“It was a miracle that nobody expected, not me, the players or the Czech Volleyball Federation,” Zach recalls the Cinderella story that lead him and his team to the U19 European championship title almost exactly one year ago. The team beat Italy in the final to claim the first ever Gold for Czech Republic – an unprecedented success for the country - adding it to a bronze won in 1999.

 

We can describe the award Jiří received later in the year in the same manner, as Volleyball is still not among the top team sports in Czech Republic: “The coaches that were nominated alongside me have received much more appraisal from the media, so I definitely did not expect to win. But I really enjoyed this moment. Actually, I do not like the verb “to enjoy” – I think it is not possible to enjoy the match. There is still fear, pleasure, fear and then explosion in case of a win or sadness, if you lose. It has nothing to do with enjoyment. But this award – when I heard, I was the winner, I enjoyed it."

 

Every team of Jiří Zach, including the boys competing in Zlín, have all signed a mutual manifesto that they will give their all in trainings and games and will always speak about their problems out loud. “The manifesto really exists and it worked well with the U19 team last year and it probably was one of the reasons, why we were such a strong team. It is the obligation for all of the players not to be only passive members of the team, waiting to become superstars. They must be active and think about the team as their thing, not only the thing of the coach. The players sign this manifesto voluntarily.This impacts the culture of the team and the players are more interested in what happens to the team as well.”

 

Jiří Zach did not discover Volleyball as a player until he was 15, as he was involved with table tennis and football in his childhood. The idea about becoming a coach, however, was an obvious one. “It was a natural choice for me going hand in hand with my career as a teacher. In addition, I was always interested in “why” and "how”, so I attended my first coaching class at the age of 19.”

 

Currently Zach works with the U18 and U16 men’s national teams and hopes to eventually take over the current U14 team as well. “I do not know, how to relax. In the last years, the longest vacation I had, was five days. I really need the adrenaline I get from being at the games. I cannot live without it.”

 

Going into this tournament the Czech team set a goal of a top 8 finish. Before the last day of pool games Czech Republic has two wins from four matches and is ranked third in Pool I. After losing the game against Turkey yesterday, the coach said he believed they still have a chance at making it to the semi-finals, if they beat Germany. Even though the Germans have not lost a single game in #EuroVolleyU18M, Greece and Turkey showed that they are not untouchable and Czech Republic does have the home court advantage, so we will see, how events unfold.