News

New Argentina women’s beach handball coach Brunati: “We must fight”

22 Feb. 2023

New Argentina women’s beach handball coach Brunati: “We must fight”

Earlier this month, Leticia Brunati was revealed as the new head coach for the Argentina women's national beach handball team. 

The 40-year-old made the step up to the role after working as assistant to coach Salvador Comparone for ten years and will face her first test later this month when she takes the reins of the team at the 'Tri Naciones' competition on home sand in Mar del Plata (25-26 February), where they will face Uruguay and Paraguay.

"I'm very excited," said Brunati to ihf.info about getting started in the role. "We have been training since January and after two months of training the team needs to play now. The players want to play, and as a coach I want to start playing too – we need to play to improve our beach handball and playing at home will be very special for us; the crowd is great."

Comparone stepped down after a 15-year stint as head coach which, in addition to continental titles, saw him guide the team to silver at the 2017 World Games in Poland and bronze at the 2022 edition held in the USA.

And Brunati not only credits Comparone with nearly her entire knowledge base of the sport, but also for helping to establish the sport in the country.

"He is one of the most important people for beach handball in our country and he believed in the project from the beginning, creating a style," said Brunati about Comparone.

"When I started in beach handball in 2011, I didn't know anything and he shared a lot of knowledge with me. I learned a lot from him – almost everything. I learned about how to coach and a lot of important things about how to manage a team. He is a really good coach, but, most importantly, a really good person."

Brunati is probably best known not only in Argentina but in the sport itself around the world as head coach of the women's team who won gold at the 2018 Youth Olympic Games. The Games were held on home sand in Buenos Aires, where beach handball made its Olympic debut. 

Last year, she was named by the IHF as a legend of the sport on the inaugural 'International Beach Handball Day' and all of these experiences, combined with that decade as assistant to the senior side, are now helping her navigate through the new role.

"I've had a lot of luck and had a lot of experience in a lot of tournaments," she explained. "I won, I lost, but I learned in each match. Along the way, I had the opportunity to speak to a lot of great coaches and also spend a lot of time with (legendary Brazil coach) Antonio Guerra Peixe; I learned a lot from him.

"The Buenos Aires, youth team and assistant coach experiences are a good start, but I have to be better and I'll try every day. I'm always trying to improve my knowledge."

Making the step from assistant to head coach with the same players requires a different skillset, one which Brunati is relishing. 

However, she will not be alone. Helping her along the way will be former player Celeste Meccia, who Brunati has brought in as her assistant. Meccia retired last year as a player following 14 years with the national team.

"A lot of players who are now in the adult team were in the youth team with me as a coach, and the older ones know me well, so I don't think I need to change the way I work with the players. I have to just do the best on the court to give them the solutions and help the team," explained Brunati.

"But as a coach, I know the adult competitions are more difficult and we need to improve a lot of things. Bringing in Celeste is going to help me a lot in that, I'm sure. She looks at the game as a player, and coaches need that look – I need to know how to help the players to be better. 

"Celeste is prepared to be a coach. She is a physical education teacher and is prepared for beach handball. Right now she is improving her skills as a coach and she will help us with a lot of things."

Looking ahead, Brunati and Argentina will be hoping to qualify for the 2023 ANOC World Beach Games in Bali, Indonesia, in August.

And Brunati fully understands the significance of her side playing in global championships.

"It is very important," she said. "We have a very good team with a lot of good players, but we need more development and international competitions are very important for that. We didn't go to the 2018 IHF Women's Beach Handball World Championship and that was very hard for us.

"We know it's only one shot, as in South America we only have limited quota places, so it is very difficult. But one thing is for sure – we are going to fight to be there."

Closer to home, the current Argentina beach handball circuit will help Brunati fine-tune and select her competitive squad, with a number of items on the agenda for her to get to work with.

"We have players who are very, very good and we have others who are becoming very good; they are training a lot, working each and every day to be better – they are like a family, they spend a lot of time together in the camps," she explained.

"The beach circuit is very important for us because the players need competition to be better and play under pressure. As coaches, it's very important for us to look at the players playing, plus we can discover new players too. Our country is very big and the best players are on the circuit.

"Without a doubt, better competition makes better players, but we need to improve a lot of things," she added.

"My coaching team have talked a lot about that. We need to be faster in attacks, our transition must be shorter and we need to increase our effectiveness percentage – this is very important. For example, in South American competitions, the score is around 20 goals, but at the last IHF Beach Handball World Championship it was more, around 26 or 28. This is very important, plus at the same time we need to improve our defence and maybe try other systems."

Despite the workload ahead, Brunati took time out of her hectic schedule to reflect just on how far she has come with the sport since 2011 – and the sport itself.

"I love beach handball; it changed my life for good and I want everyone to have the opportunity to play. We all need to be involved with the development of beach handball and If I can help or be useful for that, I want to be there," she said about her roles not only as a coach but also as a technical advisor and IHF Beach Handball Expert.

"Beach handball is growing a lot," she added. "The players are athletes, the game is getting more attractive year after year, and the coaches and the referees are getting better and better, but we need more expansion around the world and more regional competitions outside of Europe.

"For all of us stakeholders in the sport, whether as coaches, players, referees, officials or fans, we are all joined together to improve it."