Andrzej Niemczyk – Polish volleyball player and coach. ‘The Godfather’ of the women’s national team. Golden medallist of the European Championship in 2003 and 2005.

Sporting career

He started his professional career in Społem Łódź. Later, he played for Anilana Łódź and Stal Mielec. He had been a representative of the Polish junior and senior national teams, and finished his career in the mid-1960s.

Coaching career

Still an active player, he started to work as a coach of the Stal Mielec junior team. Some time later he decided to coach female teams. He built from scratch the ChKS Łódź women’s team, which got promoted to the first league and took the title of Polish Champion in 1976.

In 1975–1977, he ran the Poland women’s national team. He resigned after the European Championship in Finland, where the Polish national team came fourth. He then left for Germany, where he spent ten years coaching the German national team and league teams, including Bayer Lohhof, which won seven titles of German Champion. He also worked with Eczacibasi Instanbul and Vakifbank Ankara of Turkey.

Following Zbigniew Krzyżanowski’s resignation in April 2003, he again became coach of the Polish national team, which advanced to the European Championship in Turkey and secured the gold. Training under his watchful eye, the national team repeated this success in the 2005 European Championship in Croatia. His achievements in European championships did not go hand in hand with success in other international tournaments. On September 1st 2006, after poor performance in the Grand Prix, Andrzej Niemczyk tendered his resignation. A few days earlier, he dismissed Małgorzata Glinka, one of the top players of the national team.

On December 10th 2006, the Polish women’s national team submitted an open letter, asking the authorities of the Polish Volleyball Federation to consider Andrzej Niemczyk’s return to work as a national team coach.

Awards and accolades

• Officer’s Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta – November 22nd 2005[6].
• Coach of the Polish national team:
• Coach of the Polish national team, Poland (first period: 1975−1977)
• 1975 – 6th place in the European Championship in Yugoslavia
• 1977 – 4th place in the European Championship in Finland
• Coach of the FRG national team, FRG (1981–1989)
• 1982 – 14th place in the World Championship in Peru
• 1983 – 5th place in the European Championship in East Germany
• 1984 – 6th place in the Los Angeles Olympic Games
• 1985 – 6th place in the European Championship in the Netherlands
• 1986 – 13th place in the World Championship in Czechoslovakia
• 1987 – 9th place in the European Championship in Belgium
• 1989 – 6th place in the European Championship in Germany
• Coach of the Polish national team, Poland (second period: 2002–2006)
• 2003 – Gold medal in the European Championship in Turkey
• 2005 – Gold medal in the European Championship in Croatia