Stewart Bernard joins Czech Volleyball as head coach – Volleyball news
The men’s national volleyball team of Czech Republic has a new addition in the form of head coach Stewart Bernard, who has previously coached the teams from Tunisia and Germany.
The Czech Volleyball Federation disclosed the final decision on Tuesday, March 20 following an official press conference in Prague.
Bernard expressed delight about his selection as head coach. He stated, “I am very grateful to the Czech Volleyball Federation for this assignment. Our primary goal will be to qualify for the final round of the 2013 European Championship taking place in
Denmark and Poland. We have very talented players, so there is a chance to build a solid team.”
The President of the Czech Volleyball Federation, Zdenek Hanik, shared his thoughts in the following manner.
He said, “I know Stewart personally and he is a very experienced coach. I hope he will be contributing the bright future that we all wish to our men’s national team.”
According to the signed contract, Bernard will be responsible for Czech team’s performance for the next two years. Zdenek Smejkal will perform his duties as the assistant coach, while Peter Sezemsky will join the Czech national team as Bernard’s main scout-man.
All three of them have great wealth of experience, which will benefit the Czech team.
Bernard served in the Dutch junior national team from 1986 to 1997 and contributed to the overall growth of German team.
Later on, he was offered to join Tunisian men’s national volleyball team as head coach, which he accepted in 1998. After a few years with Tunisian team, Bernard moved back to Germany.
He joined German youth national team as assistant coach and worked next to head coach Stelian Moculescu. He joined the 2008 Olympics in Beijing where Germany got back to the Olympic arena after a very long break and Bernard assisted the seniors.
Most recently, he took over the position of honorary head coach of German national team as the team could not perform well at the 2011 CEV Volleyball European Championship Final Round and German Volleyball Federation decided to waive a good bye at head coach
Raul Lozano.
Meanwhile, Bernard led the German squad to Olympic pre-qualification tournament. He helped the team to book a ticket for the last qualifying stage of the tournament, which is slated for coming May.
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