User:Cubaspa1/Peruvian volleyball

Peruvian volleyball has been by far the sport which has given the largest amount of championships to the Peruvians. Although, football is the most popular sport in the Peruvian society, Peruvians known that every time that their volleyball national team participates in a tournaments, it ends in a good place. In the history of volleyball, Peru has won many times the volleyball tournaments in South America, and has obtained silver and bronze medals in Volleyball World Cups. Perhaps, the most important achievement of the Peruvian national team of volleyball was to get the silver medal in Seoul 1988 Olympics.

Beginnings of Peruvian volleyball
The beginnings of volleyball in South America started in Peru around 1910. Two years later, it arrived to Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay. Then, it arrived to Chile, Paraguay, and Ecuador in 1923, 1925, and 1926, respectively. Finally, volleyball arrived to Colombia and Venezuela in 1930 and to Bolivia in 1941.

In Peru, volleyball was introduced by a group of American educators who were hired by the government of President Augusto B. Leguía. The American educators, Joseph Lockey and Joseph Mc Knight, are considered together with the students of the Centro Educativo Nº 546 the founders of the Peruvian volleyball. By 1942, Peruvian Volleyball Federation was founded under the chairmanship of Martial Ayaipoma Vidalon.

One of the most important leaders of the Peruvian volleyball was Jose Pezet Miro Quesada. He is considered the patriarch of Peruvian volleyball and one of the most important characters in the history of volleyball y South America. During his leadership, he hired the trainer Akira Kato from Japan, which was the country where the best volleyball on the world was practiced by that time.

Most important volleyball coaches
The most important coaches who have worked with the Peruvian volleyball national team are Akira Kato and Man Bok Park. Both are considered the best coaches in the Peruvian volleyball history because in the period when they were coaches, Peru obtained the most important volleyball accomplishments in its history.

Akira Kato
One of the most important volleyball coaches of the Peruvian volleyball team was Akira Kato, a setter and a hitter of the Japanese team. He arrived to Peru in 1965, and with him the revolution of the Peruvian volleyball started. Under the leadership of Akira Kato, the national volleyball team improved its technique. The results were shown during matches held in the National Stadium of Peru. Then, Akira Kato took the Peru’s volleyball national team to the Pan American Games, Olympics and World Cups. During this hard work in trying to improve the Peruvian volleyball, he had an assistant, Jorge Sato, who was his friend and his translator. Akira Kato discovered many Peruvian volleyball players, such as, Esperanza Jiménez who became the captain of the national team, Irma Cordero, Luisa Fuentes, Norma Velarde, Ana Maria Ramirez, Meche Gonzales, Teresa Núñez, Olga Asato, Delia Cordova, and Maruja Ostolaza.

Akira Kato spent half of his life in Peru tasting the local customs, music, food, language, and even trying to understand the native mischief. He worked about 17 years in Peru and he died in 1982 as a victim of cancer. He told his wife, Noriko, to cremate his remains and to send one half of his ashes to Japan and the other half to be buried in Peru.

Man Bok Park
The other important coach in the history of Peruvian volleyball team is Man Bok Park and Mrs. Hench. He came from South Korea to Peru in 1974. Man Bok Park was unexpectedly hired by the Peruvian National Volleyball Federation, which made Peruvians to not like him because they thought that he came to usurp the position of the brilliant Akira Kato, who had been working in Peru since 1964. There was not too much reference about Man Bok Park. The only information about his background in volleyball was that he was a volleyball coach in South Korea. He debuted in the World Cup held in Mexico in 1974 as an assistant of Jorge Sato, the current coach of the Peruvian volleyball team at that time. Under the leadership of Man Bok Park and Jorge Sato, Peru finished in eighth place, beating the United States, Canada, Mexico and Poland. During this year, Akira Kato began to feel the symptoms of his illness. After one year of the death of Akira Kato, Man Bok Park assumed full responsibility of the Peruvian volleyball team. His good performance as a coach during the Pan American Games gave him the respect from his own players who would call him as Mr. Park until the day of his retirement in the South American tournament held in Cusco 1993 where Peru became finished as the champion.

Under Mr. Park’s leadership, Peruvian volleyball players won the South American title in Asuncion in 1975. In this tournament the national volleyball team showed a huge improvement in its techniques in defense and attack. But, it was not until the World Cup of Mexico in 1981 where Man Bok Park consecrated by winning the silver medal. Other titles that the national volleyball team won under the leadership of Man Bok Park are the silver medal in Lima 1982, bronze medal in Czechoslovakia 1986, and the silver medal in the Seoul Olympics in 1988. The latter is considered the highest achievement in the history of the Peruvian volley.

After several years of retirement, Man Bok Park returned as a savior to lead the Peruvian volleyball team to the Sydney Olympics in 2000. However, he did not success because the times had changed and the current volleyball was different respect to what he had known before. Finally, the Peru’s volleyball team obtained the eleventh place, losing against Kenya. Later, Man Bok was hired by the Peruvian Volleyball Federation as the head of the Peruvian Volleyball Department.

Most important achievements
The following four are the most important volleyball accomplishments recognized by the Peruvian, especially the silver medal that Peru obtained in the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul, Korea.

Mexico 1981 Volleyball World Cup
One of the most important achievements of the Peruvian volleyball team was to obtain the silver medal in the youth volleyball tournament held in Mexico in 1981. Peru played in the series of Monterrey. It beat China 3-1 (15-8, 15-5, 11-15, and 15-7), Costa Rica 3-0 (15-8, 15-5, and 17-15). Then, it went to the semifinals in Puebla, where it beat Japan 3-0 (15-12, 17-15 and 15-11), and played the final against Korea beating the Asians 3-1 (6-15, 15-11, 15-13, and 15-8). It was in this tournament where great stars of the Peruvian volleyball were born who later would lead the national volleyball team to win more important tournaments of volleyball. Within the young group, the most famous players were Cecilia Tait, Rachel Chumpitaz, Gina Torres, Carmen Pimentel, Denisse Fajardo, Rosa Garcia and Natalia Malaga.

Peru 1982 Volleyball World Cup
Another important tournament in the history of the Peruvian volleyball was the World Cup Volleyball held in Peru in 1982 where the Peruvian volleyball team won the silver medal. In this tournament 24 countries participated. The World Cup was played in the cities of Lima, Trujillo, Chiclayo, Ica, Arequipa and Tacna. The Peruvian team played in Lima and was part of group A with Indonesia, Canada, and Nigeria. In the semifinals, Peru defeated the USA 3-0 (15-12, 15-12, and 15-10). In the final match, China beat Peru 3-0 (15-1, 15-5, and 15-11).

Czechoslovakia 1936 Volleyball World Cup
In the World Cup held in Czechoslovakia in 1986, the Peruvian volleyball team won the pinkish purple medal. The Peruvian team played a total of eight games; six of these games were victories while two were losses. In the city of Brno, the Peruvian team beat West Germany 3-0 (15-14, 15-4 and 12-11) and Brazil 3-1 (15-10, 13-15, 15-9 and 15-10), and lost against Cuba 3-2 (15-11, 11-15, 15-8, 14-16 and 15-10). Then, Peru travelled to the city of Ostrava to play the semifinals. The Peruvian team beat Bulgaria 3-0 (15-10, 15-4 and 15-10), South Korea 3-0 (15 - 8, 15-11y 15-12), and Czechoslovakia 3-1 (15-12, 12-15, 15-8 and 15-9). In this venue Peru qualified for the finals in second place, had lost to Cuba in the preliminary round. Finally, the Peruvian team travelled to Prague to play the finals. The Peruvian volleyball team lost against China 3-0 (18-16, 15-1 and 15-8), and then beat Germany 3-1 (13-15, 16-14, 15-9 and 15-8).

Seoul 1988 Olympics
In the Olympics held in Seoul in 1988, the Peruvian volleyball team won the silver medal. This achievement became the most important achievement in the history of the Peruvian volleyball. Peru began their participation, beating Brazil 3 - 0 (15-9, 15-5 and 15-7), China 3-2 (13-15, 15-13, 7-15, 15-12 and 16-14), and USA 3-2 (12-15, 9-15, 15-4, 15-5,17898879-1 and 15-9). In the semifinals, Peru beat Japan 3-2 (9-15, 6-15, 15-6, 15-10 and 15-13). In the final against USSR, the Peruvian volleyball team almost reached the sky. It was winning 2-0, but at the end, USSR won in a dramatic 3-2 (10-15, 12-15, 15-13, 15-7 and 17-15).