For years, the Belgian Cats have been a part of the European Championship. Their first-ever appearance at the event was in 1950. Since then, the team has made it to the championship 14 times, including their first international, their biggest win, and their biggest defeat. However, what has been their best performance was when Emma Meesseman led the Cats to win the EuroBasket Championship title and secured two third-place spots in 2017 and 2021. After this, there is an equally motivated and energetic force working behind the team, pushing them beyond their limits.

That force is the combination of a head coach and an assistant coach. In the case of the Belgian Cats, it’s the head coach Rachid Meziane, and assistant coach Jill Lorent. So, let’s explore this relentless force that is making the Cats work while they aim for an Olympic gold.

Head coach Rachid Meziane

Born in Clermont-Ferrand, France, Meziane was always destined to become a coach. He began his career as an assistant to Aldo Corno at Challes-les-Eaux in 2006. He served in the position for six years. Then, in 2012, he started coaching a French professional basketball club, the Cavigal Nice, which was the first in LF2 in the LFB at the time.

Although he had to face relegation to Ligue 2 in the 2014-15 season, the club kept him, and he led the team to the elite Ligue Feminine de Basketball for the 2015-16 season. Together with Meziane, the Nice kicked off the season with 5 consecutive victories.

Meziane’s key that gave the season such a huge start was that he had recruited a limited 5 players who had the experience of performing in the LFB. The process included some heavy scouting work, and it paid off. These players made up the starting 5 for the team while the remaining of the roster included a few players from the last season and integrated them with some young players from his training center.

Meziane’s efforts to consolidate such a dynamic roster surely paid off, allowing him to create a natural hierarchy of functions within the team. Moreover, he was moving with a vision to stop the elevator effect and stabilize the first team in the LFB, which eventually led the team to be a valuable part of the division. “I think that a metropolis like Nice deserves the Eurocup,” said Meziane.

As a result, his team qualified for Europe. In 2016, the club then re-signed Meziane for two more seasons. The next year, he joined Montpellier or BLMA, which is a French women’s basketball club from Lattes, Montpellier. However, he couldn’t stay there for long as he was having conflicts with the management staff within a few weeks before he kicked off his second season at the Herault club.

Two years later, Meziane replaced Frederic Dusart to lead another LFB team, the Villeneuve-d’Ascq, and has been guiding them till now. His presence on this team’s coaching staff has ensured the team with a continued tenure in the LFB. Defining his career, he received a multi-year contract extension in 2022 after he delivered a ground-breaking start to the 2022-23 season.

His road to becoming a head coach on the international level wasn’t a straight one either. In 2014, Meziane served as an assistant coach for the French women’s team under Valerie Garnier, who was in charge of the video analysis. In 2015, the team clinched a silver medal at the EuroBasket Women.

Then, in January 2022, he again served as an assistant coach under Valery Demory, head coach for the Belgian women’s basketball team. By the time December came, he ousted Demory and was promoted to the head coach of the Belgian Cats.

Since then, Mezaine has been carrying the team to new heights. Last year only, he led the team to their first and historic FIBA Women’s EuroBasket title. He then led the Cats to the FIBA Women’s Olympic Qualifying Tournament. He made the most of the opportunity of what was the largest crowd (around 10000+ in attendance), the Belgian Cats had ever played in front of and they played against the USA national team.

However, he has a coaching staff behind him that provides the needed support.

Meet Jill Lorent, assistant coach for the Belgian Cats

Assisting Meziane in the process is Jill Lorent, who has been the trusted right-hand man for coach Eddy Casteels and is the head coach of the Young Leuven Bears. Through coaching, Lorent has been expressing her passion for basketball. Besides assisting the Belgian Cats in their second Olympic Campaign, Lorent is working for Stella Artois Leuven Bears.

For the 2024 Summer Olympics, Lorent became a member of the Cats’ new coaching staff with Rachid Meziane and assistant coach Pascal Angillis. Besides Lorent, Angillis has brought heaps of coaching experience to the mix as head coach and an assistant coach to the Cats under Nebby Mertens and the Belgian Lions under coach Casteels.

Stay tuned for more such updates and join us for the exciting second episode of the “Dual Threat Show” as our host BG12 sits down with Georgia Bulldogs star and Mountain West All-Freshman Team Selection, Asia Avinger