Gunnar Sverrisson (born 19 April 1970) is an Icelandic professional

basketball coach Basketball coaching is the act of directing and strategizing the behavior of a basketball team or individual basketball player. Basketball coaching typically encompasses the improvement of individual and team offensive and defensive skills, as wel ...

and former player.

Playing career

Gunnar played three seasons in the Icelandic top-tier Úrvalsdeild karla and two seasons in the 1. deild karla for ÍR from 1989 to 1996.

Coaching career

In 1994, Gunnar was hired as an assistant coach to player-coach John Rhodes with ÍR in 1994, where he served until 1996. In September 1996, Gunnar was hired as an assistant coach with

Þór Akureyri Íþróttafélagið Þór (, ), commonly known as Þór Akureyri (), or simply Þór or Thór, is a multi-sport club in Akureyri, in the north of Iceland. It features departments in basketball, football, handball and taekwondo. Its main rival is ...

, assisting player-coach Fred Williams. On 23 February 1997, he was involved in two car accidents in a four hours span while returning to

Akureyri Akureyri (, ) is a town in northern Iceland, the country's fifth most populous Municipalities of Iceland, municipality (under the official name of Akureyrarbær , 'town of Akureyri') and the largest outside the Capital Region (Iceland), Capital R ...

after Þór's game against Breiðablik in

Kópavogur Kópavogur () is a town in Iceland that is the country's second-largest municipality by population. It lies immediately south of Reykjavík and is part of the Capital Region (Iceland), Capital Region. The name literally means ''seal pup inlet''. ...

. The first accident occurred in

Hvalfjörður Hvalfjörður (, "whale fjord") is situated in the west of Iceland between Mosfellsbær and Akranes. The fjord is approximately long and wide. The origin of the name Hvalfjörður is uncertain. Certainly today there is no presence of whales i ...

around midnight when one of the teams

minibus A minibus, microbus, or minicoach is a passenger-carrying motor vehicle that is designed to carry more people than a multi-purpose vehicle or minivan, but fewer people than a full-size bus. In the United Kingdom, the word "minibus" is us ...

es, in which Gunnar was in the front passenger seat, was sent swerving and flipped over due to heavy wind. The seven occupants of the car, which were all wearing seatbelts, escaped serious injuries although one of the passengers went halfway through a window. With the help of Skallagrímur fans, who were returning from a game in

Keflavík Keflavík (pronounced , meaning ''Driftwood Bay'') is a town in the Reykjanes region in southwest Iceland. It is included in the municipality of Reykjanesbær whose population as of 2016 is 15,129. In 1995, Keflavík merged with nearby Njar ...

, Gunnar and the other occupants of the bus were driven to

Borgarnes Borgarnes () is a town located on a peninsula at the shore of Borgarfjörður in Iceland and is the largest town in the Borgarbyggð municipality with a population of about 3800 residents. It is a main junction in Iceland and the gateway to the ...

. Half of the team and staff decided to take the second minibus and continue to Akureyri while the other half stayed in Borgarnes. Around 04:00 the minibus swerved of the road due to a blizzard. Gunnar and team captain Konráð Óskarsson had to hike through the storm to a nearby farm to seek assistance. After being towed free by the

Hvammstangi Hvammstangi () is an Iceland Iceland is a Nordic countries, Nordic island country between the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic and Arctic Oceans, on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge between North America and Europe. It is culturally and politically lin ...

police, the minibus finally arrived at Akureyri at 08:00 in the morning. In June 1997, he was hired as head coach to Þór Akureyri for the 1997–1998 season. He returned to ÍR for the 2005–2006 season as an assistant coach to Jón Örn Guðmundsson. Gunnar took over as head coach of

Úrvalsdeild The Besta deild karla () is a professional association football league in Iceland and the highest level of the Icelandic football league system. The competition was founded in 1912 as the Icelandic Championship. Because of the harsh winters in I ...

club ÍR on 4 January 2010, replacing

Jón Arnar Ingvarsson Jón Arnar Ingvarsson (born 3 June 1972) is an Icelandic former professional basketball player and coach. He spent the majority of his career with Haukar in the Úrvalsdeild karla. He retired as the Úrvalsdeild all-time leader in assists but ...

who had resigned for family reasons. He guided the club to the playoffs during his first two seasons at the helm. He left the club at the conclusion of his contract after the 2011–2012 season. He served as an assistant coach to player-coach

Helgi Már Magnússon Helgi Már Magnússon (born August 27, 1982) is an Icelandic basketball coach and former player. As a player, he has won seven national championships in Iceland during his career. Club career In February 2016, Helgi won his first Icelandic Bask ...

for KR during the 2012–2013 Úrvalsdeild karla season. He was fired by the board on 4 March during a reshuffle of the coaching staff and replaced by

Finnur Freyr Stefánsson Finnur Freyr Stefánsson (born 29 October 1983) is an Icelandic professional basketball coach. With KR, he won the Icelandic championship five years in a row from 2014 to 2018 and the Icelandic Men's Basketball Cup in 2016 and 2017. He has ser ...

. Gunnar served as an assistant coach for

Fjölnir Fjölnir ( ) is a List of legendary kings of Sweden, legendary king in Norse mythology said to have been the son of Freyr (Frey) and his consort Gerðr (Gertha). The name appears in a variety of forms, including Fiolnir, Fjölner, Fjolner, and F ...

during the 2018–2019 season, helping them finish first in the 1. deild kvenna.

Photography

Alongside basketball, Gunnar has worked as a photographer since the age of sixteen when he started working as sports photographer for

Dagblaðið ''Dagblaðið'' (, ) was an Icelandic newspaper founded in 1975 by former employees of Vísir with Jónas Kristjánsson as its first editor. It marked a breakthrough in Icelandic newspaper publication as it was the first major newspaper that was i ...

References

External links

Úrvalsdeild statistics
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sverrisson, Gunnar 1970 births Gunnar Sverrisson Gunnar Sverrisson Gunnar Sverrisson Gunnar Sverrisson Living people Gunnar Sverrisson Gunnar Sverrisson Gunnar Sverrisson