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WSF proudly presents.... |
Dear friends of the World Sports Festivals!
A long winter season finally started and we will definitely prepare in the best possible way for the upcoming year. It is not always easy to motivate yourself for a sometimes exhausting and hard training. Therefore it is absolutely necessary to set attractive targets that are worth fighting for and accepting these struggles. Especially with young athletes it is essential to offer concrete perspectives they can work towards.
The volleyball tournament at the WSF is in the very lucky position to offer such a motivator: the German top league club SCC Berlin . They confirmed their participation at the WSF 2012.
Use this chance and give your team the possibility to either compete against a professional team or just watch them play to get some precious tips for the following training sessions.
SCC Berlin - Kurzportrait
The German Bundesliga club of the SCC Berlin was renamed Berlin Recycling Volleys in 2011 and is now a division of the sport club SC Charlottenburg Berlin. With three championship titles and regular achievement of the half finals or finals in the German Championship, the team is one of the most successful ones in the recent history of the DVL.
The Max Schmeling Hall in Berlin is seen as the homestead for very important games. During a game against the VfB Friedrichshafen in 2011, an attendance record for a volleyball game in whole Germany was achieved – 8.046 visitors saw a top class match.
The youth of the SCC Berlin is in no way inferior to the big ones – they sometimes even beat them. The children and youth teams were in the position to celebrate in total 19 championship titles – more than any other club in Germany.
Michael Grösch, the youth promoter, is one of the co-respondents for the success of the youth teams and in cooperation with the Berlin Volleyball Association, he will present boy’s teams for both categories U17 and U15.
5 short questions on volleyball in Germany:
1. The SCC youth shows a unique record of success. What are the main factors to reach such a special position?
I would say that the reasons for such a great success are the persistence over many years, the consequence starting at the very little ones and continuing until they are junior internationals as well as the creation of a constant performance structure. Another driving force is our team the Berlin Recycling Volley, playing in the 1st German League. They repeatedly integrate our young talents in their team and since more than 20 years they are playing on the top of the German Volleyball League. Also the whole BR Volley management – supervised by the managing director Mr Kaweh Niroomand – is of significant importance to the overall success of the teams. They are supporting the teams with all their strenght and great engagement as well as immense financial funds. The SCC main club, acting as partner and home base of the volleyball department, is one of the biggest and strongest clubs in Berlin. This background combined with the sound specialist know-how of the coaches result in remarkable successes.
2. How many members does your club have, how many teams are there and how many coaches do you have?
Our volleyball department currently counts about 110 members. Most of them (about 75%) are children and juveniles. Our SCC Berlin Juniors play with two teams in Berlin’s adults league operations and with eight teams in different age categories of the Berlin youth league operations. Since 2010 we have a cooperation with one other Berlin club. Together we formed three teams in which 35 of our children and juveniles are supervised by our coaches and playing in the Berlin Youth League. Currently we employ one full-time and seven honorary coaches in our youth department. A close collaboration with the state coach tops off the team of coaches. Some of our athletes train at the high performance center VCO Berlin and are supervised by the youth national coach.
3. During the games season the young athletes are often on the road. How can they arrange this with their schools?
Coordinating school and sport always poses a challenge. The educational performances of the athletes are as important as sport. It is not only the championship but also the whole season that has to be properly coordinated. The fact that we are a high-performance club offers better structures to us compared to hobby clubs. For the teams of younger age categories up to the 6th class (U13) it is even easier, as they are still at primary school and only slowly lead to high-performance sport. They usually play until they reach the regional championship and their efforts are still manageable. Starting with the 7th level of education, there is the possibility to make use of a sponsorship for high-performance sport and athletes get the chance for school enrollments at elite schools for sport in Berlin. Setting up sport classes means a lot of administrative work. Time-tables have to be coordinated and exams should not be appointed for days during the tournament season. In case there are any schooldays that are entirely cancelled due to competition, the athletes have to go through the learning materials either before or after the tournament day. In general the lessons for sport classes are the same as for any other class, but combined with their sport lessons the day of a highly skilled athlete may have 12 hours. Currently there are 25 athletes of the SCC Berlin in state squads of the age categories U20, U18, U16 and U14 and visit elite schools for sport. Eight of those 25 athletes are nominated for the national youth squad.
4. Are there any international tournaments like the Champions League, where teams from different nations compete against each other, for the volleyball youth?
No, there are no such international leagues in the youth sector. The work and costs would be enormous and possibly only affordable for a very little number of clubs. Nevertheless, there are many big European clubs that offer international tournaments. Our juniors regularly participate in such games. Especially Polish, Austrian and Italian clubs are very active in this sector. The SCC also organizes international competitions in Berlin which are quite popular with international teams.
5. Beachvolleyball enjoys great popularity -are there any options in this sports for the German youth?
Yes, I absolutely agree. Beachvolleyball is really very popular and there are many beach volleyball venues in Germany. At the moment beach volleyball is the number one leisure sports – soccer is only on the second rank. However the number of athletes organized in clubs or federations is very limited. The biggest part of beach volleyball players evolutes from indoor sports clubs. Our athletes too often train on beach fields and during summer they are playing beach championships too. Since 2004 there are beach championships in Berlin for the age categories U20, U19, U18 and U17. The big advantage of Berlin simply is that there was an “Olympic base for beach” installed in the city.
