Wagrain-Kleinarl, Austria, March 22, 2018. Snow Volleyball is a truly unique opportunity for people of all ages and backgrounds to try and play the game – and Wagrain-Kleinarl provided the perfect stage for more than 400 children to do so on a chilly, yet sunny Thursday morning, only 24 hours away from the start of the first-ever, historic CEV Snow Volleyball European Championship.
Wagrain-Kleinarl is the real ‘birthplace’ of Snow Volleyball since it is right here where the first Volleyball matches on snow took place back in 2008. Ten years later, the breath-taking venue set up at the top of the Flying Mozart station – including the iconic Salzburg Snow Space Arena accommodating up to 600 fans – is rightfully enjoying the privilege to crown the first-ever Snow Volleyball European champions.
However, before the top teams in Europe – 24 per gender from as many as 18 countries – take to the courts on Friday morning, 400 kids from all over the Salzburger Land had a great time along with 15 coaches sharing their knowledge of the game and making sure the children will feel and learn what Volleyball is all about.
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t has become some kind of a tradition in Wagrain-Kleinarl that any Snow Volleyball event starts with a Kids Day – and some children have already returned for three or four years in a row already. Overall, the clinic involved more than 400 kids aged 3 to 16 from as many as 10 schools, with a focus on participants aged 6 to 10. Austria’s Beach and Snow Volleyball stars Florian Schnetzer and Daniel Müllner were among the coaches leading the clinic, together with the official #EuroSnowVolley ambassadors, 2013 European Beach Volleyball champion Stefanie Schwaiger and former Brazilian Beach Volleyball star, Pedro Cunha.
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Switzerland’s Raphael Zurgilgen and Remo Spahr spontaneously joined in as well after finding their way to the #EuroSnowVolley venue on Thursday morning already to get a first taste of how it feels like to play on Austrian snow. Spahr is a truly interesting character – he has been playing Volleyball, Beach Volleyball and Snow Volleyball along with American Football. “I train harder and more than anyone else,” he said but he obviously has a big heart as well looking at how genuinely he enjoyed his time with the kids.
Pedro Cunha, a 2012 Olympian in Beach Volleyball with legendary Ricardo Santos and winner of the FIVB Grand Slam in Klagenfurt in 2011, was happy with the experience: “It is my first time playing Volleyball on the snow as I never did that before but I am absolutely enjoying it. I seem to have fallen in love with it from the very first moment.” Stefanie Schwaiger, on the other hand, looks forward to the coming days as well: “It has been an absolutely wonderful experience to spend some quality time with these children and I now look forward to the start of the tournament, hoping that a big crowd will come together and will be supporting the athletes competing here.”
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The kids received a voucher inviting them to attend Sunday’s semi-final and medal matches. If they do so, they will receive an exclusive gift – an official t-shirt to take home as a souvenir from the first-ever Snow Volleyball European Championship.
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