Harry Lange still enjoys cult status in Bad Nauheim today. As a player, coach and sporting designer, the Austrian-born player shaped the club for more than a decade. On Sunday, the 42-year-old returns to the Colonel Knight Stadium for the first time – albeit on the visitors’ bench, as head coach of Düsseldorfer EG.
Lange celebrated the league title with the Red Devils in 2013, then completed five complete second division seasons without missing a single game and received a rare official farewell game in 2018. He later led Bad Nauheim as coach and sporting director to the DEL2 final in 2023. The return is correspondingly emotional: “Never in my life would I have thought that I would come to Bad Nauheim as an opponent,” emphasizes Lange, who has almost exclusively positive memories of the club. In terms of sport, both teams are aiming for important points in the fight for the top 10 places. In total, Bad Nauheim and Düsseldorf will meet three more times this season.
The separation from the Graz99ers in November “was a punch in the stomach,” says Lange, and he is still convinced: “We were on the right track.” After that, he actually expected a longer break. A change within the ICE Hockey League was contractually excluded by the Graz99ers. Then the DEG surprisingly contacted us, “and of course you start to think about it,” the 42-year-old told the “Frankfurter Neue Presse”.
Lange took over in Düsseldorf in mid-December and initially signed until the end of the season. After a false start, a clear improvement in performance followed: 14 points from nine games currently mean ninth place. The team has been much more stable recently, particularly defensively – despite personnel losses.
Lange is cautious about a possible sporting future in Bad Nauheim, but emphasizes the close emotional connection to the club. For 60 minutes on Sunday, however, all friendships are on hold – then the only thing that counts for the former audience favorite is sporting success with DEG.
Image: HCI / PAPA Productions
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