Beware of externals. Always. In the midst of the players, she looks tiny. But to stop at that image would be to misunderstand this great lady of French basketball. Despite the centimeters that she is giving back to her new “protector”, Valérie Garnier – who is at least 1.70 m below the fathom – does not hesitate to give up her person.
Alert, reactive, she interrupts an action that doesn’t suit her and regularly goes from talking to action, jostling in the middle of these “big ones”. “Nevertheless, I ask you to behave calmly, to look out for me,” laughs the person concerned.
“The disappointment of not doing the games in Paris”
We left Valérie Garnier in September 2021, tired from a long summer campaign with the Bleues du Basket – who had seen him chained at the Euro in June (done with a silver medal) and the Tokyo Olympics in August (with bronze medal) -, and frustrated not to have been renewed at the helm of the French team.
“The disappointment, the scar, is mainly not doing the games in Paris,” she said. I’ve already done three (2012 as an assistant, then 2016 and 2021), but I wouldn’t have said no if I had finished fourth and finished in France. I could breathe a little, but since last summer I’ve had to find a place to train. »
She continues: “I live in a little paradise, in Carqueiranne in the Var, but I felt a lack. I gave a lot to my sport, it’s a real passion and I didn’t want it to end like this. I want the decision to be mine. I feel better since I’m back on the pitch. »
“Coming here took me out of my comfort zone”
We therefore find her in great shape this month of March, with a smile on her face, during a morning training session in Tours. His new club. “I feel like I’m getting younger,” she laughs, wearing the French team’s sweatshirt on her back. I don’t know how to do anything and I love that adrenaline, it’s almost visceral. Coming here took me out of my comfort zone, love it. »
“It forces me to reinvent myself because I have to propose and create other things,” she continues. Men’s basketball is airier, more physical. They are athletes, but the knowledge of the sport, the requirement, is not the same as the players I had on the French team or in the Euroleague. For me, being a coach is the path of my life, I learn something new every day. That’s the beauty of this job. »
Since last December, the former coach of the Blues and her 5 international charms collected between 2015 and 2021 has therefore “embarked on a new adventure”. Combining basketball with men. She is the new coach of the Tours team that plays in National 1.
Coincidentally, she now lives a few acres from the clinic where she underwent cancer surgery in 2017 during her training in Bourges. “Everything is fine, the latest results are good,” she says.
A pioneer who switches between the two worlds
At 58, she discovered a universe that attracted her – “there are things I’ve always liked in men’s football that I would have liked to bring to women’s football” – but which she had never really dared to patronize. Held back by the implied weight of tradition, by the force of habit. “I didn’t hesitate when my agent told me about the Tours offer in December, but it took me time upstream to accept the fact that I could break into the men’s division,” confides Garnier. The thinking was long. »
Before her, only Lauriane Dolt (40), former assistant to Vincent Collet in Strasbourg (Betclic Élite), had taken the leap to become coach of a men’s team, that of Mulhouse, with which she reached the final of the N1 playoffs last season. “She helped the leaders think of a woman training the men,” the elder said. But if Dolt is a pioneer who has always coached in men’s basketball, Garnier is the first to transition between the two worlds, transitioning from one to the other.
“After the games (from Tokyo), I had a proposal from Canada for the national team and then from Galatasaray (in Turkiye), but in the end it didn’t happen, says Garnier. Last summer, at the traditional coaching academy meeting, I had nothing in front of me, it was the desert. Claude Bergeaud (former coach of the Blues) then throws me: Why don’t you go to the boys? I’m talking about it with Vincent (collar) which also encourages me. It makes me think. »
“Unfortunately, I felt that if I took a different direction in my career I would not be able to return to women’s basketball, which meant I closed any possibility of finding a Euroleague club, the highest level. Today I know that’s not true. »
When her arrival in Tours was announced, she received many congratulatory messages. Perhaps proof that mentalities are changing.
“We hired a coach who has rare experience at a high level, the fact that it’s a woman is that extra something,” believes Romain Régnard, the club’s general manager. This has sparked a bit of curiosity and perhaps concern from some partners, but there are few coaches, male or female, of Valérie’s level. She moves the lines for the other female coaches. »
“It won’t be an issue if people stop talking to me about the status of women”
Now it’s not uncommon for Garnier to attend events organized by the club to highlight his career. “It’s nice that we’re talking about ourselves, we won’t hide it,” smiles the six-time French champion, three times as a player and three times as a coach. I’m proud to be among these men and will be even more so if we manage to move up a notch. I’m happy to have fun at my age. But that won’t be an issue if people stop talking to me about the status of women. »
And to take the example of Corinne Deacon, the former coach of the French women’s soccer team, who was sacked from her post in early March. “What happened to him is violent and unfair. It proves that as women we have no room for error.
“How many of my colleagues have had to quit for lack of suggestions? A woman is quickly forgotten, no matter the environment. Even Claire Chazal talks about it in her book. The rules are not the same whether you are a woman or a man. We accept the authority of a man, not a woman. »
“She calls us girls instead of boys”
For Garnier, management means “dependence on the project”, “co-construction”. In the first individual interviews with her group, she wanted to get to know the personality of the man as well as the athlete. “I’ve noticed that the men talk a lot, a lot more than the women when they’re confident,” smiles the coach. I was expecting discussions to last 20 minutes, with some lasting over an hour. »
“There’s a lot of sharing, she asks us for our opinion, she connects us with her choices,” confirms leader Pierre-Etienne Drouault. We all know his name, his experience and his CV. She has won many trophies. She has a lot to teach us. Athletic density and aerial play are the main differences between men’s and women’s basketball, they had to adapt. »
Another player assures him: “The fact that it’s a woman doesn’t change anything for us… Except that sometimes she calls us girls instead of boys,” laughs the woman affected. Stubborn old habits.
“She’s precise in what she says and what she asks for,” Drouault continues. She has charisma, a rare experience at a high level, whether with Bourges or the French team. She pays attention to the smallest detail. If we adjust ourselves by a few centimetres, it won’t work. She brings us this attention to detail and her expertise. Even if it means walking into the midst of these giants.
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