn't come to me, it was me who came to him.”

After the youth, the adopted Madrilenian led the women's team of Rugby Liceo Francés then that of Complutense Cisneros (2019-2021), in the first division. “There were quite a few international players in the squad. They knew rugby well, so it was a first challenge for me as a coach”he admits. At the same time, he was also team manager of the Spanish selection (2018-2021): “I don't think I'll ever have this job again in my life nowlaughs the Cuban. But I took advantage of every second to go watch training, video analyses, speak with the coaches, the physical trainers… I was with the men's selection and the men's U18s of the VII. There was Charly Malié, Jon Zabala, Marco Pinto-Ferrer, Guillaume Rouet…”

I saw that what was marginal at home, in Spain, was a religion in Biarritz and Agen. I fell in love with France

If Joel Guillen's progression was going well in Spain, he had a dream. “When I was younger, when I was at French high school, he asks again, we had links with SU Agen and Biarritz Olympique. We did internships in these clubs and I discovered French rugby. I saw that what was marginal in my country, in Spain, was a religion in those cities. The infrastructure, the fervor, everything was increased tenfold. I fell in love with this country and, ever since, I've always wanted to come here! And at that point in my life, I wanted to make a living from rugby. But in Spain, it’s very difficult… So I took the plunge to France!”

The Cuban does not know any club and has no contacts. Just a friend who lived in Bordeaux. Then head to Gironde. On site, he went in person to canvass the clubs. It was Floirac that welcomed him, the place where he had the most opportunity to learn, according to him. He took charge of the Juniors. His first learning was that of the language of Molière. “Sometimes I wondered how the players could understand what I was asking, when I myself didn't know what I was saying”laughs the Béziers resident. He was associated with former Fiji international center Julian Vulakoro. If the season went well, he aspired to see higher, having already managed young people in Spain. “It was difficult for me to reach the highest level without having any contacts and without having been a professional playerhe analyzes today. So, I looked at the staff of the big clubs and I asked myself what I could bring. I spotted the job of video analyst. I saw that there was a one-year course at the University of Montpellier. I said why not.”

Accepted into this training, despite only thirty elected officials, he found his work-study program at the ASBH, helped by his sidekick from Floirac. At the end of this 2022-2023 season spent in Hérault, he was not retained by the club, the Rouge et Bleus only having one video analyst position. Here he is back in Spain, to practice his profession with the national Sevens team: “But the working conditions were complicated, it wasn’t serious. I then told myself that I couldn’t leave France.” An offer from Aubenas (Nationale 2) to be a professional video analyst and in charge of the forwards for the Espoirs came at the right time. The job description is ideal, “because coaching is what I love most! My home was the club! In the morning I was with the pros, in the afternoon with the Espoirs.” But in December, Béziers' video analysis left his post. The Languedociens recalled him and here he is back in the eleven Brennus club on the 1st^is January 2024, “at the heart of an incredible season” which will end in the semi-final of D2.

I would like to make history and become the first Cuban professional rugby coach

In Hérault, Joel Guillen works with Pierre Caillet, a manager convinced of the benefits of video analysis. Just listen to him talk about it. This also results in the arrival of a second man in this position, Thibault Baget, poached during the last off-season from Chambéry but also of a work-study worker, Baptiste Grosbois. The club has also made an investment to acquire one of the latest software, Sportcode. “What's good about Joel and Thibault is that they are video analysts but also coachesexplains the ASBH coach. They are the best analysts, they work hard! They are capable of doing more. When you give them a job to do, they do it with passion. They don't count their hours but they do it so quickly! What you would code in two hours, they do in a minute. They are diligent people. It's an increasingly important job. We always talk about recruited players, but the arrival of Thibault to enrich the video center in addition to Joel is worth that of two players in the future of the club, in the way of being in the analyses.

The former third line gives a concrete example of the advantage of having video analysts who have already coached. “Joel, it’s a relayhe says. At the start of the season, Baptiste Abescat-Leroy was criticized for certain areas of play. I didn't have the impression that he understood. I asked Joel, in secret, to do a close-up on him and he prepared the individual meeting. He knows rugby and he almost has to do things alone, because he is competent. With Thibault, they have already led sessions during prep.”

When Joel Guillen dissects the Rouge et Bleu matches, Thibault Baget takes care of the opponents. But listening to the Caribbean, the two men often overlap their work. This year, the Cuban is also coaching at the training center. Because the field is this dream that always drives him. “I would like to make history and become the first Cuban professional rugby coach”he concluded. And thus hoist this striped flag even higher than in the ASBH locker room, where it sometimes hangs out…Until victory always !