Coach Fauthoux, Bourg: 'Loyalty is very important to me'

The Mindicelice JL Bourg en Bresse boss has built something special at the club and hopes to keep it going strong for years to come

He spent his entire professional playing career with one club and learned from the best as he collected silverware at the club and international level. Mincidelice JL Bourg en Bresse boss Frederic Fauthoux has carried all that experience with him to now become a dream maker as a head coach.

Born in Saint-Sever, France, Fauthoux started his playing career with Avenir Serresious Honsarrieu in the late 1980s. After a season with INSEP, he joined Pau-Orthez in 1989 and spent 17 seasons with the club, just 60 kilometers from his hometown. Fauthoux was a defensive hound and a fantastic three-point shooter with great leadership skills.

Fauthoux was quite successful as a player. He helped Pau-Orthez win seven French League crowns from 1992 to 2004. Fauthoux also lifted three French Cups, the last one in his final season in 2007. Fauthoux also suited up 46 times for the French national team and won a silver medal with Les Bleus at EuroBasket 2005.

When he retired from playing professionally, the game called him back. Fauthoux returned to his first club, Serresious, in the French fourth division. In May 2010, he helped Serresious win the Coupe des Landes, a regional competition that dates back to 1946. By winning it, Fauthoux said he had finally realized his childhood dream.

Fauthoux began his coaching career with Pau in the lower divisions. He left to serve as an assistant coach to his former teammate Antoine Rigaudeau at Metropolitans 92, but when the latter resigned in December 2015, just a few months into their first season together, Fauthoux took over and remained head coach for the next five seasons. He has been with Bourg since 2022 and recently signed a three-year extension. Loyalty is, indeed, a big thing for Coach Fauthoux.

"For me, it's very important because when you play for a club, or when you coach one club, it's important to be respected by everybody around the team. So loyalty is very important to me," Fauthoux said. "The sport has changed a lot in recent years and it was easier to see players in the same team for a long time 20 years ago. It is different now, but I like to stay in the same city, to know the people in it."

Not only has Fauthoux committed the next few years to the club, but he would like to keep the core of the team that led Bourg to the EuroCup Finals with him. He simply prefers working with players and people who know his system and whom he can trust.

"It is better and easier to put your hand on the club and on the game. You decide on and choose your players," Fauthoux said. "It would be very important for me, for the city and for this club to keep a lot of our current players for future seasons. Having this continuity is important. It makes things easier."

More and more point guards are becoming head coaches, following a first generation of playmakers turned bosses led by the great Zeljko Obradovic and later on, Pablo Laso. Jaka Lakovic won the EuroCup last season with Dreamland Gran Canaria, Sarunas Jasikevicius has been to four Turkish Airlines EuroLeague Final Fours as a coach, and many more coaches such as Roger Grimau, Tuomas Iisalo, Vassilis Spanoulis, Anton Gavel and Oded Kattash played professionally as guards.

"I have the same spirit, the same patience for this sport. Now, I must teach basketball to the players. When I was a player, it was different because you are focused on your job, on what to do on the court," Fauthoux said. "But I have the same passion, the same intensity, and I want to do it. It is exactly the same.

"Maybe it is easier because when we played point guard on the court, you have designed plays for other players. You must think a little more about other players and you speak more with the coach. So automatically, if you decide to become a coach, you already went through all that and it helps."

Fauthoux played for many different coaches during his 17 years with Pau-Orthez. Even longtime teammate Didier Gadou was one of his last coaches in Pau. Two names stand out, however, for the impact they had on him.

"I had many coaches but Michel Gomez was a very important one for me," Fauthoux said. "If I am allowed to pick two coaches, the second one would be Jacques Monclar. I would say that Michel Gomez had a big brain and thought forward a lot. Jacques was a great leader for our team. Both of them were different, but very important to me."

Now, Fauthoux faces perhaps the biggest challenge of his career: winning the EuroCup and giving Bourg the opportunity to play in the 2024-25 Turkish Airlines EuroLeague. Fauthoux sees this as an extra responsibility that the team should embrace to play its best basketball.

"It's very important because we play for the team, for the club but also for our region. We have a lot of fans and are followed by a lot of people, so it is very important for us to play this final," Fauthoux said. "We are here to compete and the most important thing for us is winning this final."

After losing Game 1 of the best-of-three series at Paris on Tuesday, Fauthoux and his charges face a must-win Game 2 at home on Friday.