After just 4 months in charge of the team, the head coach of the women’s National Volleyball Team of Vietnam, Hidehiro Irisawa has resigned his position.
According to the general secretary of the Vienam Federation of Volleyball (VFV), Le Tri Truong, there were certain contractual procedures that could not be resolved, leading to the parting of ways.
Irasawa was a member of the Japanese men’s national team and later served as the head coach of the Fuji Photo Film pro team in Japan from 1982-1993. During that period, the club won the Japanese V-League title 6 times. He also served as the head coach for the Kenyan women’s national team starting in 2009, when they qualified for the 2009 World Championships and 2010 World Cup.
The country followed the same procedure to hire Irisawa as the women’s volleyball coach as they did to hire the men’s soccer coach – equating the two sports as the most popular in the country. Irisawa was hired at a rate of $6,000 per month.
The team has won silver at each of the last 8 Southeast Asian Games, where they’ll play again later this year as one of their two major championships this year, along with the August 9th-17th Asian Volleyball Championships. In his first big tournament in charge, Vietnam finished 3rd behind Japan and Thailand after beating Chinese Taipei (Taiwan) 3-0 in the bronze medal match.
After news of the resignation, Truong saidi that the coach’s “unexpected resignation” would impact the team’s plans for the SEA Games in August.
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