the volunteers of the 2014 FIVB Men's World Championship in Katowice, Poland
Katowice, Poland, September 12, 2014- Players, coaches, referees, officials and organizers are under the spotlight of the Media at the 2014 FIVB Men's World Championship in Poland, but behind the scene there are about 1000 volunteers working day and night to make the great success of the competition in Poland.
In the different cities there a lot of people who are working hard to help everything going smoothly including the team guides who are the first link to the teams and coaches to solve any problems they may face in their daily action. Beside those there are the people who assist in the media and help the marvelous image of the competition to be transferred to the whole world.
A lot of young boys and girls are working as moppers and ball retrievers in all the courts to assist the proper conditions during the matches. Some others are involved in the transportation of the teams and officials from the hotels to the venues and the vice versa. Another function for the volunteers is the distribution of the documents inside the halls to the Media, officials and the guests of honour. Those are the people behind the success of the championship in Poland.
The Cheer leaders are another type of people who share in the entertainment of the fans during the matches and between the sets and play a great role in keeping the whole environment happy whatever thrilling the game is.
"Tentatively, the closest people to teams are their Team Guides," this is the statement of the Brazilian team guide Alicja Nowosielska."Brazilian team is 100% professional. In the morning they train in the gym, and then they rest for some time and train in the hall later. The plan is made by the coach Rezende, they work very hard all over the day. In the match days they keep a lot of concentration and go according to the general rules made by the technical staff."
Monika Wysocka, team guide of the Koreans who were eliminated from the first round, explains that she was a kind of first contact for them with the organizers. The information from the organizers to the team passed through her. Asked about the Koreans, Monika Wysocka said “Korean Team did not have any special requirements. These are nice, kind and warm people, but as they came from far away to Poland, you had to give them some time to get used to the situation”.
Besides players and referees on the court we can see a group of teenagers. Oliwia Tomalik, explains that they are officially called “moppers” and are responsible for cleaning the court and retrieving the balls to players.
Wiktoria Ziarnik adds “we got there through our school and club, because we are in the volleyball class”. Monika Bratek states that they are close to players during matches and happy to be there, “we can spend time around the thing we love – volleyball”.
Moreover, in Katowice, there are about hundred volunteers who are supervised by 5 leaders and the chef of the volunteers, Dawid Liput.
Some of them already volunteered at the sport events before and for the others it’s the first time. They’re working in various sections as anti-doping, medicine, VIS statistics, marketing, accreditation, public space and information. This last section requires help of about 45 of them! The volunteers work also at the press office and are responsible for preparing the conference room, distributing statistics to the journalists or gathering players’ opinions in the mixed zone.
We shouldn't also forget about people who are responsible for organization, technical things, security, and cleaning, catering and more other jobs.
These are people of various ages, with different goals and dreams in their life. The one thing they are have in common – they all wanted to be a part of one of the biggest events in Poland and help in making it happens. They do not stand in the front row, but they’re doing great job. Without them this Tournament wouldn’t be the same success. They are really behind the great image showed by the polish in this unique competition.