Şahin Çatma became the head coach of the Azerbaijan youth women’s national teams
Şahin Çatma, who was appointed as the Head Coach of the Youth Women’s National Teams by the Azerbaijan Volleyball Federation, aims to make a difference in the volleyball of the friendly and brother country by taking the practices carried out in Turkey, which has achieved great success in international championships, as an example.
After signing a 5-year contract in Baku on June 8, the 63-year-old experienced coach from Eskişehir led the Turkish Under-17 Women’s National Team at the European Youth Olympic Summer Festival (EYOF) in Maribor , Slovenia, from July 23 to 29. She will begin her service in Azerbaijan in August.
After completing her active life in volleyball, Çatma, who has been coaching many club teams since 1983, won the Balkan championship with Nilüfer Belediyespor in 2011 and the CEV Challenge Cup championship with Bursa Metropolitan Belediyespor in 2015.
Çatma, who won the Balkan championship in 2010 and 2012, the world championship and EYOF third place in 2011, and the third place in Europe with the star national teams, won the gold medal at the European Volleyball Championship in Young Girls in 2020, Turkey Under-19. Women’s National Team’ was the head coach.
“LOVELY I ACCEPT”
Şahin Çatma told Anadolu Agency (AA) that the Azerbaijan Volleyball Federation is in a new structure.
Stating that they worked with Ataman Güneyligil, the head coach of the Azerbaijan Women’s National Volleyball Team, at Galatasaray, Çatma said: “They transferred him and then they brought me such an offer. I already love infrastructure, I know. In this role, I also worked for the national teams. That’s why I gladly accepted. We made a deal that will last for many years. I hope to succeed.” saying.
Çatma stated that Azerbaijan Volleyball Federation President Shahin Baghirov’s approach towards volleyball is very good and stressed that an environment where they speak the same language with mutual love and respect awaits him.
Stating that the Azerbaijani interlocutors show them great respect, especially because of the level that Turkish volleyball has reached in women, Çatma said that after the signing stage, they carried out sweeps in the districts (administrative region) of Azerbaijan with the participation from Baghirov.
Stating that they will manage the process with the planning to be done after these selections, Çatma drew attention to the fact that Turkish volleyball coaches have started expanding abroad.
Noting that this is an important process for Turkish volleyball, Çatma continued her words as follows:
“I wanted to do that too. Such offers have come from clubs before. There was also an offer of a selection. Since you were not accepted due to my duty at EYOF, I did not accept your offer. Because I promised the President of the Volleyball Federation, Mr. Mehmet Akif Üstündağ, ‘I will do it for EYOF, I will come’. Azerbaijan has a different and more positive approach. ‘You can be free in this process, no problem. We too will be happy,” they said. Mr. Mehmet Akif Üstündağ, whom I informed about the matter, also expressed the same wishes and made the evaluation of him. I would like to thank Mr. Üstündağ for his support during this process”.
“THAT IS THE POTENTIAL”
Şahin Çatma stated that Turkish coaches previously worked at club and national team level in Azerbaijan.
Referring to his goals, Çatma said:
“My friends who did my job before me definitely contributed to it, they were helpful, but I’m not going there to take their place. I will make a difference. I want to be able to manage the process there correctly, to reach the right goal at the right time with the right athletes. There is also that potential. Because I did a scan on the scratches. It goes up to 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2015, in our selections it continues as individual doubles. I made the selections. Now we are going to inventory them all. Starting in August I will do camps at certain stages. I want to expand the protocol that we apply to our selection, the player base in the same way, and reduce the pyramid upwards from a broad base. Then I want to make a project like Volleyball Academy with those players and play them in the top league of the Azerbaijani league”.
Çatma emphasized that he believes that if they are patient, they will definitely be able to highlight players who can play volleyball at a high level in 2-3 years.
“They cannot play in the National Team in these 3 years, but we will catch players at the level to play in the National Team. In its fifth, sixth year, I hope we realize what we have planned there.” Using the expression Çatma, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev also gave great support to volleyball.
Reminding that Turkey and Azerbaijan are “two states, one nation”, Çatma added that he wants to fulfill his duty by working on the right plan, the right project at the right time with other coaches. (AA)