This report is not connected to a single event as usual, but for the period, and soon will be clear why: Bajnokság 2013 / EC Elblag 2013 / Championship of sport societies of Vojvodina 2013 / Club Championship of Vojvodina 2013 / Nyíregyháza 2013 / Plan for the fall 2013 / Bajnokság 2013/14 / League of the R.Srpska 2013/14 / In Memoriam J.B. /...
The last games in the first half-season 2013th we played in Budapest and tentatively agreed on a break "until the middle of August". New Hungarian championship is in start these days, so it is fair to first summarize and convey our impressions from the previous period.
Why? Because the summer break is not what it used to be. Rather than break there were various kinds of things happening. That's something about you may already know, and here we present the important features of a completed story.
One important date to us was comming closer, July 26th, 2013. Please, refresh your memory here (subtitled "History")... Date, like any other, but it proved to be quite tricky to celebrate. Seasonal-competitive hibernation, the height of the holiday season, and so there was the problem to gather the hosts, don't want to mention guests even. In addition, it is not irrelevant to note that some of the potential guests were suffering the intense process of "repackaging" of the local authorities in this period and they just did not feel like socializing.
July 26th, 2008, the date which our story began with exactly five years ago or it went on again after a pause of several decades, if you may like better.
Well, it is period long enough for all the things you can see and experience in the sport. There are rare occasions when something or someone, you can define assured in safe source. Only then will you be spared from your own egos and feelings of others. Therefore, you should take the opportunity offered by the still reliable evidence of the one existence. Source in front of you firmly strives to maintain the reliability, impartiality, objectivity and a direct relationship with readers. It exists slightly shorter than the club, but it describes the entire period of operation, from the first step until today. Also, there is a group OKI "Feniks" on a popular FB, but this source is less formal and less significant for us, although it has its virtues as a more operational and flexible, so we do not give up of any of them.
So please, do not hesitate and scroll through these pages!
Summary of results are here, but analysis of existence, progress and success you can do by yourself, on the way you like.
So, that's it, and so much about it, and in the name of that:
Friends from Brčko woke us up from the siesta and ended our plans for hedonistic summer by a call to the tournament "Savski flower 2013". It is a call, we simply were not able to, nor wanted to refuse. That was the beginning of this "elusive summer ...".
Immediately after that our coach and captain (Baja & Gile) joined the team's trainings of Serbian representation in Banja Luka and Čelinac for the upcoming European Championships in Elblag, Poland. During the next phase of training campaign the OKI Feniks had the pleasure and the honor to assist and participate actively. We provided the terms of trainings held in the school M.Crnjanski and the sport hall of Sport society "Partisan", with a bit of sparring. The trainings were very difficult, great and precisely designed and organized, but it did not mind the great atmosphere that we experienced hanging out with these guys. Special thanks to the Municipality of Kikinda which helped to reduce expenses of representation. About all we informed the local media, and this is one of those articles.
On a weekend that was broken between September and October, we spent in a tournament in Hungary, together with these great guys. A complete tournament report on the from Nyíregyháza you can find here.
After return to Kikinda there was no time to rest, but immediately and next 3 days they continued with two trainings per day in "Partizan" sport hall. It referred to the national team, and the Fenikses were there as "a little help from a friend".
The final part of the training campaign was done in places where these began and from there the team went on a longer trip to somewhere near the Baltic Sea.
As concerning Feniks, we do not have an established term in mentioned sport hall, so the squad had to wait a few days for the works to be completed in the school Vuk Karadžić. Finally, it worth a little wait. The ceiling and roof were repaired, the safety net under the ceiling was removed, volleyball poles were stiffened, the hall was painted and looked as a brand new one.
On the next Saturday Sept 14th members of the Feniks were in Bačka Palanka, where was held "Championship of Vojvodina in Sitting Volleyball for Disabled 2013". A bit more about it you can find here.
So Kikinda guys gave a modest contribution to improving the motivation of national team members by the new success, as they were starting long awaited EC right after this weekend. Nonetheless, there is no doubt that the leaders of the team paid a special attention to the psychological preparation of the players in this competition.
Now I will whisper something for your ears only: I tried to wangle few written sentences about impressions from Poland from the people who were members of the expedition. Of course, Dragiša (Gile) was the perfect choice for that, but it didn't work. So I am forced to make this report "from the studio", from the perspective of a deaf webcam observer. To clarify the adjective in the preceding sentence: watching the live broadcast without sound, from a webcam fixed on Terrain 1 in Elblag sport hall is quite different from watching it with sound, few more cameras, moving & zoom-ing and commentary on TV. The difference of experiencing the scene right on the place does not even worth a talk. The writing of this text has been done according the available informations: the results, the webcam, bulletins & comments on the website and partial story-details I heard from guys.
On the first day met Bosnia and Croatia inside our three-member group. The result was expected.
On the second day followed our first game of the tournament versus Croatia. It is more than clear that this match had to be obtained for any kind of significant Serbian placement in the end of competition. So literally the imperative of win was leading to the quarter finals, to the fight within the first 8 teams. Everything after these qualifications can be subsumed under "what if"! Against Bosnians neither we, nor the Croats can not find any "theoretical" chance, at least not in this era of their sovereign rule of terrains of Europe and the World.
Teams are well known to each other, there's nothing major to hide. It is not enough to say it was "more than a game", that reporters usualy say when announcing every football and basketball game between these two teams. So it was a game in which the players poured all the emotions, all the desires and hopes, all motives and fears, all restless dreams. That pressure grew on both sides every day, starting from the results of group toss until the end of the game.
At the end of the game the scoreboard reads:
Croatia : Serbia 3:1 (25:21, 26:24, 23:25, 25:21)
Following photos were taken from the paravolley.pl website.
The epilogue was described in the second official bulletin. In free translation: "Cap down to the most exciting match of the second day of competition ... and surprising outcome." This comment, results in sets and direct impressions of guys say that they had struggled with all their heart, with strong and intense desire to win. There were opportunities to take the lead, to make the break, but unfortunately the scales prevailed to the opposite side for very, very little.
Day three. Against Bosnia and Herzegovina the outcome of the sets was expected, but the point difference was not at all. The disappointment of yesterday's match or inspired Bosnians? Whatever, but they smashed us.
Days 4-6 -- In the continuation of the Championships guys regained consciousness and played in a big way. After matches inside the group Serbia sequenced only victories. The first on the road was the team of Hungary (3:0), then Azerbaijan (3:0) and Latvia (3:1), and at the end was the team of Lithuania (3:0). All results and final standings can be found in Bulletin No.8. Thus, Serbia was ranked 9th and returned home with 2 losses and 4 wins, Croatia, had 4 losses and 3 wins, ranked 7th and BiH - pure gold, without a defeat in a set!
It is certain that the Poles has organized this event very good, it was very well attended, and we have visited and commented events on our screens.
Serbia - Latvia 3:1
Ladies, match for the bronze: Slovenia - Holland 3:2
Finals (m): BiH - Russia 3:0
A lot of photos can be found on EC website, but the picture of a sport hall after the Championship you can find here only:
Now we have one surreal news. We didn't make any effort (this year) for this one.
OKI Feniks is actual Champ of "Paragames Breda", still and at least for next two years! Hey, that's a serious ex work! :)
So, watch here, please: do you see sitting volley in competition plan? Right, the reason is exactly it isn't there.
This summer I called "elusive", for one additional reason. From the same country came truly very sad news, and it is that Mr. Jose Banfi went to-some-better-place. He was the pioneer and icon of holland and european sitting volleyball, diligent worker, enthusiast and our friend. You can see this news on sites ParaGamesBreda, Paraolimpic commitee, and ECVD.
We had the honour to hang out with the great guy, and you'll recognize him on our photos, captured a few years ago.
R.I.P.
For the following we struggled very much and various things happened. In mid-May in Kikinda, when we finally managed to overcome Mozdulj team from Vác by 3:2 in sets, we didn't even dreamed that we are so much on the way to defend vice-champion title in Bajnokság. At the end of June were a blur of some changes and improvements in the Hungarian sitting volleyball association, and then we finish the job properly in Budapest.
So, Sitting Volleyball Association joined to regular volleyball association and found understanding with the competition sponsors. Thus, the full name of the championship will be from now "Tesco Ülőröplabda Magyar Bajnokság". It was followed by the necessary synchronization of all volleyball championships in the system fall - spring, so far finished first part of the 2013 was virtually completed by the inherited result.
OKI "Feniks" was the second, or defended its title of vicechamps from year of 2012, but this time Mozdulj (Vác) was behind us, and the first place team is Piremon (Nyíregyháza).
Plan for OKI Feniks' activities for the fall 2013 can be reviewed in attached kalendars.
Experiences say that the implementation never falls in line with the plan and that a published plan becomes a weapon to use against his creator. Favorite comment on the same issue to me is "I am using my all efforts and passion to plan everything, I draw, this here, that there, just when I finish all over, then comes the devil and defecates in the middle of the plan."
Anyway, at this point this is all we know,but hypothesis and variants are sidelined. In fact, during the writing of this report the news arrived that the first round of Club Championship of Vojvodina will begin in Subotica on October 19th. We are used to cope with such situations, so there is no reason why would it be otherwise in the future.
Author's final note: I do wear number 13 on my sport equipment, but here I am doing my best avoiding to be elusive. Thanks for your confidence!
Dear readers, that would be the "short" cross section through "the summer break" with slight grab inside the autumn plan.
For more: the news from the ongoing Bajnokság 2013/14. already awaits you here.
P.S. This article is to be published in early November, which is quite convenient to wish all of you a pleasant Armistice Day and to send you a flower symbolizing it in Serbia. It is the flower called (OKI) Feniks! If you are mastered by reading between the lines (here for ex, though in Serbian), you will easily figure what is this all about.
(Your webmaster adds: nothing is coincidental; it's all about synchronicity.)