Tokyo, March 24, 2006: The World Championships preparation of the German women's team has been thrown into confusion by the surprise resignation of their Korean head coach, Lee Hee Wan.
The Seoul-born 50-year-old trainer informed the German Volleyball Federation (DVV) that he felt he no longer had the trust of the league teams after recent developments and criticism of his manner of communication.
The President of the DVV, Werner von Moltke, said he regretted the coach's decision, and had tried to persuade him to stay.
"He is a real expert in training players and has had considerable success with the women's team," said von Moltke.
"We now have to pull together and carefully consider who could take over the position. We will not make any snap decisions, but we cannot afford to hang around either since the national team's season starts in May."
Together with the DVV, Lee had developed an idea to coach a league team in addition to the national team. The league team would have included some of the national squad players in a project intended to strengthen the national team for the 2008 Beijing Olympics. But the players in the women's volleyball league objected strongly.
In spite of his resignation, Lee travelled to Italy on March 22 to talk to national team players Angelina Grun (the captain, who plays for Bergamo), Olessya Kulakova (Padova) and Cornelia Dumler (Forli), and on Monday, March 27, he will attend a meeting with national league coaches to discuss procedure over the coming months.
It is not yet clear who will coach Germany at the European Championship qualifiers from May 26-28 in Georgia and from June 2-4 in France, or at the international tournament in Montreux, Switzerland, from June 5-12. Lee has offered to look after the team until then if no replacement can be found.
The new coach will not have much time to prepare for the highlight of 2006, the World Championships in Japan, starting on October 31. The Germans have been drawn with China, Russia, Dominican Republic, Mexico and Azerbaijan in Pool B, based in Sapporo, and must finish in the top four to advance to the second round.
Lee, a former world-class setter and captain of the Korean national team, had been in charge of the German women's team since 1999. He guided them to two Olympic Games, finishing sixth in Sydney 2000 and ninth in Athens 2004, and also won the bronze medal at the 2003 European Championships -- the women's first medal since 1991.
There were also disappointments, though, such as 10th place at the 2002 World Championships in Berlin and 11th at the 2005 European Championships in Croatia.
