Fred Sturm
Though head coach Fred Sturm is happy with his team enjoying this privilege, he is careful when it comes to the predictions about the chances of his group to make it to the top eight.
“It seems like we have been assigned to a group with lot of good teams. It seems like it is pretty wide open as far as which team will finish in which place. For sure it is possible to qualify for the top 8. But that result is not our only goal”, says Fred Sturm. “We do not know enough about our opponents to say what to expect. Many Volleyball experts might say that we will finish sixth in our group because of our ranking in Europe. But in this age group there are so many teams that are capable of playing at a good level”, he says.
Besides his wishes for a good performance on the field, Fred Sturm hopes that the European Championships in 2012 and 2013 to be co-hosted by Denmark and Poland will make Volleyball a more popular sport in the country.
“There are many people in Denmark that are not familiar with international Volleyball. This is a great opportunity for the non-Volleyball community to learn more about the sport. There is a potential and good things can happen by hosting these two championships, for sure”, says Fred Sturm.
“One of the wishes I have is that this European Championship can be a small spark that turns into a big flame. We have seen one example of what I mean in women’s tennis in Russia. There were not any top professional tennis players from Russia before a certain Anna Kournikova came along. And when she became known to the Russian sports community, a lot of young girls were inspired to become tennis players and within ten years Russia had more top ten ranked tennis players in the world than any other country. Maybe that can happen with Volleyball here in Denmark”.
