In previous articles in the series on the collapse of the local coach, we described a situation of vacuum, in which very few new Israelis have been given the opportunity in the last decade. The next list will reveal that the next generation is already here, and he is just waiting for one opportunity, for the one group that will give him the keys. From Elad Hussein who paid a very expensive tuition fee, to the big promise named Uri Kukia – these are the coaches who should and can fill the void. The list is presented without regard to the order of the performance.
Moody Light
In faraway New Zealand, the 35-year-old Maor is preparing to open the Australian League as Dan Shamir’s assistant. At the moment, a return to Israel is not really in sight, but if we have to gamble, he will return to the position of head coach in the Israeli league. That term at Hapoel Jerusalem can not be forgotten – Maor himself also admitted that he was very surprised to receive the offer from Maori Alon, having previously served as assistant coach to the head coach of the second largest team in Israel – at only 32 years old and without any experience as head coach.
Apparently it was really too early. Maor, who became one of the most talked about names in Israeli basketball overnight, was fired after three and a half months and replaced by Oded Katash. Since that turbulent period, he has chosen to return to the position of silent assistant. He is a friend of Dan Shamir in Holon and remained even when Sharon Drucker arrived. After a few months, he received a new offer from Shamir – and traveled to New Zealand.
Maor is considered the coach of the “new generation”. One who navigates and swims in advanced statistics, speaks perfect English (not a thing of it) and at the same time is highly valued professionally among players with whom he has worked, as a coach and as an assistant. When he returns to Israel, sometime, he will aim to be a head coach.
Elad Hussein
The 40-year-old Hussein is the most experienced coach on this list, and the only one to open the season with a team from the first division. He has been in the field for almost 15 years – and seems to be the leading candidate to be the next coach to make the big leap forward.
He started his career alongside the best basketball players in Israel, when he was Pini Gershon’s assistant at Maccabi Tel Aviv in 2005/6 and then continued with him and Erez Edelstein to the Olympiacos. Hussein got his first job 10 years ago, as head coach of Maccabi Haifa. Three years later, he had the biggest opportunity, when he was appointed coach of Hapoel Holon in place of Lior Lubin. He finished one full season (2014/15) but the following season was sacked in the seventh round with the team in last place after 7 rounds. In 2017, he arrived in Kiryat Gat during the season, was relegated – and the star of who is considered one of the future coaches of Israeli basketball – suddenly faded.
The way back to the top of Hussein Mefles right these days. He went up in the league with Hapoel Haifa, and built a good and balanced team with a not very high budget, while “hurting” the foreigners, the old and the young, and the club is very pleased with him. You could say that after years of shuffling, some even without working in any team, Hussein is finally starting to be the coach everyone expected him to be.
Lightning Peleg
In the previous two terms in the first division, Peleg (48) did not really succeed – when he was actually a partner in two relegations. But it is possible that now, after some roles, he is more due to also return to the top league. The former player coached Gilboa / Galil in 2014/15, but was fired with a balance of 17: 5, when Ariel Beit Halachmi, who came in his place, also failed to save the team from relegation. In the 2017/18 season, he replaced Ofer Rahimi but failed to save Maccabi Haifa from relegation.
He remained the coach of the Greens from the Carmel in the second division as well, but just before the playoffs he was fired in light of the team’s crisis – and Daniel Savannah cut the fruits and went up in the league. This season, Peleg has the opportunity to return to the Premier League from the front door. Two teams will advance from the national team, and with a squad that includes players like Jonathan Fairle, Kendall Anthony, Anthony Peter and DJ Sharp, he can and should do it.
Shai Saglovitch
The new coach of Urbani Nahariya, 36 years old in total, is making his first steps as head coach of the Premier League. Saglowicz was for years a man of Arik Alfasi: he played under him in the youth of Barak Netanya, and in the 2008/9 season, when he was only 24, he was appointed Alfasi’s assistant – a position he held for three years. After continuing his seasons at MK HaBaka and Gilboa / Galil, he returned to work again with his mentor, in the city of Nahariya.
Saglowicz has coached Yavneh for the past two seasons, when this past one came out deprived, in light of the controversial decision to stop the league due to the Corona and raise the first two at the same point in time, Bnei Herzliya and Hapoel Haifa. Yavne was in third place. In the summer he was in advanced negotiations with Nahariya, who eventually preferred to go on safe with Danny Franco. But after Franco’s resignation, Saglowicz again received the call – and this time not to help or support from the side, but to sit in the driver’s seat. Nahariya in the league, not an easy task at all, it would be a beauty of development for him for a coaching career.
Yonatan Alon
Yunchuk has been an assistant coach in the Premier League for a full decade. He is considered a domestic product of Hapoel Jerusalem, got the first job in the coaching staff in the first term of Oded Katash in 2011, and since then he moved to Hapoel Holon, where he worked with Elad Hussein in the first term and with Dan Shamir in the second term, with a break in Maccabi Ashdod under Meir Tapiro. For the past two and a half years, he has served as Katsch’s assistant in Jerusalem, and last summer his name was mentioned as a candidate to replace Nadav Zilberstein in Ness Ziona. After a decade as an assistant, at 39, he feels due to lead his own system, and it is not inconceivable that this coming summer this will also happen.
Dror Cohen
Since retiring from the game, the 47-year-old Cohen has worked with the most senior coaches: in 2011 with Katsch in Jerusalem, in 2014 with Efi Birnbaum in Herzliya, in 2019 with Zvika Sharaf in Rishon LeZion, and in the last two years with Guy Goodes in the first team and with Katsh in the national team. With such a mileage, it is not clear how Cohen has not really been mentioned even as a candidate for a Premier League team in recent years. Anyone who has worked with Cohen will attest to a high-level professional, a basketball mind no less brilliant than experienced and esteemed head coaches, but it is possible that Cohen’s (too?) Quiet nature prevented him from making the leap to this day.
Shmulik Brenner
It’s very difficult to get the first job as head coach in the middle of the season, after the dismissal of a coach as experienced as Eric Shibek. It’s even harder that the one who gives you the chance is Yitzhak Perry, whose dismissal trigger is known to be easy. Already in real time, Brenner’s dismissal drew criticism, because the coach, now 39, actually recorded not bad results and a balance of 7 wins and 6 losses in the regular season. Since being fired in April 2018, Brenner has been waiting for another opportunity, and has yet to get it.
As a player Brenner is considered almost from the first moment a coordinator who plays much more mature for his age. In the beginning he was considered a real diamond after winning the high school championship with ORT Kiryat Bialik, but just as a player he had a hard time making the leap to the big teams, so as a coach he is now paying tuition while waiting for more invitations for almost 3 full years.
Fellow Resin
One of the young coaches on this list (33) has already made one baptism of fire – when he took over, surprisingly, Hapoel Holon at the end of last season after Stefanos Dadas stayed in Greece during the corona break. Although Sharfi won only one game out of nine, he did so in the playoffs, against the impressive Gilboa / Galil, and was not far from taking Holon (weakened in the corona version) to the Final Four.
He started as Nadav Zilberstein’s assistant in Ness Ziona and from there moved to Holon, where he worked with Dan Shamir and later with Sharon Drucker and Dadas. In Holon, there is talk of a very thorough professional, and he himself did not hide his desire to become a permanent head coach one day. This has already happened, albeit in rather angular circumstances, but do not be surprised if it happens again – and Sharaf (no connection to Zvika) will get the keys to his own team.
Uri Cuckoo
Everyone we spoke to prior to this article stressed that no list of future coaches could be complete without Uri Kukia. “Koki”, who will celebrate 40 this May, retired from the game only two years ago, after he had already retired in 2014 and was immediately appointed one of Danny Franco’s assistants at Hapoel Jerusalem, and together they won the first championship in the club’s history.
At the end of that season he decided to retire, and until he finally retired in 2019 he moved to Hapoel Raj, Urbani Nahariya and Elitzur Yavneh, and this season he was appointed the head coach of Maccabi Raj and already this season leads her to a very surprising balance of 3: 7, and second place nationally, In the qualifying position for the Premier League. The strength that professionals attribute to Cuckoo is mainly in human relations, the ability to get players to play for him, but when it comes to experience, Cuckoo of course still needs to accumulate it.
Amit Ben David
The 43-year-old “Benda” has always been considered the coach’s extension on the floor, with peace, calm, experience and endless playing wisdom. The man who continued to play at the Premier League level until the age of 38, began his career as an assistant under Danny Franco at Hapoel Tel Aviv in 2018, and for the past year and a half has served as Daniel Savannah’s assistant at Maccabi Haifa. Anyone familiar with his work tells of a very diligent professional, with endless knowledge of basketball, with an emphasis on proper team building and the psychological aspect. But when it comes to leadership, vocals and charisma – he has another way to go.