Pro Volleyballers Ready for Action

‘The excitement experienced at Doha will continue on Korea’s home courts.’

The youngest of national professional sports, professional volleyball, which made its start in 2005, is on a roll. This is because while other professional ball games were disappointed with no medals, men’s volleyball beat down the “great wall” of China to win their second consecutive gold medal.

On December 23, the professional volleyball league 2006-2007 will start their 100 day ‘spike fest,’ with an opening match between LG and Korean Air in the city of Gumi. This will be followed by an official opening match between the two teams that played for the championships last season, Hyundai Capital and Samsung Fire & Marine Insurance, at Jamsil Students Gymnasium on December 24. Both men’s and women’s league will play six rounds, in which the amateur teams Korea Electric Power Corporation and Sangmu were invited to the men’s league (six teams) with each team playing 30 matches, while each team in the women’s league (five teams) will play 24 matches, going into a long term race until April 2, 2007, including the post season.

Different Team Players Played Their Parts-

At this year’s Asia Games, the Korean men’s volleyball national team was allocated as a top seed, therefore they played three games starting from the quarter-finals to the finals. Interestingly enough, the top player for each game belonged to different teams. At the quarter-finals against Iran, who had been Korea’s opposition in the 2002 Busan Asian Games finals, ‘bomber’ Shin Jin-sik (Samsung Fire & Marine Insurance) scored the most points (17 points), while at the semi-finals against Qatar, the ‘Scud missile’ Hu In-jeong (Hyundai Capital) was the highest scorer with 21 points. At the finals against China, Lee Kyung-soo (LG) recorded 20 points. There will be tight competition now, as these players will return to their own separate teams and play against each other.

Rooney-

The best star player of the 2005-2006 season was the foreign player for Hyundai Capital, Sean Rooney. His good looks and strong spikes hit from a span-length above other players were what led his team to victory and made him so popular. As Rooney settles down once again on the left side of the Korean courts, opposing teams have been busy recruiting right position players to fight against Rooney on the other side of the net. LG selected Frederick Winters, the former Canadian national team player and Rooney’s old roommate when they were at Pepperdine University, while Samsung Fire & Marine Insurance and Korean Air have given high-jumping Brazilian players the mission of knocking Rooney down. The women’s teams are expected to show a more enhanced performance as they are also able to include foreign players in their teams, starting from this season.

More Lively and Interesting-

The Korean Volleyball Federation (KOVO) has changed regulations this season so that volleyball fans can enjoy the games more. Not only have the women’s teams accepted foreign players, but the two-pointer back attacks, which had been largely responsible for dull games, have been limited to two per set. Also, the uniforms for women volleyball players have been changed into sleeveless tops and hot pants, similar to that of the Cuban team. Korean Electric Power Corporation and Hyundai Engineering and Construction teams have moved their training base from Masan to Suwon.

jeon@donga.com