New season, new target: Winning the Championship

02/09/2009 00:56:58
Mustafa KAVAZ

Hi,
 
First of all, I would thank you for allocating this column for me in this beautiful website.
 
I would like to tell you a bit about myself. I started playing volleyball after my beloved football life. I really loved volleyball as my adaptation was quick. I started playing volleyball in a much more professional and programmed schedule in Ankara Çankaya Belediyesi Sports Club’s junior team in return for this love I had in me. I played in the national team when I was 17. I transferred to Fındıklıspor, which promoted to the 1st league, from Çankaya Belediyesi as someone from Fındıklı to contribute to the team and to improve myself. Later, following a one year Halk Bankası and two-year Polis Akademisi adventure, I returned to my ex-club Halkbank and I have been playing for this club for two years. Moreover, I am really happy to be a part of this club.   

Last year did not end the way we wanted in Halkbank and this really had a huge impact on me because I, by my character, am too ambitious, eager to win and have no room for losses. The problem last year was our ineffectiveness to act as a team. Since we were tearing down very fast, we were not able to pick it up from there in the games we fell behind and get going with a new pace. We lost our faith really quickly. That’s why we could not even win the close games. 

Our aim in the next season is to play good volleyball that will trigger the desire to watch and, of course, to win. Foreign and local transfers Halkbank administration completed this year is really successful. Foreign ones are popular volleyball players in the world with good careers. Our local players except for Barış Hamaz are all young and talented players who have the potential play for Halkbank for long years and who played in the national team from time to time and surely will play again. Barış Hamaz’s career is self-explanatory by itself. I think things will be much better this year. Our trainings which already started are going on with increasing tempo. We keep up with our new season preparations with weight liftings and fitness in the morning whereas we do some ball trainings in the evenings. This tempo will increase even more with the arrival of our foreign players to the team and hopefully we will make a good start to the season. 

Following the end of the season, we initiated a long camp period in the national team after a 10-day rest because we would play in 3 tournaments as you all know. After a 2,5-month camp, some of our friends left for the Universiade, some for the European League and others for the Med Games. But being successful was the only thing we had in mind. I played in the Universiade team. This was my first experience in the senior national team. I was really happy to be a part of this roster but we were not really happy with our degree at the Universiade. We played against Czech Republic in the quarterfinals. We could actually win it but sometimes wanting too much ends in despair. That was what we experienced in the Czech game and we could not perform to our potential in the match we wanted really bad and played so stiff. Our team was a wreck after the loss. We had a huge fall down in the tournament we were going really well. We, as 12 teammates, had the sadness not to be able to live up to the expectations people and we had from ourselves from our team but lessons need to be derived from this, either.    
 
I played beach volley following the Universiade both because I love it and I wanted to prepare for the next season. Firstly, I competed for the European Championship organized in Poland for the universities across the continent. We finished the 8th in the name of Ankara University with my friend Sabit. Then we played in the Turkey Chammpionship organized in Hopa with Barış Hamaz. It was a really nice tournament and organization everything was taken care of. Yet constant rains and the weather conditions were major problems for us. At the end of the day, our careers are not focused on beach volley and playing volleyball in such weather conditions could have endangered our indoor career. Nevertheless, we played some good matches under rain. I think that this is a sign of the love for volleyball in Turkey. 

I also want to touch upon the impending European Championship issue for our national team. My friends in the current roster had a long and good camp period. I think that this must have been really beneficial for them. Though we have a tough draw ahead of us, things will be determined on the court with a proper performance. I am sure the national team will represent us with the best possible way. I hope they will qualify and put us up in the top teams in the European stage.

I wish success to my friends from the bottom of my heart in this tournament.

Mustafa KAVAZ