Historia sekcji siatkówki (English)
Z Historia Wisły
The History of the Volleyball Section
80 YEARS OF VOLLEYBALL UNDER THE SIGN OF THE WHITE STAR
In response to the question: "Which team sport is the most team-oriented?" - it's impossible to provide a straightforward answer. However, it seems that volleyball is the closest statement to the truth. In this sport, unlike any other discipline, it is incredibly difficult to rectify a teammate's mistake. Here, hitting the ball out of bounds, inaccurate passes, or even the smallest misalignment on the court all lead to one thing – a point lost. On the other hand, the fundamental principle of volleyball – keeping the ball in the air – is guaranteed only by the absolutely perfect coordination of the team. With this exceptional sense of teamwork. With this extraordinary teamwork, Wisła's players shone on the volleyball courts for many years.
Volleyball-Basketball Players
It all began in 1928. The female volleyball players, as full-fledged members of the sports section, immediately joined local competitions after its establishment. In 1929, they won the runner-up title in the Krakow region, defeating Cracovia twice, among others. After the following season, which lacked any success, the section's activities were suspended.
Before World War II, the Wisła ladies also played volleyball in the Society's branch in Przegorzały. However, their true adventure with major sports began in 1946. In the 46/47 season, Biała Gwiazda (White Star) won the Krakow championship title, which qualified them for the final tournament for the Polish championship. The Wisła female players were a sensation at these events. Among eight teams, they took the second place, engaging in an exciting battle for the championship title against the favored AZS Warsaw. This match ended with Wisła's defeat at 1:2, and the intensity of the match is evident from the fact that in the decisive third set, Wisła lost 14:16. However, this success did not lead to further victories. This was due to the fact that most of the volleyball players were, in fact...basketball players. Such was the situation in sports at that time.
In 1952, the club decided to separate women's volleyball and basketball. Specialized training methods quickly brought results for the volleyball players. In the 53/54 season, they qualified for the first-ever league competitions, securing a high fourth place. The following season was even better - Wisła players won a bronze medal. They repeated their success the following year, and in 1958, they won a silver medal. Finally, in 1959, after a dramatic end to the season where the difference in sets determined the championship, the Wisła players proved to be better than AZS Warsaw and, for the first time in history, clinched the title of Polish champions.
Mrs. Józia's Medals
In January of 1961, a significant event occurred in the volleyball community that had a major impact on Wisła's play in the following years. The White Star's roster was enriched by Józefa Ledwig. It's incredible, but over twelve seasons playing in the White Star's colors, until 1972, she won eleven medals in the Polish championships (three gold, three silver, five bronze)! She played 216 matches for the Polish national team, and this number was quite significant in her life. She received a bonus in US dollars for winning a bronze medal at the Olympic Games in Mexico. Unfortunately, this amount was to be shared among the entire team, including the coach. Among the players who shared the aforementioned bonus were two other White Star players - Elżbieta Porzec-Nowak and Wanda Wiecha-Wanat. It's also worth noting that winning a bronze Olympic medal in the land of the Aztecs was a repeat of Józefa Ledwig's success from the 1964 Tokyo Olympics.
The 70s were not as successful. In 1973, the Wisła team reached the final of the newly created European Cup Winners' Cup, but not thanks to any phenomenal form, but to the mediocre class of rivals in the qualifying rounds. It was only in the decisive match that quite a painful truth of Wisła at the time was revealed. During the final tournament, the Krakow team failed to win a single set, and in only two of the nine losses did they manage to score more than ten points. League results were equally depressing, resulting in Wisła leaving the top division for the first time in its history.
The Golden Mothers
The second division quarantine fortunately lasted only a year, and upon returning to the volleyball elite, Wisła's female volleyball players quickly regained high positions, winning the title of runner-up in the country in 1976 and 1977. However, it was only in the first half of the 80s that the real Wisła comeback was to come.
The turning point came in 1981. Although Płomień Sosnowiec proved unbeatable at that time, by winning the runner-up title, the Wisła team demonstrated its great potential. This was fully evidenced during the 81/82 season. white Star, leading after the regular season, left no chances for their rivals in the final tournaments for places 1-4. It's enough to say that the last tournament in Krakow had no impact on the fate of the championship title. Wisła had already secured it four games before the end of the season. It was a real knockout for their opponents. However, after the season, in boxing terminology, it was probably Wisła's coach, Lesław Kędryna, who was worthy of consideration. This is because six players from the starting lineup decided to become mothers! And since, as you know, volleyball is played with six-player lineups, it's easy to calculate how many girls from the first six were at Coach Kędryna's disposal. The course of the 82/83 season, however, showed how strong Wisła's bench was. Although Wisła's players didn't manage to qualify for the top four of the championship, securing a safe fifth place was certainly a success for this team.
The brave Wisła moms returned to the game in the 83/84 season. And they made a comeback in a grand style. For the sixth time in history, they won the title of Polish champions.
In the following season, the Krakow women showed that not only the national teams should be wary of them. During the annual "Silver Net of Wisła Tournament," they defeated the Dynamo Berlin team 3:0. This result is noteworthy because the German team had won the Cup Winners' Cup of Europe in 1984 and 1985. In the context of this achievement, it's regrettable that Polish teams were not participating in European cup competitions in the early 80s. The late 80s didn't bring such significant successes. However, it's worth noting that one of the bronze medalists at the 1988 Polish Championship was the highly promising setter Magdalena Szryniawska, who would soon become known to a wider audience under the name Śliwa.
June Revolution
The years 1990 and 1993 brought the White Star team the titles of the national runners-up. The 94/95 season ended with a bronze medal at the Polish Championships, marking the end of the prosperous years of Wisła volleyball. Since then, until today, they have managed to compete for medals only once, in 1999, while also experiencing relegations to lower divisions three times during this period. Currently, the team competes in the first league, which serves as the direct feeder to the Women's Plus Liga. On 07 June 2006, a sponsorship agreement was signed with the Enion company, which took on the patronage of Wisła's volleyball team. The first tangible outcome of this cooperation was the return of Magdalena Śliwa, an eighteen-year-old two-time European champion, to the club after many years of separation. The team was built around her experience and exceptional skills with the goal of returning to the ranks of the best teams in the country. This goal was not achieved in the 2006/07 season, nor in the following one when Krzysztof Mazurek replaced Ryszard Litwin as the head coach.
In June 2008, there was a revolution in Wisła's volleyball section, both in terms of personnel and philosophy. Lesław Kędryna, a legend of Wisła's volleyball and the coach of the first team, took over for the fourth time, having spent the previous eight years involved in youth training at Reymont. On the one hand, he was the creator of the club's successes in the 70s and 80s, and on the other hand, he was the author of an unconventional maneuver in 1986. At that time, returning to the position of the coach of the top-tier team, he introduced a group of his protégées, the newly minted gold medalists of the Nationwide Youth Spartakiad. In the first season, these 16- and 17-year-olds fought to avoid relegation, and in the following seasons... they fought for medals.
A similar idea guides Wisła today. The team includes a substantial group of "retirees" who, under Kędryna's guidance in 2007, won silver medals in the Polish Youth Championships. It includes players like Izabela Śliwa, the daughter of Magdalena, one of the heroines of those events over twenty years ago.
The primary goal is to build a senior team based on homegrown talent and talented girls from the region who can develop their skills in Krakow. Once the team has gained the necessary experience, it aims to achieve promotion to the top league (Ekstraklasa) within 2-3 years and then compete successfully in that league. This wouldn't be possible without effective youth development. Assisting Lesław Kędryna in this endeavor are Ewa Musiał (formerly Zabajewska, who won medals with Wisła in the 1960s) and Grażyna Śrutowska (the mother of Agnieszka, a former Wisła setter, who currently plays for Muszynianka). In the summer, Zenon Matras, who coaches the second division team of AZS AGH Wisła, joined the coaching staff.
A few months ago, two sports psychologists, Bartosz Wołos and Daniel Wąsik, began working with the first division team. Sports psychology is not widely practiced in Poland but is popular in Western Europe and the USA. In Wisła, this represents a return to the tradition of the 1980s when Prof. Janusz Zdebski collaborated successfully with Lesław Kędryna. Wołos and Wąsik are his students from the specialization in sports psychology at the Jagiellonian University.
Źródło:
