After a mostly disappointing 18 months at the helm, Katash notified his players he has guided them for the last time.
By ALLON SINAIOded Katash 311(photo credit: Adi Avishai)
Oded Katash’s reign at Hapoel Jerusalem came to an abrupt ending on Tuesday.After a mostly disappointing 18 months at the helm, capped by Monday night’s 22-point BSL thrashing at the hands of BC Habika’a, Katash notified his players in Tuesday’s training session that he has guided them for the last time.The 37-year-old arrived at Jerusalem with lofty expectations in June 2010 after leading Hapoel Gilboa/Galil to the BSL title the previous season.
However, it quickly became apparent that achieving success at the pressure cooker that is Hapoel would be anything but straightforward.There were few bright spots to Katash’s first season in the capital, with the team crashing out of the Eurocup in the first group stage, losing in the State Cup quarterfinals and falling to Gilboa in the BSL Final Four semis.Despite being handed a three-year deal, there was much speculation Katash would be replaced before the start to this season, but Hapoel gave him the chance to rebuild the roster, only to see it suffer yet another bitterly poor start to a campaign.Jerusalem failed to make it past the Eurocup regular season once more, and despite beating Maccabi Tel Aviv in league action at Nokia Arena for the first time since 1990, it fell to a 6-4 record in the BSL following the humbling loss to Habika’a.The early favorite to replace Katash is Sharon Drucker, who guided Hapoel to the ULEB Cup in 2003/2004.Drucker began the season at Italy’s Montegranaro, but was fired last month.
