One step at a time for Belgian setter Frauke Dirickx.
Dirickx is the oldest player in the tournament as well as on the roster of her national team. Belgium’s libero Britt Ruysschaert, for instance, is 14 years younger than the Belgian setter who has travelled the world throughout her career playing in the national leagues of Italy, Spain, Romania, Turkey, and Poland. Still she does not feel any “generational gap” with the younger members of the group: “They are always in a good mood, and so it is a pleasure also for me to come to the training sessions and work together. I really like the ambiance we have right now in the national team,” Dirickx admits.
Together with Virginie De Carne and Liesbet Vindevoghel, she composed the core of the national team until the rise of this “nouvelle vague” that first emerged in 2009 when Belgium won gold at the 2009 CEV Youth Volleyball European Championship in Rotterdam. “Things have changed because most of our players now play abroad and this way they can learn a lot and mature much faster than they would if they stayed in Belgium. They also learn what it takes to win important and tight matches. Our national league is not very competitive and that is the problem we had to deal with in the past, where only Liesbet, Virginie and me played abroad. The experience that all these girls are having in other national leagues is instrumental to the development of our national team,” Dirickx says, “and this is mainly where our recent success comes from.”
Gert Vande Broek has been working with the “Yellow Tigers” since many years already and Frauke acknowledges his contribution as well: “He knows very well what we have to work on and where there is room for improvement. Gert has a very clear understanding of our strengths and weaknesses and this applies to each player as well as to the team as a whole. On top of this, I would say that we have intensified a bit our physical preparation, doing more weights, and so as a result our conditioning has improved as well.”
Though the “Yellow Tigers” have drawn attention from fans and media alike back home, they still aren’t real superstars in Belgium: “Since we won bronze at the European Championship there has been more people talking about volleyball, but I definitely can go out and walk without being spotted by someone as being a member of our national team. This, for instance, is different than what I experienced in Italy, where I have spent many years and where people would recognise me on the streets of the town where I lived.”
Italy has a special place in Frauke’s heart and this is the country where she is heading to once the season with the national team comes to an end: “Well, we first have the World Championship which also takes place in Italy and where we hope to progress to the second stage of the competition. This would be a great result for us. Then I will go to Piacenza and play for Italy’s national champions of the past two years. They offered a good contract and I really love Italy. It is also the first foreign country where I played at the beginning of my career many years ago, so I am happy to return.”
The rise of the “Yellow Tigers” has disclosed unprecedented opportunities also for a player like Frauke who can already boast an impressive resume: “This is true. I am happy that I can play in the World Grand Prix and that we qualified also for the World Championship. And yes, my ultimate goal and dream would be the Olympics. I know that it is very difficult to qualify since there is a very limited number of spots for Europe and maybe with this team we would have it easier in another continent. However, I try not to think too much about it for the moment. You know, this is something I have been dreaming about since I started playing volleyball but at a certain stage I thought it would never come true since we did not have a team that was competitive enough to make the Olympics. Right now, with this group, maybe we stand a chance but first of all I want to enjoy the current season and then we will focus on the European Championship that our country will co-host next year with the Netherlands.”
Frauke acknowledges that there is some competition with the men’s national team, but up to now the “Yellow Tigers” have achieved more than the “Red Dragons”: “Yes, it is true. Yesterday we were very happy with making the final here in Koszalin because our men had failed to achieve this feat at the World League Group 2 Finals in Sydney. However, this is a genuine competition, I would say, and I am happy that with the contribution of both teams volleyball is on the rise in Belgium.”
Click here to read the full article.
As of press time, Belgium will play against the Netherlands for the World Grand Prix Group 2 Gold Medal Match. The winner will advance to the Final Round of the Grand Prix to be held in Japan.
One Comment
Leave a Reply