It’s induction week on the Worldwide Volleyball Corridor of Fame in Holyoke, Massachusetts. The ceremony is Saturday. Six inductees will be part of the earlier 161 gamers, coaches, directors and leaders from 25 nations who’ve already been enshrined within the museum on the birthplace of volleyball. We have now tales on all six, persevering with with Shanrit Wongprasert of Thailand:
How far has volleyball are available Thailand? Simply have a look at who did NOT make the direct entry 12-team primary draw for this previous August’s prestigious fully-loaded Seashore Professional Tour Elite16 Hamburg.
Olympic medalists Laura Ludwig, Chen Xue, Anouk Verge Depre and Joana Mader have been relegated to the qualifier. In the meantime totally half of the primary draw constituted groups from seashore royalty, Brazil and the USA. However who else made it into that primary draw trying like celebration crashers?
Thailand’s Taravadee Naraphornrapat and associate Worapeerachayakorn Kongphopsarutawadee, that’s who.
A lot of this type of development in each the indoor and seashore variations of the game in Asia on the whole, and Thailand particularly, could be attributed to the influence of Shanrit Wongprasert, the primary Worldwide Volleyball Corridor of Fame inductee to ever come from the Southeast Asian nation
“I used to be so stunned as a result of I by no means thought that my volleyball voluntary work can be acknowledged by the Worldwide Volleyball Corridor of Fame,” Wongprasert mentioned.
“It’s the biggest honor of my life.”
Wongprasert has achieved every thing in his life at a excessive degree.
Born on December 16, 1943, in Ban Pong District in Ratchaburi, Thailand, the 79-year-old began enjoying in a nine-man system in center college as a digger of the third row. In highschool, in a extra conventional six-player configuration, he was an outdoor hitter. Whereas on the Thai nationwide workforce Wongprasert was a setter.
Having sufficiently caught the volleyball “bug,” Wongprasert stayed within the sport, changing into at first a coach, on the college, membership and eventually ladies’s national-team ranges. However it’s as an administrator the place Wongprasert has made such an infinite influence.
Think about he has been anointed as Honorary Life President of not one, however two organizations, the Asian Volleyball Confederation (AVC) and the Thailand Volleyball Affiliation (TVA).
The rationale for all of those accolades? Wongprasert in his varied roles helped develop volleyball in Thailand from a “few native championships a yr, with few spectators, and few sponsors, to grow to be THE sport with a number of championships greater than 320 days a yr,” he identified.
These competitions begin with the under-12 age cohort all the way in which as much as skilled leagues, in addition to continental and world degree with capability crowds at each flip.
Wongprasert’s administrative profession started because the secretary basic of the TVA for 30 years upon the completion of his teaching profession. In that point, he served with six presidents, however he was the one fixed that they might all depend on. His work in Thailand was acknowledged by the worldwide movers and shakers early on, and in 1992 the FIVB named him to its board of administration. In the meantime, if that was not sufficient, along with his volunteer work with the TVA and the FIVB, Wongprasert served because the secretary basic and vice chairman of the AVC.
Maybe Wongprasert’s greatest contribution was his generosity in sharing his huge information with different Asian confederations, serving to them with their applications, each in nationwide workforce improvement, and the conduction of zonal and continental championships. His distinctive capability to collaborate and coordinate with different federations facilitated the unfold of zonal and continental championships.
4 years in the past, when he was 75, Wongprasert determined to step away from all of his duties. However he couldn’t reject the overtures of the AVC president who named Wongprasert to the manager director place, in addition to that aforementioned Honorary Life President place.
In a profession that has not been wanting accomplishments, in 2019, Wongprasert was awarded the Olympic Council of Asia’s Advantage Award for his excellent service to the event of sports activities in Asia.
Wongprasert has left the volleyball in glorious form in his native nation.
“I’ve confidence that the long-term everlasting mission which I created for volleyball in Thailand will constantly develop volleyball in Thailand to the continental and world degree, Wongprasert mentioned.”
That will grow to be obvious as quickly because the Olympics in Paris subsequent July. Whereas Thailand’s indoor groups have by no means certified for an Olympic Video games, it’s not out of the realm of chance that the aforementioned Taravadee Naraphornrapat and associate Worapeerachayakorn Kongphopsarutawadee could rep the nation on the sand in Paris.
That will be one thing and positively a coda to the legacy of Shanrit Wongprasert.
***
Search for another story on Olympic gold medalist and four-time Olympian Phil Dalhausser (United States, seashore male participant).
ICYMI
Sunday: Silvano Prandi of Italy
Monday: Katsutoshi Nekoda of Japan
Tuesday: Yumilka Ruiz of Cuba
Wednesday: Larisa of Brazil
Click here for ticket information and if you happen to received’t be on the ceremonies they’ll be streamed at IVHF.org
