When the national volleyball team charges for theirs first championship in 38 years you do it in Frejahallen in Falköping. It’s a bit like coming home for the players, at least for the vast majority.
Federal captain Ettore Guidetti has selected 14 players for the upcoming European Championships in Serbia, Croatia, Bulgaria and Romania – a squad he calls the best that Sweden has ever had. Most are foreign professionals and as many as ten are educated at Riksidrottsgymnasiet (RIG) in Falköping.
Two of them are perhaps Sweden’s biggest volleyball stars on the women’s side after world player Isabelle Haak: twin sisters Rebecka and Alexandra Lazic.
– You got a feeling of what it was like to be a professional even then, says the latter when she remembers back in high school.
– Rebecka Lazic (left) and Alexandra Lazic (right) took a different path to the world elite in volleyball than sisters Isabelle Haak (top) and Anna Haak.
Photo: Paul Hansen
In 2012, they left RIG Falköping and the elite series for professional life in France and became the school’s first ever to complete the last year of study at a distance, only 17 years old. That the backbone of the Swedish volleyball national team, which in the spring broke the championship curse via meritorious qualifying victories against, among others, Ukraine, has a background at Riksidrottsgymnasiet is hardly a coincidence.
– In our time, the competition was huge on the competitions. You had to give the maximum all the time to be able to compete with the others, and that has grown enormously, says Rebecka Lazic, everyday in French Nantes.
The main reason for choosing RIG, which the sisters, who grew up in Arlöv, Skåne, highlight, is to avoid choosing between an elite venture and studies.
– Just to have the opportunity to combine school and training, to have the opportunity to train in the morning as well, it does not exist in the rest of Sweden at that level. Getting into that routine morning and evening as a young person means a lot, says Alexandra Lazic, who today is a professional in Polish Radomka Radom.
– They have tried to attract players in the best possible way. At that age, you need a combination of education and volleyball, and RIG is very good at offering it. It attracted me and my sister very much, adds Rebecka Lazic.
– Germany professional Hanna Hellvig during a training session before the European Championships in Frejahallen in Falköping. She is one of ten players in the EC squad that went to Riksidrottsgymnasiet in Falköping.
Photo: Mathias Bergeld / Bildbyrån
In addition to superstar Isabelle Haak only three players in the national team squad have taken a different path to the elite: older sister Anna Haak, Julia Nilsson and Elsa Arrestad.
According to Ronny Johansson, operations manager at RIG Falköping, it is natural that Riksidrottsgymnasiet has left such a big mark on the national team because most of Sweden’s most talented 15-year-olds apply there every year.
– It is a good starting point for a professional life. You move away from home at a young age and learn to take care of yourself. You grow a lot as a person, know what it’s about when you move on and are much more mature for that step than most other peers who have not gone here. I am completely convinced of that, he says and continues:
– Another advantage is that we have housing, school and hall within what we call the golden triangle. It is five minutes away and then it will be time for studies. If you live in Stockholm, you may have to commute an hour to training and school.
– Vilma Andersson back in Falköping where she went to high school.
Photo: Mathias Bergeld / Bildbyrån
No one in the Swedish EC squad has more routine in the national team than the Lazic sisters. After ten years of qualifiers and international matches, they will finally be able to play a championship together.
– That we get to do this together after sharing this dream ten years ago means a lot, says Alexandra Lazic.
– This is huge for us, to put Sweden on the volleyball map. To show that, well, we are here and will grow and be seen in the near future.
The European Volleyball Championship starts on Thursday 18 August.