2022-23 season is going to be the historic one for Aluron CMC Warta Zawiercie. After winning the PlusLiga medal for the very first time in May, this autumn the club will make a debut in the CEV Champions League.

After the successful last year, the club made everything to keep most important players. 2019 CEV European champion Uroš Kovačević and two-time world champion Dawid Konarski signed new 2-year contracts. Setter Miguel Tavares stays in the team too as well as three Polish middle blockers – Miłosz Zniszczoł, Michał Szalacha and Wiktor Rajsner.

The next goal was to strengthen the team. Another 2018 world champion, Bartosz Kwolek, signed with Aluron CMC as well as Santiago Danani, Tokyo 2020 bronze medalist, recently both best digger and best receiver of the preliminary phase of VNL 2022. Yellow and greens acquired two CEV Champions League winners from Grupa Azoty ZAKSA Kędzierzyn-Koźle, Krzysztof Rejno and Michał Kozłowski. The first one already played in Zawiercie in 2018-19 season, together with Marcin Waliński who is another new player who returns to the team after a break. Dawid Dulski, bronze medalist of 2021 FIVB U21 World Championship and 2022 CEV U22 European Championship comes back from loan to AZS AGH Kraków where he was one of the best scorers of Polish second division. Danani will compete for a place in the starting lineup as libero with Jędrzej Gruszczyński, 2019 VNL bronze medalist. Patryk Łaba completed the roster as one of the four outside hitters next to Kovačević, Kwolek and Waliński.

Coach Igor Kolaković who took over Serbia National Team was replaced by Michał Winiarski, captain of 2014 world champions and the most promising Polish coach who started his international career as Germany NT coach this summer. He brought his assistant Roberto Rotari with him from Trefl Gdańsk. The rest of the coaching and medical staff remains the same as before with S&C coach Jakub Gniado, scout Krzysztof Makaryk, physiotherapists Mateusz Kowalik and Rafał Majchrzak and club doctor Arkadiusz Koniarski.

“I am very glad that we managed to build a very wide roster. Thanks are due to the president. We are going to play a lot of games. Apart from the fact that the league has been enlarged to 16 teams, we also have the CEV Champions League and the Polish Cup. I think each of the players will have their chances this season”, Winiarski said.

The first league game against PGE Skra Bełchatów is initially scheduled for October 1 and the preparation period will start exactly two months earlier. In the first days, players will undergo a series of medical and physical tests and they will train once a day. The intensity will increase from the second week. In the initial phase Rotari will be in charge of the team while Winiarski will join immediately after the last game of Germany at the FIVB World Championship.

On August 11-14 Aluron CMC will take part in the PreZero Grand Prix PLS in Krakow, the third edition of 4v4 beach volleyball tournament for PlusLiga teams, and after that will focus fully on preparations for the indoor season. Test matches will begin a month before the start of the league with the Góral Cup Beskidy tournament in Bielsko-Biała (2-3 September) in which LUK Lublin and GKS Katowice will take part next to hosting PlusLiga newcomers BBTS. A week later the Jurassic Knights will play twice against GKS (first game in Katowice, second in Zawiercie). On September 15 and 16 the team will play with Grupa Azoty ZAKSA Kędzierzyn-Koźle, this time first at home and a day later away. As always, the final touch will be the participation in the XVII Agrobex Memorial of Arkadiusz Gołaś, which will take place on September 24 and 25. The other participants are ZAKSA, Berlin Recycling Volleys and Barkom Kazhany Lviv.

“I am very happy that the season is coming closer and closer. We are starting preparations at the beginning of August”, Aluron CMC new head coach said. “The first week will be introductory, the team will have one training a day, we will also go through all the tests to get into the second week in full swing. From then on, we will have eight full weeks of preparation. As usual, we will focus on strength and conditioning in the first period. We will start test matches from the beginning of September and we will play every weekend.”

Aluron CMC Warty Zawiercie 2022-23 roster:

Setters: Miguel Tavares Rodrigues (Portugal), Michał Kozłowski
Opposites: Dawid Konarski, Dawid Dulski
Outside hitters: Uroš Kovačević (Serbia), Bartosz Kwolek, Marcin Waliński, Patryk Łaba
Middle blockers: Krzysztof Rejno, Miłosz Zniszczoł, Michał Szalacha, Wiktor Rajsner
Libero: Santiago Danani (Argentina), Jędrzej Gruszczyński

Head coach: Michał Winiarski
Assistant coach: Roberto Rotari (Italy)
Strength and conditioning coach: Jakub Gniado
Statistician: Krzysztof Makaryk
Physiotherapists: Mateusz Kowalik, Rafał Majchrzak
Club doctor: Arkadiusz Koniarski

Sporting director: Oskar Kaczmarczyk

Preseason schedule:

• 1.08 – start of the preparations
• 11-14.08 – PreZero Grand Prix PLS (Kraków)
• 2-3.09 – Góral Cup Beskidy (Bielsko-Biała)
• 9.09 – GKS Katowice – Aluron CMC Warta Zawiercie
• 10.09 – Aluron CMC Warta Zawiercie – GKS Katowice
• 15.09 – Aluron CMC Warta Zawiercie – Grupa Azoty ZAKSA Kędzierzyn-Koźle
• 16.09 – Grupa Azoty ZAKSA Kędzierzyn-Koźle – Aluron CMC Warta Zawiercie
• 24-25.09 – XVII Agrobex Memoriał Arkadiusza Gołasia (Swarzędz-Zalasewo)

Aluron CMC Warta Zawiercie Press Office