Police report: 40 to 50 games a year

Sixteen players in Police SF sit close by one another in their coaches’ room and listen to what coach Tarek Mahrous has to say. It is so crowded that four players have to sit on the floor. They are all very observant of what the coach has to say in his review.
– We try to make them understand as early as possible how handball is played. How they should move on the field and how they should shoot. We talk about how other teams behave, and about the opponents’ weaknesses and their strengths, tells Tarek Mahrous.

He is drawing on a whiteboard, the team’s own players is symbolized with one colour, and the opponents with another. He asks one of the boys to stand up during the review, so he could show the moving pattern even clearer. Some of the players add comments and ask questions on what they are going through on the whiteboard.

The players go to their own room at Burgården and changes clothes for the game, when the review is done. They are going to play their last game before the play offs.
– We have gone through what possibilities we have to go far in the play offs. Our team is good, and their ambition is high, tells coach Mohsen Abdou.

The team has handball training three times a week in school, back home in Egypt. During the summer season they have time to play even more, then they play handball five times a week.
–  We play many games when they are in this age, says Mohsen Abdou.
–  It can be up to 40 -50 games, throws Ashraf Elfar, another of the team’s coaches, in.

But right now it is only focus on the next game. Police SF is in the play offs. And the last three year they have won Partille Cup…

Text: Mikael Hjerpe  Photo: Carl Sandin