South Baden’s third division volleyball teams start their new season this weekend. There are many innovations in Freiburg, Umkirch and Offenburg, but the objectives have remained the same.
South Baden’s third division volleyball teams start their new season this weekend. There are many innovations in Freiburg, Umkirch and Offenburg, but the objectives have remained the same.
Because the region’s successful artists want to cope with their annual upheaval and be able to stay in the league at an early stage.
Last season, the third division volleyball players of the VC Offenburg relegation on the last day of play. And that’s where they draw their trust. “I think the team will build on that experience this year,” says team manager Richarda Roth (formerly Zorn), who, as a longtime Bundesliga player, helped last year when things got tough. for the all-round rejuvenated team.
He says: “This year will also be about staying awake, but the focus is still on training.” Overall, the team has become stronger. Louisa Seib, who once started in the second division, as well as Hannah Haas; and newcomer Lia Bondar make the team “more compact”, as Roth calls it.
Captain Ekaterina Baimler also says: “We want to show that we don’t have to fight relegation like last season, but we can play at the top.” It would be the golden conclusion to the rejuvenation process and perhaps a sweet first attempt at rebirth of the Bundesliga success period, when Offenburg won three titles in five years and dreamed of the Oberhaus.
60 kilometers further south must VfR Umkirch don’t look so far back to discover golden times. Almost everyone on the third division volleyball team would be satisfied with last season’s squad. Because in Johanna Ewald, Sophie Schellenberger, Romy Glück and Annika Helf, coach Julian Hamacher has to do without four top performers from the previous round.
New, however, are the returning Nele Birmele, Samira Roos and Lisanne Majovski as well as Annika Biedemann and Eva Ulrich. Furthermore, the Umkirchers are hoping that diagonal striker Sophia Bähr, who has experience in the second division, will return during the season.
“The upheaval is even greater than usual,” says Hamacher, whose whereabouts have been uncertain for a long time. As a new father, he will share the managerial position with Philipp Mehne in the future. “It sets a lot of new impulses, it’s a lot of fun for two,” says Hamacher.
Given the many staff shifts, for the moment Umkirch only counts to remain in the league. But it wouldn’t surprise anyone in Breisgau if Hamacher managed to take his team to fifth place like last season.
Competition also establishes itself in equally high areas of the table USC Freiburg On. Last season, third division volleyball players managed by player-manager David Kurz entered the promotion group and finished fourth. And the team once again looks similarly crafted on paper. Kurz himself played for a long time in the second Bundesliga, his best player, the winger Max Meuter, also in the first division.
The setter Marc Zimmermann and the free Philipp Frey also beat in the second division. And the all-rounder Lucas Wenz has already won the Baden-Württemberg beach volleyball championship.
But as always, the devil is in the details at USC. Many of the deserving players are stepping down and will not play all the games. “That is why we have started a collaboration with FT 1844 Freiburg”, explains Kurz. In the future, 1844 talents Mauro Ebner (pass), Mathis Güttel and Johan Schöpsdau (both out of attack) will serve with double playing rights at USC Freiburg. They should support the experienced team and gain first-hand experience.
At the start of the season this weekend, however, Kurz’s team will have to deal with a big chunk: away from home. A certain Jochen Schöps, who surprisingly won the Champions League with VfB Friedrichshafen in 2007 and became the first German volleyball millionaire, crashes into Langen. The 38-year-old, born in Villingen-Schwenningen in 1983, last played for Frankfurt’s first division club but withdrew from the top floor.
There are simpler opening programs than USC’s men’s ones.
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