30/07/2015 13:35
Getting to know: Bianca Zass and the story of a real Volleyball family
2015 CEV Beach Volleyball European Championship - Final
Klagenfurt, Austria, July 30, 2015. (Beach) Volleyball is a fundamental part of everyday life for the Zass family. The 30-year old Bianca is currently playing at the 2015 CEV Beach Volleyball European Championship Final in Klagenfurt, while her younger brother, 25-year old Thomas, is one of Austria's big names in their 2015 CEV Volleyball European League campaign.
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The 2015 CEV Beach Volleyball European Championship is being covered extensively also on Twitter and Facebook with the official hashtags being #EuroBeachVolley and #BeachEM15
Born in Westendorf in Tirol, Bianca and Thomas starting playing Volleyball quite late. She actually discovered this sport when she was already 13 while attending high-school. “Similarly to many other girls in Austria I also participated in a national Volleyball school competition which is known as ‘Schülerliga’. It didn’t take me long to get to a better level and together with my team we were quite successful. Then I also started to play for a club and I quickly was called up to join the ranks of the youth national team,” explains Bianca. Thomas, who is four years younger, watched his sister playing and decided this would be the right sport for him as well.
Similarly to all other families and households, there are things that Bianca and Thomas have in common and others where they have gone completely different ways. “We are both quite relaxed, but we can get quite emotional as well, depending on the circumstances. Me and Tommy, that’s how I call him, both have good jumping abilities and are able to hit quite hard. People say that our strong shoulders were handed over to us from our father,” says Bianca. “On the other side, I have to admit that Tommy has always been focussing on his Volleyball career a lot more than I did. He knew exactly what he wanted to achieve and did everything to succeed. I remember the time of his graduation from school, when he was so busy with learning, practicing and playing that I hardly got to see him at home,” reveals Bianca and talks about another big difference in their lives: “I really like to be at home and can’t imagine to spend the whole year in a different country. Our parents run an inn in Westendorf, Haus Johanna. That’s my special retreat, at least once a month. Tommy will now play his fifth season abroad. He really enjoys having the possibility to see different countries and to get to know and learn their cultures.”
The Zass-siblings still meet each other from time to time, most probably when one of them is playing. “I watched his first match in the European League in July. Years ago I flew to France when he was playing for PARIS Volley. Friedrichshafen was also quite close to our home, so I drove there from time to time. Tommy came to visit me some weeks ago, when we played a national tournament in Vienna and they had one day off. We spent the last Christmas at home, celebrating all together with the rest of our family.”
After having topped the podium of the Spanish national league with Unicaja ALMERIA this year, Thomas announced that he will join Turkish team ADANA Byz Algomed for the 2015-2016 season. It will be his fifth season in European leagues after playing for PARIS Volley in France, Germany’s VfB FRIEDRICHSHAFEN, Greece’s Foinikas SYROS and Unicaja ALMERIA of Spain. Thomas is also playing a leading role in Austria men’s national team and is one of a few players on the current roster who performed also at the home European Championship that Austria co-hosted with the Czech Republic back in 2011.
Bianca’s professional career is much shorter. Up to 2012 she played Volleyball and Beach Volleyball just as a hobby and had a full-time office job. Then she quit it, left Tirol and switched to another team in Klagenfurt. After one indoor season and some good Beach Volleyball tournaments she got an attractive offer from Barbara Hansel, who was searching for a new partner: “She asked me if I would play with her in 2014. That was a great chance for me, which I didn’t want to miss on. I learned a lot in this first professional season and we had some good results, like the gold medal that we won at the Austrian national championship. Still we agreed to end our partnership, but I quickly found another girl to play with, Valerie Teufl. Now I'm living in Linz, where we practiced together for the whole winter. Another big benefit is that I'm really close to my boyfriend Peter Eglseer now, who was born just nearby Linz.”
Even though Zass/Teufl didn’t make it out of the pool at the 2015 CEV Beach Volleyball European Championship Final in Klagenfurt, Bianca is quite happy: “We performed well, but here you only get to play strong opponents. It was also kind of bad luck for us that we didn’t play Germany’s Borger/Büthe in the end, as they had to forfeit after two matches, including the first game they won against us. Otherwise we might have advanced to the next phase. Now I’m keeping my fingers crossed for my boyfriend Peter, who is also competing here in Klagenfurt with Daniel Müllner and of course for my brother, who will play in Macedonia this weekend.”
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