Participating in the Champions League is both a great challenge and a great achievement
for our club. In order to represent Poland in these competitions, we have to give our best in
national competitions. Promotion to last year’s Champions League gave us great results in
the Polish Cup – this year we took 2nd place there and showed our good side in national
league competitions.
Champions League competitions allow us not only to test ourselves against the best teams
of the continent, but also provide prestige and the opportunity to acquire sponsors or
advertising our city. As the team’s staff, we are looking forward to hosting this year’s rivals
in Krakow and showing them the city not only from its goalball side. We are very grateful to
EGCA for welcoming us to the club association and giving us the opportunity to host this
year’s qualifiers – it’s an incredible honour for our club. So far we could only participate in
these competitions once last year and it was an amazing experience for us and our 5th
place was an extraordinary achievement in the scale of Polish goalball. However, the
Champions League is not only about matches – networking is also very important – getting
to know goalball from the point of view of other teams, coaches, players, as well as making
friends and acquaintances for years. This is the true spirit of the sport that we experience
with the EGCA Champions League.
For me, as a coach of WBR Groundhogs Kraków, it is an amazing opportunity to face the
top European teams and to test myself against the best players in Europe and the world.
Last year I participated in these competitions as an assistant coach and I learned a lot
whether it was from our coach or from such a titled coach as the coach of the Finnish Old
Power. We are very keen to advance to the Final Stage and we will do everything we can
to get there, however, organizing the tournament itself is a huge challenge and an
interesting experience for me. This is a huge amount of work but at the end I hope that all
team members, judges, officials and volunteers will enjoy their stay in Krakow.
See you in Poland!
Text: Piotr Skotnicki
WBR Groundhogs Kraków, coach
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