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28 March 2024

UAE appoint new volleyball coach

Grzegorz Rys (left) of Poland signing the agreement with Amer Ali, President of the UAE Volleyball Association on Tuesday. (ALLAAM OUSMAN)

Published
By Allaam Ousman

The UAE Volleyball Association (UAEVA) hopes to usher in a new era with the appointment of Grzegorz Rys from Poland at the national coach.

He signed a two-year contract after arriving in the UAE on Friday and takes over the national squad from Egyptian Ahmed Zakaria, who departed following lop-sided results at the Arab Volleyball Championships held in October in Bahrain.

Rys has been tasked with lifting the standard of the UAE national team for the the 17th Asian Volleyball Championships to be hosted in Dubai in September next year.

“Our dictate is very clear: as the hosts we need to put up our best performance in the Asian Championships next year,” Amer Ali, President, UAEVA declared at a press conference.

“Rys comes here with a lot of top-level experience and we are confident he will build a squad that will make the UAE proud during next year’s competition at the Hamdan Bin Mohammed Sports Complex,” he added.

A native of Nysa, 42-year-old, has a Masters degree in Physical Education from Krakow, after which he qualified as coach from the Academy of Physical Education, first from Krakow and then from Gdansk. He has also obtained a Master Class postgraduate course for coaches of the national and Olympic teams from Gdansk.

"I hope our work will be successful and also I think we have lot of work to do with players. I'm sure players are able to play at high level. I have seen several matches played last year of national team. I think we can build a team. I'm sure we can convince players to work hard. That is very important for us," said Rys.

He sought the cooperation of local coaches like Khalid Al Jesmi and Ibrahim Mannai.

"I invite everybody to work with us. Our doors are open. If someone from local clubs would come to help us, I will be very happy," he added.

After starting off as assistant coach with the Polish men’s team in 1995, Rys went onto train successful clubs like PZU AZS Olsztyn and Morze Szczecin in his native Poland. He also had a foray in the Arab world when Rys took over as head coacho f Egypt between 2006 and 2007, after which he returned to Poland to become chief coach for the men’s junior and youth division at the Polish Volleyball Federation till 2010.

After spending a year as member of the prestigious Coaching Commission at the CEV, Rys became head coach of professional club Lotos Trefi Gdansk Club.

“The new coach comes with tremendous experience and I am sure our squad will benefit from this as they prepare for a prestigious competition like the Asian Championships,” Ali said.

The board of directors of the UAEVA has already laid down a development programme for the national squad that will see the UAE’s next assignment big assignment being the 14th Rashid International Volleyball Tournament to be held in October followed by the 17th Arab Senior Men’s VolleyballChampionships in the same month.

Rys's compatriot Pawel Wrzeszez, who is in charge of the UAE youth squad, will be his assistant coach.