Interview With Egyptian Volleyball Legend Sherif El Shemerly

By Rahim Rahimzadeh Asl•

TEHRAN (December 6, 2023) Ex-volleyball player, coach, director, manager, and FIVB coaching instructor Sherif El Shemerly began playing volleyball in 1978 in Cairo.

Playing for Heliopolis Sporting Club, Shemerly would play for the Egyptian Youth and Senior National Volleyball Teams until 1994 before turning to coaching.

He would become an assistant and head coach of national and club teams inside and outside of Egypt at different levels in several volleyball championships including Youth World, Junior African, Arab University Games, and Grand Champions.

Shemerly has a Bachelor of Commerce from Ain Shams University and is married and a father of two sons.

He talked with Boxscore's Rahim Rahimzadeh Asl about his long volleyball career.

Question: What is your general philosophy on coaching career?

Sherif El Shemerly: In my coaching philosophy, there are some points:

1-Volleyball is my career, my life, and my love.

2- I must be updated with the latest information and methods of working in volleyball with the latest and the new versions of volleyball information.

3- Work in a good system with good willingness and covering and considering all details.

4- A good relationship between the Coach and the players is very important in dealing with them like fathers, coaches, and educators to achieve success.

In general words, I can say my philosophy is to love volleyball and to work under good discipline as a coach with the team. Thinking about the details very much and covering the details under a good system. Updating my information to the latest version of the technical side of volleyball.

Building the image of the team and the coaches, and staff under the slogan of the WILL TO WIN, under a winning atmosphere.

Q: What are the most important characteristics of successful coaches?

SS: Developing themselves in modern volleyball, new methods, physical fitness, mental side, other aspects of his work in life, and communication skills.

Working under a good and stable system.

Preparing themselves for the position in which they are working under good values.

They must think about creating good relationships with people and organizations who are related to their jobs like club directors, other coaches, players, parents, and federation.

Being polite at work with a good personality with each other as a coach under understanding the role of the coach, to be the heart of the organization and new coaches.

Believe in themselves and work in a successful atmosphere.

Q: Please talk about your coaching career. Are you eager to continue your activities in volleyball?

SS: Now I'm 58 years old, and I have been working in the coaching career for more than 36 years, I started very early during my playing time. I have worked with all categories in national teams of men - Youth, juniors, and seniors. I also prepared three strategic plans for long-term development in Egypt 1999-2012, 2018-2030, and in Qatar 2012-2022 .Since 2004 I have been an FIVB instructor for indoor coaching. From 2010 to 2021 I was a member of the FIVB Coaches and Technical Commission and President of the African Coaches’ Commission.

I think now at this age, I will accept a good job proposal in top-level club teams or national teams. Also, I will accept working in a technical position as a director in a good organization.

I like to make good plans and good projects to achieve huge successful results.

Also on the other side, as you know in sports management, I have a good experience in my club and I was the head of the sports committee at Heliopolis Sporting Club - my club managing 23 Sports disciplines. I have also been a technical commentator on TV since 2000 till now.

In my coaching career, I have more than 36 years of experience.

Q: A young wants to start volleyball, to become a good player what are our recommendations to him/her?

SS: To start playing volleyball the best age range is 6 - 7 years. On the other hand, having a modern and good coach for this level is a must.

To build a good player for the future we have to find good facilities and a good group to build this player in a good way.

On the other hand, the environment around the team is very important for the technical part and group unity.The competition and the competitor's teams' level is very important to build a good player to help him /her to have good skills and achieve a good level.

The next point for a young player at the beginning of his/her career is social gathering.

Having good family support and good organization for the high level of training because we must be successful and active from the beginning.

My meaning of organization is the club or the Federation, and working with the coaches, working with the admins, paying good money for the salaries, and so on are considerable points.

Then they will build a good organization when he arrives at a certain level of age, I mean, age of 15 16 17 years old, he must find a good environment for competition.

If he finds all of these, it will give him/her a good environment, I mean, will push him/her for the best future then the Player must find a good professional team to arrive at a high technical level with a good coach to give him a good push for the future.

Utilizing a professional way, by thinking and working for a good level and place, a player 19 or 20 years old will find a good place to play, so he can achieve and arrive at a good level to compete in the top volleyball.

Q: Please let us know your plans for yourself in volleyball?

SS: I have some offers for the next year in coaching and sports management.

Q: When you look back on your past years do you have special moments to mention (happy and unhappy moments in your work and life)?

SS: Yes of course I have some special moments, including good and bad.

First, I will tell you about good moments.

When I was young, I was a good football player. One of my father's friends saw me while playing football. I was tall and had good skills then he was trying to convince us (me and my father) to play for a famous football team. But my father refused and said that football would destroy my career in the future, my studying, and my working future. That's why it was a special moment from my side.

After that moment, I did my best to be a good figure in volleyball. The second moment was when I met Dough Beal for the first time in the 2005 Men’s World Grand Champion Cup Championship, and it was a big surprise to me because he said to me that he was following my work with the youth team and my players such as Ahmed Saleh and Abdallah Abd Al-Salam.

The third moment was when I met him again at a high-performance seminar in Colorado Springs he was very kind and invited me to a dinner at his home, and during the opening ceremony, he spoke about me and said we have a very good coach with us and this coach did a lot of good efforts and a good job in his country and asked the other coaches to welcome me but it was a big surprise to me because until that moment I did not know he was talking about me, till he said, please welcome Sherif El-sheerly. So, It was a big important moment in my life when a figure like Doug Beal was talking good like that about me. I respect him a lot, I consider him one of my Legends, he taught me a lot, and I am following his recommendations and his working philosophy.

I think he is one of the most charming figures in volleyball history.

Shemerly with Doug Beal. The United States captured its first-ever Olympic volleyball gold medal in 1984, Best regards to Mr. Doug Beal from Rahimzadeh.

The fourth moment was a very important moment for me, it was when we won 4th place in the youth world championship for the first time in our volleyball history in Egypt, so It was a very important moment for me and I Was lucky to be the important coach of this group of players 1983 -1984 or as we call them golden players.

They beat France in the quarter-final, and then qualified for the semi-final and it was a marvelous time and moment for me in my life.

It was the youth world championship in Cairo in 2001 and I was the head coach.

The last good moments were two times in 2016, the first one was when we won the African club championship after winning the Egyptian league title with the Army club for the 1st time for the club, and the second one after beating Cuba in the Olympic games of 2016. These 2 wins were very important for me and to my coaching career.

Now, bad moments: When I was young, I lost my mother. I was 13 years old. It was a very sad and difficult moment and again when I lost my dad this year in February, I think it was very difficult for me.

One of the bad moments was when we lost the African championship in Cameroon against Tunisia. We lost the qualification match and the ticket to the London Olympic Games 2012.

We deserved to be a winner and qualify because we were better at this period and We were the Champion of Africa but we had some wrong decisions made by the president of our federation and then we lost the qualification for the Olympic Games.