School Project continues to mobilise kids in Croatia

This past month, the Croatian Volleyball Federation did expand the reach of the CEV School Project ‘Play Volleyball – Grow with it’ even further, especially to the northern and southern sections of their country. 

In Zadar County, Antonio Surać visited the primary school Bartol Kašić in Zadar, where 25 students participated in a volleyball session. For the past four to five years, this school has been one of the most successful ones in Zadar County as far as Volleyball is concerned. Many students are active in local volleyball clubs, and every year new pupils participate in a demonstration training run in conjunction with the CEV School Project. Professor Josip Knežević constantly organises school training sessions where he engages with the children and promotes Volleyball.

The second school visited in February in this very same area is the Smiljevac elementary school in Zadar. Some 22 students participated in the training together with their teacher Marina Tomas, who is herself a former volleyball player. The Croatian Volleyball Federation has been cooperating with this school for many years, and the CEV School Project has further improved that relationship. The best indicator of such a successful cooperation is that after the demonstration training, the children often move to a local club and continue to play there. The Project Coordinator visits the school two times a month and conducts training with the pupils to introduce them to Volleyball as extensively as possible. 

In the Zagreb County and in the city of Zagreb itself, the Tituš Brezovački and Samobor elementary schools received a delegation from the Croatian Volleyball Federation. This was not the first such visit and in less than a year, Volleyball has literally boomed at Tituš Brezovački, especially among girls. The balls and tapes provided in a previous visit certainly helped a lot with the delivery of training sessions for many children. The Volleyball club Dinamo under the watchful eye of Professor Josip Gudelj and coach Mia Erlić now has over 100 players coming from the first to the eighth grades thanks to such volleyball sessions and to the dedication of the coach in this school. The school volleyball team entered the finals of the county competition and has qualified for the national finals for the first time. This last visit involved some 40 girls, who could all show their skills and abilities. 

The Samobor elementary school near Zagreb did welcome a session run by former volleyball player Domagoj Krnić. Professor Saša Kolman and 20 students from the 8th grade were all eager and ready to learn, and those who have already been practicing the game did want to show their volleyball skills too. Some of these students have been training in a local volleyball club for several years. They played fun games and went through the basics of Volleyball. A School Project partner, the Croatian School Sports Association, has also been running its own project in the same school. It is a sports programme focussing primarily on children with developmental disabilities.