Relaxing for the season finale. The 14 SC Potsdam volleyball players play “Queen of Court”: two against two, whoever wins the rally stays on the field and plays against a new couple.
The mood during training is cheerful, but also focused. Everyone is aware: The fight for the German championship is entering the decisive phase. Captain Laura Emonts is confident.
“Yes, it was a bit ‘up and down’, we started really well, then there was a very difficult phase in December, where I think we lost five games in a row, then we slowly found our way again, yeah, and we’re back on track now I’d say.”
“Familial and professional”
Lost only once in the last ten games, and at a time when there were many corona cases in the team, the previously unbeaten leaders and cup winners MTV Stuttgart were beaten away 3-0 a week ago: SC Potsdam’s path is continuously improving above.
30-year-old winger Laura Emonts, back in Potsdam for three years, played for the club from 2009 to 2012.
“What I think is nice is that he’s still as familiar as he was then, but everything has become much more professional than it was then. The hall alone and, yes, the management, it’s clear, it’s a long time, it’s 13 years , everyone learned from that, and now we can play for the titles at the top.”
“We play in the 1st league to be German champions one day or to win the cup, that’s our goal.”
The money has to be managed
Sports director Toni Rieger is one of those responsible for the rise of the SCP. For eleven years he has been looking for the right mix in the squad of young talented and older experienced players.
A difficult undertaking, because the club does not have as much money available as, for example, the competition from Stuttgart. Potsdam relies on youth.
“We are currently playing with two players who are between 20 and 23 years old, we have a middle blocker in Anastasia Cekulaev, who is 18 years old and who is playing a super season for her age, you have to say, and we hope that that pays off in the playoffs.”
Experience is still lacking
When things get tight, the lack of experience can become a problem. Like last December when we lost 3-1 at home to Stuttgart. The players lost their nerve in crucial situations.
The basis of success remains the good youth work. The volleyball players from Potsdam regularly come out on top at the German junior championships and at ‘Youth trains for the Olympics’.
For 15 years the club has been cooperating with the elite sports school, which is located right next to the volleyball arena. Optimal training conditions – some players made it into the Bundesliga team from there.
For 13-year-old Annemarie Wiedmer, there is still a long way to go: “We have training eight times a week, training in the morning, training in the afternoon, it’s really exhausting, it’s fun, you learn a lot.”
“Money counts in the end”
At home games of the women’s Bundesliga, she often enjoys being the ball girl. Here she can learn something from her sporting role models.
“How they communicate on the field, all the signs and then they know how the player plays the ball, when they have to be there, I think that’s cool, you don’t see that so much when you play it in, you just see it more in the game.”
Another building block for SC Potsdam’s rise to the top 4 in the Bundesliga is the coach: Guillermo Naranjo Hernandez, Spaniard, has been in the Brandenburg state capital for almost four years, before that he was a German cup winner with Stuttgart, among others. Especially in the tactical area, he has developed the team enormously.
In the end it doesn’t depend on you alone, he says in an interview with Deutschlandfunk. “In the end it’s the money that counts. With money you buy better players with whom you play better. Very simple. You can win a game against more financially strong opponents like Stuttgart, but a whole series of finals? Very complicated.”
Secret favorite in the championship final
Nevertheless, he is convinced that Potsdam is on the right track. The budget is increasing by ten or fifteen percent year after year, he says things are progressing step by step.
The coach could also work on himself. Because on the sidelines, Guillermo Naranjo Hernandez sometimes becomes furious. Then he yells loudly at his own players, but also at the referee. And the opposing teams benefit from penalty points.
Captain Laura Emonts remains calm. Every now and then they need a push like that. “Well, I don’t think it’s that great when people yell at me personally, but that has to be the case, and that’s what a coach is there for, and that’s okay, he can distinguish between what’s happening on the pitch and what’s happening privately , and I find that super pleasant about him.”
SC Potsdam goes into the championship final as the secret favorite. Next season at the latest it should work with winning the title. The core of the team plus the coach stay together and still have a contract until 2023.