Rachid Meziane (born 10 February 1980) is a French professional basketball coach who is the current head coach of Villeneuve-d'Ascq and the Belgian women's national team.
 Meziane (left) in 2013 | |||||||||||||||
| Villeneuve-d'Ascq | |||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Position | Head coach | ||||||||||||||
| Personal information | |||||||||||||||
| Born | 10 February 1980 Clermont-Ferrand, France | ||||||||||||||
| Nationality | French | ||||||||||||||
| Coaching career | 2006–present | ||||||||||||||
| Career history | |||||||||||||||
| As coach: | |||||||||||||||
| 2006–2012 | Challes-les-Eaux (assistant) | ||||||||||||||
| 2012–2017 | Cavigal Nice | ||||||||||||||
| 2017–2018 | Montpellier | ||||||||||||||
| 2019– | Villeneuve-d'Ascq | ||||||||||||||
| Career highlights and awards | |||||||||||||||
As head coach:
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Medals
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Coaching career
editAfter being assistant to Aldo Corno at Challes[1] for six years, Meziane became coach of Cavigal Nice in 2012, first in LF2 then in LFB. Despite relegation to Ligue 2 for the 2014–2015 season, he was kept on by Nice and obtained promotion to the elite for the 2015-2016 LFB season.[2] Nice then surprised with five victories in a row to start the season, Rachid Meziane explaining: "Two years ago we had recruited 7 players. This off-season, I made the choice to make a smaller recruitment and to limit it to 5 players who have already performed in LFB to make up the starting five. With Gregory Muntzer [his assistant], we did a lot of scouting work to choose these players. Then, we were able to keep the players from last season that we wanted to keep and integrated youngsters from our training center. This has allowed us to have a fairly natural hierarchy of functions within the team (...) In the short term, we must stop the elevator effect, stabilize the first team in the LFB (...) In the medium term, we want to become a sure value in the division, and I think that a metropolis like Nice deserves the Eurocup."[2] After qualifying for Europe, he was re-signed in the summer of 2016 for two additional seasons.[1] In the summer of 2017, he joined the club Montpellier, from which he was dismissed a few weeks after the start of his second season at the Hérault club, due to conflicts with the management staff.[3]
Meziane replaced Frédéric Dusart at Villeneuve-d'Ascq in the spring of 2019 and ensured the club's continued tenure in the LFB.[4] After a good start to the 2022–2023 season, his contract was extended for three additional seasons in December 2022.[5]
National team coaching career
editFrom 2014 to 2021, Meziane was assistant coach of the French women's team led by Valérie Garnier, in charge of video analysis;[2] the team won the silver medal at EuroBasket Women 2015.[6] In January 2022, he was appointed assistant coach to Valéry Demory, who was then head coach of the Belgian women's team,[7] then in November 2022 following the ousting of Demory, he was promoted to full coach of the Belgian team.[8]
References
edit- ^ a b Amaury Boulay (29 August 2016). "RACHID MÉZIANE PROLONGE À LA TÊTE DE NICE". bebasket.fr. Retrieved 30 August 2016.
- ^ a b c Amaury Boulay (29 October 2015). "Rachid Meziane, coach de ces Niçoises qui épatent". bebasket.fr. Retrieved 29 October 2015.
- ^ Gabriel Pantel-Jouve (13 November 2018). "LEADER DE LFB, LATTES-MONTPELLIER ÉCARTE SON ENTRAÎNEUR RACHID MEZIANE". bebasket.fr. Retrieved 13 November 2018.
- ^ Thibaut Lasser (2 May 2019). "Kariata DIABY s'engage avec Villeneuve d'Ascq, où Rachid MEZIANE sera toujours sur le banc". postup.fr. Retrieved 2 May 2019.
- ^ "Rachid Méziane à Villeneuve d'Ascq pour trois ans supplémentaires". basketeurope.com. 22 December 2022. Retrieved 23 December 2022.
- ^ Arnaud Dunikowski (28 June 2015). "La France en argent". FFBB. Retrieved 28 June 2015.
- ^ Sébastien Darnaux (28 January 2022). "Basket : Rachid Meziane, un Villeneuvois chez les Belges". lavoixdunord.fr. Retrieved 23 December 2022.
- ^ Belga (6 November 2022). "L'entraîneur français Rachid Meziane va remplacer Valéry Demory à la tête des Belgian Cats". lesoir.be. Retrieved 23 December 2022.