A total of four teams participated in the women’s division of the 2024 Korean Professional Volleyball Danyang Competition, which opened on the 5th, including Daegu City Hall, Suwon Special City, Yangsan City Hall and Pohang City Sports Council. New transfer students from the four teams also stood out. Twelve out of 28 women’s professional volleyball players who became free-standing players in this year’s V-League went to vocational volleyball.
Suwon recruited veteran middle blocker Kim Na-hee, who played for Heungkuk Life, setter Park Eun-seo, who was born in 2000, and Apogit Park Hyun-joo, who was born in 2001.
Suwon is not the only country in the world. Outside heater Park Min-ji, born in 1999, who played for IBK Industrial Bank of Korea, has joined Pohang, which has advanced to the finals of the Danyang tournament alongside Suwon.
Three players also moved to Daegu. Middle blocker Munhwa, Apogit Lee Ye-sol and outside heater Jung Si-young announced a new start.
In Yangsan, five players, including setter Choi Sun-ho, outside heaters Lee Mi-so and Kim Jung-ah, Yukyung Seo, and middle blocker Yoon Gyeol, will play as unemployed volleyball players.
Suwon met with Daegu on Saturday and appointed Park Eun-seo as the starting setter to confirm its advance to the finals, while Daegu also boosted the team’s mood with Chung Si-young and Lee Ye-sol hitting hard. It is a more intensely professional volleyball game.
“Players from professional leagues are not fully fit yet. It has been about a week since I joined the team. However, I think there will be an interesting game in the second half of the year that I don’t know who will win,” Suwon manager Kang Min-sik said.
“With the Asian quarter, professional teams are hiring two foreign players. In addition, players from all positions can be selected in the Asian quarter. As a result, players who need more training or have a long ball power will likely come out. Unfortunately, players can continue to play volleyball in an unemployed team, and if they train well here, they can get a good opportunity again,” the Dong-A Ilbo said.
He added, “I think we should create more unemployment teams in the future or think about the second division of the professional league.”
Kim Na-hee, who continues her challenge on the business team, also said, “Now there are two foreign players in each team. If domestic players are pushed out of the competition, they have no choice but to come out of the team,” and Park Eun-seo also said, “For players who have not received the opportunity, business volleyball can be a place of play.”
On the contrary, players who have power in business teams are sometimes back on the V-League stage. While rookie players do not have abundant resources, they are bringing in players who can immediately use their power. This year, setter Ha Hyo-rim who played for Suwon again settled in at the Korea Expressway Corporation. After playing for Suwon from 2015 to 2021, he joined the Korea Expressway Corporation through a rookie draft in 2021.
Suwon manager Kang Min-sik also stressed a virtuous cycle in which professional and vocational teams can “win-win” each other. “Professional players take their players thinking that it would be better to have an unemployed player who can use them right now than to recruit high school players,” he said. “We are not in a situation where we can recruit all players. It is not easy to recruit high school players to train them. After all, it is related to financial problems. If the team can be linked to the professional team through any method such as regional linkage and rotation is possible, it can be a win-win for each other in terms of supply and demand of players.”토토사이트 모음
Besides the 12 players from this year’s professional team, the professional team has mostly players from the V-League. Daegu is setter Lee Jin and Libero Han Ji-hyun, Suwon is 182cm outside heater Choi Yoon-yi and 2004 middle blocker Kim Bo-bin, Yangsan is joined by outside heaters Han Song-hee and Yang Yoo-kyung, and Pohang is joined by Rivero Moon Seul-ki. All of them did not get a chance at the professional team, but they are continuing their dream of volleyball with their last hope.