With a visit to the city of Smolyan, the Bulgarian Volleyball Federation (BVF) has re-started its work for the delivery of the CEV School Project ‘Play Volleyball – Grow with it’. After a short break due to the summer holidays, the initiative to popularise Volleyball among students enjoyed a huge interest among the students of the Vasil Levski high school in Smolyan.
The cozy and spacious sports hall of PPMG Vasil Levski gives local children a wonderful opportunity to practice the beautiful game with a ball, and local students seized the chance to show their skills to the representatives of the BVF. “The infrastructure in Smolyan is suitable for sports, and the hall is incredible,” said an elated David Davidov, BVF Vice-President. “The stadiums, the swimming pool and the Velichko Cholakov sports hall are also at a very high level. Smolyan is in no way inferior to other cities in Bulgaria. There is a strong relationship between students and volleyball clubs here.” One of the goals of the CEV School Project is to help clubs find and nurture new talent.
“Dear citizens of Rhodope, as a representative of the BVF, I am glad that I can partner with an active municipality such as Smolyan. The city has a wonderful sports base, your children are studious and show a good attitude towards sports and Volleyball in particular. Smolyan is a place where all our initiatives are successful and I hope to continue working with the mayor and the municipality for the future development of the city.”
Lubomir Ganev
President of the Bulgarian Volleyball Federation
Maria Ilieva, director of PPMG Vasil Levski, thanked the Bulgarian Volleyball Federation for hosting a stop of the national tour run under the slogan ‘With Volleyball at School’. She pointed out that the students are excellent athletes along with showing very good results in their studies.
The deputy mayor of the city, Marin Zahariev, thanked the volleyball coaches and the physical education teachers for their efforts to motivate local kids to play sports.
“With joint efforts and a good sports base, I hope we can put Smolyan on the sports map,” said Zahariev. Stanislav Nikolov and Nikolay Ivanov, members of the Board of Directors at the BVF, were also present in Smolyan, as well as Nikola Zapryanov, head of the RUO (Regional Directorates of Education) together with Teodora Shtereva, who is responsible for the sports activities run by RUO, athletes and activists.
One of the main missions of the CEV School Project is to make children understand that education and sports can go hand in hand. The BVF has set as its main goal the work with adolescents, which shall lead to improved performance by the national teams at age-group competitions. Several schools which are already involved in the project have started inviting coaches who attended the CEV Coaches Convention held earlier this year in Sofia so that they can share their valuable experience with an increasing number of children.