A Game like No Other: Joel Banks faces Greenyard Maaseik

A clear victory in the group stage of the CEV Champions League against Greenyard Maaseik this Wednesday (18 Dec at 7.30 pm) could see the BR Volleys advance to the play-off round. For Berlin's Head Coach Joel Banks, it will be his second reunion with the famous club from Belgium, where he made his breakthrough onto the European stage.

‘Emotional’. In one word, Joel Banks summarises how it felt to be back at the Steengoed Arena, where he was coach for almost six years, one season as an assistant and four and a half seasons as headcoach. Where he won the Belgian championship twice with Greenyard Maaseik.

Where he won the Champions League first leg 3:0 with his current team, the Berlin Recycling Volleys, just under four weeks ago. Everyone in the arena and on the live stream could hear just how charged up Banks was from the primal scream that the 49-year-old let out after converting the match ball. 

It wasn't just the sporting element that stirred up his emotions. In many ways, his relationship with Maaseik, with Belgium, is a special one. Sitting in the stands were his wife and two children, who live half an hour's drive away in the house that the family lived in together until recently and where Banks returns as often as possible.

This time, the opportunity presented itself. The people in Maaseik were also reluctant to let him go. ‘As soon as we arrived at the arena for the first training session, all the people I know were still there, just like before,’ says Berlin's head coach, ‘from those who make sure the toilets are clean to those who prepare the pitch or set up the surroundings. He was even invited for a beer. ‘I said: No thanks, I've got practice coming up! The welcome was incredibly warm. Then I saw the players, the staff, the fans, and it felt like I'd never been away. It stayed like that the whole time we were there.’

To better understand the emotions of the British-born player, who also has a Belgian passport, it helps to take a look at his career. It's unusual enough for an Englishman to be as crazy about volleyball as he is - the sport is about as popular as biathlon in his home country.

This did not stop the man from Portsmouth from pushing ahead with his career full of ambition. As a young professional in his early 20s, the former setter went to Belgium, where he spent three years earning his money with smaller clubs. He quickly learnt: ‘Maaseik was THE team in Belgium. The club with the red jerseys that won the titles and reached the Final Four in the Champions League,’ Banks still enthuses today. Maaseik had the legendary Swede Anders Kristiansson as coach. A certain Vital Heynen, now a world-class coach himself, was his setter. 

‘I knew I would never be good enough as a player,’ says Banks, ’but later as a coach, I imagined I could make it to this club.’ What was nothing more than a dream at the time was to materialise step by step through hard work. His first stop as head coach was at Langhenkel Volley in Doetinchem, where he became Dutch champion in 2012.

Banks then coached the British Olympic team in London, after which he moved to the Belgian elite school in Vilvoorde. He was then actually offered the job as assistant coach at Greenyard in 2016, followed by a promotion a year later. Banks won the Belgian championship with the club in 2018 and 2019 and made his mark in the Champions League.

He had arrived at the top of Europe, an extraordinary rise. What could be better than dreams coming true? ‘I would say 99 per cent of my time in Maaseik was fantastic. It was my club, I gave my heart and soul to it, the best I could give.’ However, it is particularly painful when such a dream is shattered. ‘I was very sad when I was let go.

The one per cent that I don't remember positively was those last two weeks. It hurt me as a person. Disappointment, hurt, anger - but ‘I didn't feel any hatred or bitterness. Maaseik always had and still has a place in my heart.’

Despite all the love: ‘When the referee's whistle blew in the first leg, it was all about winning.’When the draw for the Champions League groups resulted in this clash, I thought to myself: maybe this is the time to make something clear. I wanted to do it the right way.’ And close a chapter for himself. 

After six months at Skra Belchatow (POL), his agent received a call from BR Volleys Managing Director Kaweh Niroomand to discuss a commitment. ‘I was very happy, Berlin was also on the list of my goals, as was Maaseik.’ Just like the plan to become the first British volleyball coach to train a foreign national team. He put it into practice with Finland. And to win many titles. He is working successfully on this in Berlin. 

‘We are very happy with Joel's work and his results,’ says Niroomand, ’he is incredibly disciplined, very structured and a very good communicator. He also has a lot of that polite British style about him, very good manners. The feedback we get from the team, the office and our partners is consistently positive.’ Joel Banks, the gentleman, returns the praise: ‘I had a very close relationship with the club and the fans in Maaseik - but I already have that in Berlin too.’ 

Both sides share another characteristic: Ambition. ‘I have this Berlin yearning in me to always be successful, to win even more,’ says Banks. At the end of last season, after the fifth game of the final against Friedrichshafen, he therefore let out a similar primal scream as he did recently in Belgium. ‘Like my previous coach Cedric Enard, winning the cup, championship and Supercup and reaching the quarter-finals of the Champions League: I had expected that of myself.

From my point of view, I had delivered.’ Banks expects nothing less of himself this season. Another clear victory against his former club would be very important for that. 
The emotions will certainly not be quite as strong this time as they were four weeks ago. Nevertheless, it won't be a game like any other. ‘When I was there, a lot of people asked me when I was coming back,’ said Banks. That's not going to happen any time soon, his list of goals is still too long for that. One of them is that he wants to train a national team again. As much as he considered it an honour to do so in Finland, his ambitions have grown. ‘I want to lead a team to the World Championships or the Olympic Games. And if I can do that, I want to win a medal.’ Banks, who turns 50 in April, still has a lot planned. 

The life of a coach working in the big, wide world of volleyball is exciting. But it can also be quite lonely at times. He calls his family every day, says Banks, ‘I miss my wife, my children. But in this situation, there's no other way’. The coach is clear and honest about it, which is why he answers the question of whether Berlin is home for him openly. ‘I can't say that. My home is where my family is.’ That doesn't mean he doesn't feel at home, on the contrary: ‘I feel welcome here. Everyone has taken me in like one of them from the very beginning.’ He enjoys high-fiving with the fans after matches. ‘I love the culture here, the people I've met. They are friendly, warm and open.

You can be yourself.’ But what if Belgium wanted him back? ‘Never say never,’ says the Englishman. He has Belgian nationality, a house in Belgium, in the province of Limburg, ‘I'm proud to be a Limburg citizen’. That strikes a chord: He will return at some point. Just not now.