We have prepared a special interview with one of the best German beach handball players. In the rest of the text you can find out something about Mr. Felix Wacker and his thoughts about beach handball.
Could you introduce yourself and tell us a little bit about Felix Wacker?
Hello. My Name is Felix Wacker I am 23 years old from the south of Germany. I am playing Handball since i am 5 years old. Beachhandball came in the age of 16 in my life and is since that time my favourite Sport in Summer.
What are your biggest sport achivements?
My biggest achievements are the the first qualification 2002 for the Mastership Final in Germany in the age of 16, the 3rd place at the German Mastership Finals with the youngest team in Tournament 2005, nomination in 2007 for the German National Team and the first European Mastership in Italy, 2008 2nd at the South German Mastership.
Is beach handball a popular sport in Germany? How many beach handball courts (ca.) and teams are there in your town?Do you have a national championship in Germany and how does it work? How big is the prompt of German teams?
The other problem is there is no chance for Beachhandball in Germany to become a serious kind of sport at the moment, cause the German Handball Foderation is not in mute to do anything for the sport. The National Teams have no chance to get any financial backing from the German Handball Foderation. The only chance we have is that other national teams speek for us and ask why Germany not play on any international Tournaments.That is so sad….!
How do you see the progress of beach handball in the future?
In Germany we have a Championship which works similar to the EBT series.Qualifikation Tournaments and at the end a Final were the 20 best teams women and menplay for the German Master Titel. We have something around 40 Teams wich play serious beachhandball and a lot more which do it for fun.In future every nation should do everything to become the Sport Beachhandball more professional. We should try to follow the way of Beachvolleyball they did the best for their sport. I think the Olympic Games should be the aim.
Your team Al’ Sandys signed up on the EBT tour this year. Do you have any ambition to participate the Masters next year?
Yes of course there are ambitions for the EBT, we wanna see if we can play Beachhandball on a higher level than in Germany. I think we did a good first step with the Tournament in Switzerland. It is always a pleasure to play against Detono Zagreb and against players which won The World Mastership 08.
Have you played against any of Croatian teams or even Croatian national team? What do you think of their game?
I played against the Croatian team in 2007 at the European Mastership, their kind of playing our sport was always attractive and fair. They play on of the highest levels I have seen. .
We know that you are a member of German national beach handball team so what do you think of beach handball national teams in general? Do you have any favorites , concerning the game, among national teams worldwide?
National teams are really important, every national team represents a little bit of their nation, everyone should be proudt to play for it. National Teams have to do the Sport professional. One of my favourite national teams are Spain- they play so attractive and constant good.
I heard about the tournaments in Croatia, we are thinking about to come to Zagreb this summer.
Do you play indoor handball? If yes- which league, which club and how many years?
Yes, I play indoor handball since i am 5 years old but i never played professional.At the moment i play in a Bavarian Team called TSV KOTTERN.
Do you prefer beach or indoor handball game and why?
For myself I prefer Beachhandball but I use the Indoor handball to train in winter before the Beach saison starts. Beachhandball is more fun and more attractive for myself.
What else do you do in your life besides handball? Do you have any hobbies, go to college maybe, play some other sport..?
At the moment I do a lot of sports, Skiing, Snowboarding, Hiking, Handball, cause my school start in april. I am Carpenter and do the Master in that school later on.
We have noticed your specific outfit while playing (long coloured socks). Are they for good luck, the latest fashion hit or just keeping your legs warm? : )
Our socks do warm up our legs, but they are just a stupid German fashion trend. We play since the first days with dose socks,… so whatever!
In Altenheim you were a big hit with Beach box 2008! Whose invention is that noisy box and how did you come up with that idea? Is Beach box 2009 coming up maybe?
That noisy box is an invention from our player on right, Marc Sailer. He loves to take the center stage in every tournament- that’s the reason why that Box is so noisy. And of there will be a new one, Marc would say now:”Bigger and Louder as last year!’