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Talent can arise itself or be inherited in the genes. In the latter case it is not surprising that we see many siblings training the same sport. The situation is not different in volleyball, where without hesitation I can list at least four pairs of brothers playing high level volleyball and all of them are at different stages of their careers. We have those who already said 'goodbye' to the national team – brothers Grbić, those who are still playing – brothers Endres and Oivanen, and those among whom one plays for the national team (it has started a few years ago) and the other one had his debut in senior national team this year – brothers Kovacević.
I decided to present you the history of brothers, who are still waiting for the younger one to join senior national team. And not only my observation of their improvement or coach Weber's praises, but also my woman intuition tells me it will come sooner than they both expect.
Beginning
Anyone, who is interesting in volleyball, knows Rodrigo Quiroga, captain of the ows whole brzmiiłabym 'we pasuArgentinean national team. It wasn't an accident that I mentioned genes at the beginning, because Rodrigo is "this Quiroga", Daniel Quiroga’s son and Raul Quiroga’s nephew. (Daniel and Raul were brothers who played for Argentina in eighties.)
Rodrigo says that he plays volleyball since he was born. When his father played in Italy, Rodrigo accompanied him on matches or during practice. When he was 5 years old he came back with his parents to Argentina and a year later he started practicing in a club in San Juan.
More or less in the same time Gonzalo was born and later he also wanted to follow his father’s path. But his enthusiasm at the beginning wasn't as big as his brother’s. He started practicing when he was 7 years old, but six months later he gave it up for rugby. However destiny cannot be fooled. He came back to the volleyball court very soon.
Professional game
The elder brother started his club career in junior team of the Obras Sanitarias de San Juan club. Next step was Club de Amigos. Quite soon after Rodrigo started playing in a professional club he went to Italy where he has played in Serie A2 for three season. In 2009 he debuted in Serie A1 in club from Vibo Valentia and a year after that he moved to Greece. Now he is playing in an Italian club CMC Ravenna.
Gonzalo hasn’t begun his career in a professional club yet. In spite of offers from a couple of clubs, Gonzalo decided to combine education with practice, which in Argentina is very difficult to do. But his father's friend suggested that he should go to college in the US and play there in NCAA league. Gonzalo’s family in Los Angeles supported him when he visited five different Universities in 2010 and after he got a full-scholarship from UCLA (University of California, Los Angeles) he decided to move to Los Angeles. Currently he is on his sophomore year and his goal is to get a degree on UCLA and then play professional volleyball like his brother does now.
Captain of the national team
Rodrigo began his career in youths national team as a libero. He debuted in U17 team in 2001, when he was younger then most of his teammates. In the next team, U-18, U-20 he already played as an outside hitter. With the youth and junior teams he played a few tournaments, for example two world championships.
His debut in the senior national team came in 2007 at Copa America in Brazil. Not long after that Rodrigo was chosen captain of the team.
“In previous years, in teams of my category I was captain too. For about three years I am captain in senior national team and people asked me how I can be captain in so young age. I answered that maybe the coach has chosen me, because I knew this role from previous years,” explains Rodrigo, but he doesn't deny that at the beginning this situation was a bit weird for him. “When I played with such experienced players like Spajic or Meana it was quite a weird feeling. But they both helped me a lot to grow up to this role. Today I feel much better, also because I am one of the oldest players in this team.”
Gonzalo is captain of the youth national team. Both brothers must have some similar features if coaches trust in them and chose them for captains. Gonzalo explains what have had impact on them and their achievements.
“I think we are kind of similar. We are both very friendly and simple guys, we both come from the same place and all that we got is not only because of our effort. The importance of our family that supported us at the beginning and every time helped us to become what we are now, and we both will be always thankful for that.”
At some point Gonzalo debuted in the senior national team. Coach Javier Weber called him for Pan American Games and Gonzalo went on court and played for the longer part of the match. He did more than just serve and as someone who has been watching the Games, I think his calmness in tie-break in the match against Mexico helped his team win. Coach Weber didn’t skimp praises about him and pointed out his talent and technical skills. It's just matter of time before he changes occasional performances in senior national team for "full-time" playing.
Genes for the third time
Following the lifestyle of a parent is nothing surprising, however the story of current players of the Argentinean senior national team seems to be unusual. After more than 20 years of absence on team’s jerseys the names Quiroga, Uriarte, Castellani or Conte appear again. Talent, which they got from their parents, and hard work let them reach the international level and play under coach Javier Weber, the man who played with their fathers in the eighties.
In sport in which every young player is called – depending on his physical abilities and skills – a successor of a particular icon of volleyball, reversion of those names to the national team in the same time involuntarily makes people wonder if those young people can repeat the success of their fathers or if they can achieve even better results?
But the famous name brings also less pleasant aspects such as pressure of expectations or in some cases accusation that not the skills, but the name and some contacts helped some players gain this level.
“When we were younger it happened that people suggest this, but now we proved that we can play, we have our name,” says Rodrigo. “I have never felt this pressure and that wasn't a problem for me. I love what I do, I love volleyball and my dream was always to play high level, go to play in Italy, play at the Olympics and other big tournaments.”
Never ending trips bring separation from the family. From the moment he went to Los Angeles, Gonzalo could feel this on his skin, just like Rodrigo. Unless the younger brother comes back home for holidays, Rodrigo often can't visit his home. After the club season in Europe he goes to Buenos Aires, to practice with the national team, about 1000 kilometres from his hometown San Juan. His parents are trying to visit him in Europe as often as they can and in Buenos Aires he meets his uncle Raul, who lives there with his wife. Both his father and uncle don't work around volleyball anymore.
“My father is an engineer, but he follows our careers, volleyball in general and he is crazy about it. The whole family loves volleyball and we can talk about it all the time, when I'm at home or through the Internet, on Skype. The best thing is that we never get tired talking about volleyball. Maybe some players after the match don't want to talk about it, but when we finish the match, we call our father and ask him about his impression. And for him we never play good,” Rodrigo laughs. “He is the best coach we could have. Since I started playing I have never heard from him ‘Today you played well’, but I think it's good, because if you want to be better, you have to think all the time about what you can improve. It's great to have a father like him. Even now, when we are far away from home we have Internet and Skype and we can talk, we can feel this support and we feel close to each other.”
Rodrigo has more siblings, younger than Gonzalo. Sixteen years old Guadalupe and thirteen years old Tomas. They all play volleyball as outside hitters, but it's difficult to say now if Tomas will stay on this position or follow his father and brothers’ lifestyle. They both are not playing in youth national teams, but Rodrigo hopes his sister will represent Argentina in the future.
Raul Quiroga also supports his nephews. During the practise with the national team in Buenos Aires Rodrigo always the ews too. During the practismeets with him, but Raul differs from his brother. “We have with us two guys who have chosen the same lifestyle, they did the same, they played in Italy and national team and now they are trying to help us but in a different way. With my father we can talk about volleyball all the time. My uncle spends half of the time talking about volleyball and the other half about life, but he’s still rooting for us. They both helped me when I went to Italy for the first time by myself. Thanks to them I knew from the first day, first practise, what's going to happen.”
Catch up the older brother
In Gonzalo's opinion he and his brother have quite similar characters. If someone would see them both together, but didn’t know their identity and kinship, surely he would not say that they are brothers. Rodrigo has light hair and eyes, while Gonzalo is definitely darker and taller than his brother.
They are also different when it comes to volleyball skills.
“Gonzalo likes technical attacks, he likes to take advantage of the block to score, while I, when I was younger, loved to put ball in the court. Attack is my favourite element of play, although now I should, especially in the national team, receive better than attack,” says Rodrigo.
Passing is one of those elements, which Gonzalo admires in his brother. “I think my brother is very good passing the ball, that is something that I need to work more in order to get better,” he acknowledges.
He admits also that Rodrigo is his inspiration. “What I admire in my brother is his professionalism as a volleyball player. He knows that playing volleyball is his job, so he's always trying to find how to become a better player. He was my inspiration since I was a kid, and so it is now.”
Life outside the court
Both of them like listening to music every time of the day. On Rodrigo's playlist you can find Mettalica, Pearl Jam, Foo Fighters, Alice in Chains or Soundgarden. He has also an electric guitar, which he took with him to Europe, but he enjoys playing it only by himself. His neighbours seem to have a different opinion on this matter, unless their regular knocks on the wall are just a form of showing their appreciation?
Gonzalo likes lighter music, but still rock music.
Living far away from home made the Internet, Facebook or Twitter kind of a hobby for both of them, as they spend a lot of time using them to contact their family and friends.
Dreams about the future
Both brothers have the same dreams as any other athlete. Play at the Olympics, win the medal and in Gonzalo's case become a professional player first. If Argentina under coach Weber will continue the improvement, they will win a medal in Rio de Janeiro in 2016 and hopefully even earlier. But the Quiroga brothers have another great dream – they want to play together on the court again.
“When I was 8 I played two tournaments with Rodrigo. It was an under 14 national tournament. He was 14 and I was 8. I would only get into the court to serve and play defense. It was the only time that I played with my brother in the same time. It was such an incredible experience, even though I was only 8 years old,” recalls Gonzalo.
Rodrigo doesn't hide his hope that Gonzalo will be called to senior team for next World League. “It was great to see him playing in the senior national team at the Pan American Games without the pressure, with calmness of an experienced player. It's difficult to play against players who are 30 years old and you are only 18. I hope that soon he will be in the national team with me, maybe even during the next World League.”
Then he adds, “I think that father will be proud of us.”
Author: Zuzanna Dulnik
Source: http://www.blokaut.net/aktualnosc/884
Pictures: fivb.org and private property of Gonzalo Quiroga
I decided to present you the history of brothers, who are still waiting for the younger one to join senior national team. And not only my observation of their improvement or coach Weber's praises, but also my woman intuition tells me it will come sooner than they both expect.
Beginning
Anyone, who is interesting in volleyball, knows Rodrigo Quiroga, captain of the ows whole brzmiiłabym 'we pasuArgentinean national team. It wasn't an accident that I mentioned genes at the beginning, because Rodrigo is "this Quiroga", Daniel Quiroga’s son and Raul Quiroga’s nephew. (Daniel and Raul were brothers who played for Argentina in eighties.)
Rodrigo says that he plays volleyball since he was born. When his father played in Italy, Rodrigo accompanied him on matches or during practice. When he was 5 years old he came back with his parents to Argentina and a year later he started practicing in a club in San Juan.
More or less in the same time Gonzalo was born and later he also wanted to follow his father’s path. But his enthusiasm at the beginning wasn't as big as his brother’s. He started practicing when he was 7 years old, but six months later he gave it up for rugby. However destiny cannot be fooled. He came back to the volleyball court very soon.
Professional game
The elder brother started his club career in junior team of the Obras Sanitarias de San Juan club. Next step was Club de Amigos. Quite soon after Rodrigo started playing in a professional club he went to Italy where he has played in Serie A2 for three season. In 2009 he debuted in Serie A1 in club from Vibo Valentia and a year after that he moved to Greece. Now he is playing in an Italian club CMC Ravenna.
Gonzalo hasn’t begun his career in a professional club yet. In spite of offers from a couple of clubs, Gonzalo decided to combine education with practice, which in Argentina is very difficult to do. But his father's friend suggested that he should go to college in the US and play there in NCAA league. Gonzalo’s family in Los Angeles supported him when he visited five different Universities in 2010 and after he got a full-scholarship from UCLA (University of California, Los Angeles) he decided to move to Los Angeles. Currently he is on his sophomore year and his goal is to get a degree on UCLA and then play professional volleyball like his brother does now.
Captain of the national team
Rodrigo began his career in youths national team as a libero. He debuted in U17 team in 2001, when he was younger then most of his teammates. In the next team, U-18, U-20 he already played as an outside hitter. With the youth and junior teams he played a few tournaments, for example two world championships.
His debut in the senior national team came in 2007 at Copa America in Brazil. Not long after that Rodrigo was chosen captain of the team.
“In previous years, in teams of my category I was captain too. For about three years I am captain in senior national team and people asked me how I can be captain in so young age. I answered that maybe the coach has chosen me, because I knew this role from previous years,” explains Rodrigo, but he doesn't deny that at the beginning this situation was a bit weird for him. “When I played with such experienced players like Spajic or Meana it was quite a weird feeling. But they both helped me a lot to grow up to this role. Today I feel much better, also because I am one of the oldest players in this team.”
Gonzalo is captain of the youth national team. Both brothers must have some similar features if coaches trust in them and chose them for captains. Gonzalo explains what have had impact on them and their achievements.
“I think we are kind of similar. We are both very friendly and simple guys, we both come from the same place and all that we got is not only because of our effort. The importance of our family that supported us at the beginning and every time helped us to become what we are now, and we both will be always thankful for that.”
At some point Gonzalo debuted in the senior national team. Coach Javier Weber called him for Pan American Games and Gonzalo went on court and played for the longer part of the match. He did more than just serve and as someone who has been watching the Games, I think his calmness in tie-break in the match against Mexico helped his team win. Coach Weber didn’t skimp praises about him and pointed out his talent and technical skills. It's just matter of time before he changes occasional performances in senior national team for "full-time" playing.
Genes for the third time
Following the lifestyle of a parent is nothing surprising, however the story of current players of the Argentinean senior national team seems to be unusual. After more than 20 years of absence on team’s jerseys the names Quiroga, Uriarte, Castellani or Conte appear again. Talent, which they got from their parents, and hard work let them reach the international level and play under coach Javier Weber, the man who played with their fathers in the eighties.
In sport in which every young player is called – depending on his physical abilities and skills – a successor of a particular icon of volleyball, reversion of those names to the national team in the same time involuntarily makes people wonder if those young people can repeat the success of their fathers or if they can achieve even better results?
But the famous name brings also less pleasant aspects such as pressure of expectations or in some cases accusation that not the skills, but the name and some contacts helped some players gain this level.
“When we were younger it happened that people suggest this, but now we proved that we can play, we have our name,” says Rodrigo. “I have never felt this pressure and that wasn't a problem for me. I love what I do, I love volleyball and my dream was always to play high level, go to play in Italy, play at the Olympics and other big tournaments.”
Never ending trips bring separation from the family. From the moment he went to Los Angeles, Gonzalo could feel this on his skin, just like Rodrigo. Unless the younger brother comes back home for holidays, Rodrigo often can't visit his home. After the club season in Europe he goes to Buenos Aires, to practice with the national team, about 1000 kilometres from his hometown San Juan. His parents are trying to visit him in Europe as often as they can and in Buenos Aires he meets his uncle Raul, who lives there with his wife. Both his father and uncle don't work around volleyball anymore.
“My father is an engineer, but he follows our careers, volleyball in general and he is crazy about it. The whole family loves volleyball and we can talk about it all the time, when I'm at home or through the Internet, on Skype. The best thing is that we never get tired talking about volleyball. Maybe some players after the match don't want to talk about it, but when we finish the match, we call our father and ask him about his impression. And for him we never play good,” Rodrigo laughs. “He is the best coach we could have. Since I started playing I have never heard from him ‘Today you played well’, but I think it's good, because if you want to be better, you have to think all the time about what you can improve. It's great to have a father like him. Even now, when we are far away from home we have Internet and Skype and we can talk, we can feel this support and we feel close to each other.”
Rodrigo has more siblings, younger than Gonzalo. Sixteen years old Guadalupe and thirteen years old Tomas. They all play volleyball as outside hitters, but it's difficult to say now if Tomas will stay on this position or follow his father and brothers’ lifestyle. They both are not playing in youth national teams, but Rodrigo hopes his sister will represent Argentina in the future.
Raul Quiroga also supports his nephews. During the practise with the national team in Buenos Aires Rodrigo always the ews too. During the practismeets with him, but Raul differs from his brother. “We have with us two guys who have chosen the same lifestyle, they did the same, they played in Italy and national team and now they are trying to help us but in a different way. With my father we can talk about volleyball all the time. My uncle spends half of the time talking about volleyball and the other half about life, but he’s still rooting for us. They both helped me when I went to Italy for the first time by myself. Thanks to them I knew from the first day, first practise, what's going to happen.”
Catch up the older brother
In Gonzalo's opinion he and his brother have quite similar characters. If someone would see them both together, but didn’t know their identity and kinship, surely he would not say that they are brothers. Rodrigo has light hair and eyes, while Gonzalo is definitely darker and taller than his brother.
They are also different when it comes to volleyball skills.
“Gonzalo likes technical attacks, he likes to take advantage of the block to score, while I, when I was younger, loved to put ball in the court. Attack is my favourite element of play, although now I should, especially in the national team, receive better than attack,” says Rodrigo.
Passing is one of those elements, which Gonzalo admires in his brother. “I think my brother is very good passing the ball, that is something that I need to work more in order to get better,” he acknowledges.
He admits also that Rodrigo is his inspiration. “What I admire in my brother is his professionalism as a volleyball player. He knows that playing volleyball is his job, so he's always trying to find how to become a better player. He was my inspiration since I was a kid, and so it is now.”
Life outside the court
Both of them like listening to music every time of the day. On Rodrigo's playlist you can find Mettalica, Pearl Jam, Foo Fighters, Alice in Chains or Soundgarden. He has also an electric guitar, which he took with him to Europe, but he enjoys playing it only by himself. His neighbours seem to have a different opinion on this matter, unless their regular knocks on the wall are just a form of showing their appreciation?
Gonzalo likes lighter music, but still rock music.
Living far away from home made the Internet, Facebook or Twitter kind of a hobby for both of them, as they spend a lot of time using them to contact their family and friends.
Dreams about the future
Both brothers have the same dreams as any other athlete. Play at the Olympics, win the medal and in Gonzalo's case become a professional player first. If Argentina under coach Weber will continue the improvement, they will win a medal in Rio de Janeiro in 2016 and hopefully even earlier. But the Quiroga brothers have another great dream – they want to play together on the court again.
“When I was 8 I played two tournaments with Rodrigo. It was an under 14 national tournament. He was 14 and I was 8. I would only get into the court to serve and play defense. It was the only time that I played with my brother in the same time. It was such an incredible experience, even though I was only 8 years old,” recalls Gonzalo.
Rodrigo doesn't hide his hope that Gonzalo will be called to senior team for next World League. “It was great to see him playing in the senior national team at the Pan American Games without the pressure, with calmness of an experienced player. It's difficult to play against players who are 30 years old and you are only 18. I hope that soon he will be in the national team with me, maybe even during the next World League.”
Then he adds, “I think that father will be proud of us.”
Author: Zuzanna Dulnik
Source: http://www.blokaut.net/aktualnosc/884
Pictures: fivb.org and private property of Gonzalo Quiroga
#Argentina #GonzaloQuiroga #TheOlympics2012 #RodrigoQuiroga
-Camejo
-Bratoev
-Shoji
-Falasca
about which I forgot ?
In football we have another interesting story when it comes to the brothers, at the world championships in 2010, Boateng brothers played in the other nationalities, Kevin-Prince played for Ghana and his brother Jerome for Germany.That was the first such case in the history of the football world championships.
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