The terminally ill master coach wants to return for the play-offs
Returning to the sidelines in the season finale: Tore Aleksandersen
Those: dpa/Soeren Stache
Stuttgart’s volleyball coach Tore Aleksandersen has been suffering from prostate cancer for three years. The disease is now in its final stages and he missed his team’s last games. On the way to defending the title, the coach is now returning.
Dhe illness has been with him for three years. In the spring of 2020, Tore Aleksandersen was diagnosed with incurable prostate cancer. Nevertheless, at the end of the year he signed a contract with the women’s volleyball team from MTV Allianz Stuttgart, which he then led to the German championship and cup victory in 2022.
Now that his illness has reached the final stage and he was absent from the games due to the difficult phase of his health, the 55-year-old now wants to return to the sidelines for the upcoming play-offs. “That’s my goal,” confirms the Norwegian. Although he will still do without the final main round game on Saturday in Dresden. But after the game, which was meaningless for the Stuttgart women who were the winners of the main round, he wants to be there again.
“I’m better,” says Aleksandersen: “I’m currently doing two different therapies. 14 days ago I got pneumonia. I need some time to recover.”
Club finds solution for next season
He doesn’t want to foresee the end of his long coaching career, which began 30 years ago in Norway with building his own team, which he led up to the first division. As long as his strength lasts, he confirms that he wants to continue working as a coach.
Last season’s champions have already made provisions for the coming season and found the best solution for all sides. Konstantin Bitter comes from Schwarz-Weiss Erfurt and will work either as a head coach or as an assistant coach, depending on how Aleksandersen is doing at the moment.
“I think you have to be so honest that we can’t plan at the moment,” said sporting director Kim Oszvald-Renkema, who also exudes optimism: “His future is very uncertain. We hope with him that the therapy will work and that he can be with us again soon.”