Time flies, and before we know it, we will be entering 2025. The highly anticipated Chinese Women's Volleyball Super League has concluded the battle for the top eight spots. Shenzhen and Liaoning teams fought through the home and away promotion-relegation matches, defeating Henan and Zhejiang respectively, successfully securing their relegation and securing the last train to the top eight. The upcoming battle for the top four will continue in a home and away format, with the top two teams from Group C and Group D securing their entry into the top four. Among them, as the defending champions, Tianjin Women's Volleyball Team, after a slow start at the beginning of the season, has finally regained its due form. Yao Di's return prompted a comprehensive change in Tianjin Women's Volleyball Team, several flank attackers were completely revitalized, and Tianjin Team was able to revive the style of the defending champions.
Seeing the trend of Tianjin Women's Volleyball Team this season is like riding a roller coaster, fortunately, the team still adjusted. And behind all this, besides Yao Di's comeback, there is actually another very important change, that is, the temporary replacement of the head coach. As we all know, under Wang Baoquan's leadership over the years, Tianjin Women's Volleyball Team has hardly experienced any major setbacks, and its performance has remained consistently stable. It wasn't until this season that the major reforms of the Volleyball Association and the departure of two major reinforcements led to a noticeable decline in Tianjin Women's Volleyball Team's state, and head coach Wang Baoquan also faced unprecedented doubts. Even when the team suffered consecutive defeats, the calls for Wang Baoquan to step down became incessant, and this famous coach finally couldn't sit still, stepped back behind the scenes and pushed assistant coach Chen Fang to the forefront, and the team's relegation crisis was resolved.
Little did we know that the real reason for Wang Baoquan's departure was the immense pressure that caused him severe insomnia at night, forcing him to leave his position as head coach. In a recent interview, Wang Baoquan revealed the entire process of his departure, saying bluntly that during the period when the team suffered consecutive defeats, he was criticized for ineffective command, and his mental state once approached collapse under the dual pressures, so he could only proactively apply to the organization for withdrawal and strongly hoped to swap positions with Chen Fang. Ultimately, the management of Tianjin Women's Volleyball Team also adopted Wang Baoquan's suggestion, promoted Chen Fang to the position of head coach, and the whole team regained its spirit through a winning streak.
In fact, the fundamental reason for Tianjin Women's Volleyball Team is mainly that the players did not perform at their expected level, and there was an obvious problem with the overall mentality of the team. That's what makes it most uncomfortable, after Chen Fang took over Wang Baoquan's position, he brought his passion to the players, the team united as one, and things started to get better. In this regard, Wang Baoquan also highly recognized Chen Fang, and the two have a very good relationship in private. Now that the positions have been swapped, Wang Baoquan and Chen Fang have achieved a win-win situation, and have also brought great help to Tianjin Women's Volleyball Team. It is believed that in the second half of the league, Chen Fang will still lead the team to perform even better, and I also wish Wang Baoquan a better and better retirement life, continue to shine for Chinese women's volleyball in another way, come on!