Best friends and mentors: who trains Belgorod athletes

October 30 is Coach’s Day in Russia

On the last Sunday of October, sports fans congratulate their mentors, who opened the way to life for them and supported them on their way to victories. The correspondent of “MK in Belgorod” collected information about the head coaches of Belgorod sports teams in football, volleyball and handball.

FC Salyut Belgorod

The main football club of the region is coached by the master of sports of Russia Viktor Navochenko. He is known for playing for many teams, including Tekstilshchik, Baltika and Ramensky Saturn. He started his career in the Belgorod region, playing for local teams. With Volga Tver, he reached the quarterfinals of the Russian Cup.

The season before last, Viktor Leonidovich was the head coach of Ryazan, with which he won silver medals in the PFL Olympus Championship. Previously, Navochenko twice took second place in the PFL with Energomash. Currently, the “pomegranate blacks” are at the top of their subgroup of the second division and dream of entering the First League.

VK “Belogorye”

At the helm of the Belgorod “lions” is a well-known mentor, who has worked in Belgorod for many years, Boris Nikolaevich Kolchin.

Kolchin is one of the most successful coaches of Russian teams. In tandem with Gennady Shipulin, he repeatedly led Belogorye to the gold medals of the Russian Championship, the Champions League and the World Club Championship. For several years they worked together in the Russian team.

As a head coach, Boris Nikolayevich worked in the Fakel (Novy Urengoy) and Dynamo (Moscow) clubs. Kolchin made Fakel the winner of the CEV Cup in 2007. Now Belgorod volleyball players are confidently taking third place in the national championship and reached the semi-finals of the national cup.

Handball club “Tekhnolog-Spartak”

The local men’s handball team, which plays in the Higher League, is coached by Sergey Kramskoy. The 66-year-old specialist led the club to the victories of the All-Russian handball competition among men’s teams. In 2011, the Executive Committee of the Russian Handball Federation appointed him as the head coach of the youth beach handball team. The Russian national team under his leadership became the winner of the European championships, the champion of Europe in 2012. Sergey Ivanovich raised more than 50 masters of sports of Russia, as well as the honored master of sports, Olympic medalist Alexei Rastvortsev.

It should be noted that today over 700 people are employed in the coaching field. They work in 34 sports schools and 2 centers. Thanks to the work of coaches in the Belgorod region, there are 160 masters of sports of Russia, 19 masters of sports of international class and 3 honored masters of sports of Russia. As the Minister of Sports of the Belgorod Region Natalya Zhigalova notes, becoming a good coach is a lot of work, because the sports result largely depends on their character, willpower, patience, experience and professionalism.

“Many of the Belgorod coaches devoted their whole lives to this important cause, becoming the closest people, best friends and mentors for their pupils,” Zhigalova emphasized.

We join in warm congratulations and wish the mentors and their teams to please the fans with new bright victories on the sports grounds as often as possible.