Nghe An Volleyball: struggling to find a direction

(Baonghean) - Volleyball is the most popular sport in our province today. However, in the field of high-performance sports, Nghe An volleyball team has never entered the national tournament of strong teams...

Since 2000, volleyball has developed strongly and widely in Nghe An. From cities to plains, from mountains to seas, from agencies, businesses, schools to hamlets, villages... almost everywhere there is a volleyball court and in the afternoon there are people participating in practicing and competing.

Not only do men participate in training like football and many other sports, volleyball also attracts a large number of women to participate. Especially in rural areas, the movement of women practicing and competing in volleyball is no less strong than that of men, typically in the districts of Quy Hop, Yen Thanh, Tuong Duong... On holidays and New Year such as March 8, October 20, many communes also organize volleyball tournaments for women and have attracted many teams to participate and a large number of spectators to watch and cheer. Particularly in Quy Hop, every year there is an Ethnic Cultural Festival taking place on the occasion of the anniversary of the district's founding (April 19), volleyball competition is one of the almost indispensable contents of the program and always attracts the largest number of spectators.



Competing at the 2012 Provincial Farmers' Volleyball Tournament.

From that booming development movement, in the past 10 years, volleyball teams representing Nghe An participating in national mass sports tournaments such as: Farmers' Volleyball Tournament, Ethnic Minority Sports Festival, Phu Dong Sports Festival... have brought back many remarkable achievements.

That seemed to be the driving force and foundation for the development of Nghe An's top volleyball, but the reality was completely opposite. Those who love volleyball in Nghe An have never once witnessed the Nghe An men's or women's volleyball team competing in the highest tournament in the country. Even after a period of existence, the province's men's volleyball team was disbanded in 2006; the women's volleyball team made its mark when it consecutively reached the finals of the national A1 volleyball tournament in 2003 and 2004, but was also disbanded due to a number of scandals.

The decision to disband both the men's and women's volleyball teams by the Department of Sports and Physical Training at that time made many people regretful, because a generation of young athletes from Nghe An who had just entered their prime suddenly became helpless. Some players switched to playing beach volleyball, some packed up and left to find work in other teams, some had to pack their backpacks and go back to their hometowns to plow the fields, there was even a case of a female volleyball player who had to quietly wash dishes for hire at a restaurant near the Provincial Sports Center to make a living (later, this athlete was sympathetic to her situation and invited to try out by the Thanh Long Sports Center in Ho Chi Minh City). Then everything sank into oblivion...

It was not until 2008 that the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism issued a Decision for the Provincial Sports Training Center to re-establish the volleyball department (but currently only women's volleyball is available). After nearly 3 years of selection, training and coaching, participating in national youth tournaments to gain experience, since 2010, Nghe An's women's volleyball team has competed in the national A1 tournament, but in that first participation, Nghe An's young athletes did not win any matches and were ranked at the bottom of the table. In 2011, the young players were more mature and won 8th place. In 2012, Nghe An volleyball team with most of the players still young (the oldest was born in 1990, the youngest was born in 2000) made new progress when they rose to 6th place in the national A1 volleyball tournament. The most notable highlight of Nghe An volleyball in the past 2 years was the discovery and training of athlete Le Thi Kim Lien. This player from Yen Thanh is considered one of the best Liberos in Vietnam today and was once called up to the national youth team to compete in the Southeast Asian Volleyball Tournament, winning a bronze medal. Currently, Kim Lien is one of the members of the Vietnam National Volleyball Team.

“Nghe An volleyball has a lot of potential, but it must be “real to be able to support the way”, Mr. Dao Van Tam - Director of the Provincial Sports Training Center confided. Unlike football, volleyball, like all other sports in Nghe An, currently depends entirely on the funding provided by the province. The state budget is very limited. In the national volleyball tournament for strong teams, the annual operating cost for a team is on average about 10 billion VND. If our volleyball team wins the right to participate in the highest national tournament, it cannot stay. If we want Nghe An volleyball to bring glory to our homeland like football, there must be a different mechanism, we must attract more funding from sponsors, and increase the income of athletes”.

Mr. Duong Van Minh - Head of the Volleyball Department of the Provincial Sports Training Center, shared: "Currently, the income of athletes is too low, so after being trained to become adults, some of them dedicate themselves for a few years and then ask to move to play for other teams, the majority of the rest get married and then stop playing. If there is a rich source of funding, the athletes can make a living from their profession, so they will stick with it for a longer time and certainly Nghe An volleyball will achieve more achievements."

However, Mr. Lo Trung Thanh - Deputy Director of the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism, said: "In the project to develop high-performance sports of Nghe An which is being prepared to submit to the Provincial People's Committee for final approval, volleyball is not included in the plan to focus on key investment. Due to limited state budget resources, we only focus on individual sports to reduce costs. For team sports, we already have football. However, the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism will also try to create conditions for volleyball to develop. If we can find a sponsor, that's even better. Otherwise, we have to accept the fate of poor people striving to do as much as possible."

Hoang Hao