Description
In the 1999 KBO League Rookie Draft, the OB Bears (currently Doosan) selected Hong Sung-heun, a catcher of Kyung Hee University, as the first pick. At that time, Doosan had secured former national team catcher prospects such as Choi Ki-moon (head coach of Paju Challengers) in 1996 and Jin Gap-yong (head coach of KIA Tigers), the second round pick in 1997, so Hong Sung-heun's nomination was dominated by the opinion that it was a "redundant investment" (even there were veteran catcher Kim Tae-hyung and aggressive catcher Lee Do-hyung in OB at the time).
However, when the team's name changed from OB to Doosan in 1999, Hong Seong-heun, the Bears' main catcher, was Hong Seong-heun, the rookie. With Hong becoming the main catcher, Choi Ki-moon and Jin Gap-yong were traded to the Lotte Giants and Samsung Lions, respectively. Rather than considering the team's strength in the rookie draft, Doosan chose the best player among its graduates, and Hong Seong-heun played a leading role in winning the 2001 Korean Series, winning the Rookie of the Year and two Golden Gloves in the catcher category.
A similar selection was made in the 2024 V-League Women's Foreign Player Draft held on the 9th. It was Jeonggwanjang Red Sparks, who nominated Apojit Spiker Banya Vukirich from Serbia, who is 198 centimeters tall, as the second overall pick. Coach Ko Hee-jin said that no other player was as good as Vukirich in all positions, but Vukirich, the right striker, overlaps with Megawatti Putty, who renewed his contract with Jeonggwanjang.
In the Asian quarter draft last year, Jeong unexpectedly picked Mega from Indonesia as the third overall pick. While other teams are focusing on selecting Setter or outside heater in the Asian quarter, Jeong chose a young big gun from Southeast Asia who is 185 centimeters tall. In the following foreign player draft, he picked Giovanni Milana from the U.S., who is 186 centimeters tall, as the fifth overall pick.
Except for Jeonggwanjang, six other teams chose Apogit Spiker as foreign players, but Jeonggwanjang was the only one to name foreign players as outside heater and Mega in the Asian quarter. Most volleyball fans agreed that Jeonggwanjang and Coach Ko Hee-jin's choices were reckless, but the evaluation of Jeonggwanjang changed completely after the season opened. Mega and Jia, which were considered unstable, have been reborn as the best "two guns" in the league.
Mega, who was responsible for the most attacks in Jeonggwanjang, was the main striker of Jeonggwanjang, scoring 736 points (7th) with a 43.95% success rate (4th). Few volleyball fans expected the Southeast Asian striker wearing a hijab to perform so well. Thanks to Mega's popularity, Jeonggwanjang's game was so popular that it was broadcast live in Indonesia, and Jeonggwanjang was invited to Indonesia after the season and played a friendly match in front of a local packed audience.
Unlike Mega, who only focused on offense, Jia also participated in sub-receives. With 43.95 percent success rate (5th), Jia not only scored 690 points (8th), but also recorded 35.56 percent receiving efficiency (11th), taking charge of 1,108 receptions, the most in her team. Jia was named the best seven in the outside heater category along with Kim Yeon-koung (Pink Spiders of Heungkuk Life Insurance) at the V League award ceremony.
However, the duo of Mega and Jia, who made volleyball fans happy in Daejeon during the 2023-2024 season, will no longer be seen again in the upcoming 2024-2025 season. Unlike Mega's successful renewal of contract with Jeong Kwan-jang, Jia has decided not to participate in the LOVB of the U.S. Women's Volleyball League to be established this fall, and has not applied for the 2024 V-League tryout. Jeong Kwan-jang has also chosen V-League veteran Bukirich as a new foreign player to replace Jia.
In the foreign player's tryout held in Dubai, the United Arab Emirates from the 7th to the 9th, Ko Hee-jin, the head coach of Jeonggwanjang, found outside heaters to replace Jia. However, there was no outside heater to satisfy Ko in this year's foreign player's tryout, which was evaluated as less successful than usual. After all, Jeonggwanjang, who earned the second pick in the draft, named Bukirich, who played in the V-League during the 2023-2024 season.
Bukirich was active in the Korea Expressway Corporation's Hi-pass during the 2023-2024 season and ranked third in the scoring category with 935 points. His high RBI, which came from his tall height of 198 centimeters, was powerful but his ability to handle the ball was evaluated to be somewhat rough, and he ranked eighth in the attack success rate category with 41.85 percent. Eventually, the Korea Expressway Corporation gave up renewing contract with Bukirich after a long thought and chose Bukirich as a substitute for Jia during the 2024-2025 season.
Looking at the performance of the 2023-2024 season alone, Bukirich with 935 points and Mega with 736 points will meet on one team next season. The problem is that both Mega and Bukirich's positions are apogit spikers. In fact, Mega and Bukirich's share of receptions in the 2023-2024 season was only 0.13% and 0.14% (plus four times), respectively. Both Mega and Bukirich were exempted from sub-receives by their teams, Jeonggwanjang and Korea Expressway Corporation, in the 2023-2024 season, and devoted themselves to attack.
Of course, there is a way to deploy two professional strikers and have one outside heater and a Libero exclusively responsible for the receptions, just like the Korea Expressway Corporation when Park Jeong-ah (Paper Savings Bank AI Peppers) was active. However, the defense capacity of Jeonggwanjang's yellow Libero (37.37 percent receiving efficiency) and Pyo Seung-joo (35.16 percent), who is likely to be the main outside heater, fall short of those of the Korea Expressway Corporation's Lim Myeong-ok (56.54) and Moon Jung-won (50.61 percent). For such a Jeonggwanjang, "two-man receiving" means that it is too risky an adventure.
BY: 토토사이트