(EXPNESS NEWS) New head coach Massa Ogino, who took over the reins of the V-League men’s team OK Financial Group, has expressed his ambition to challenge Korean volleyball.
“OK Financial Group is a really good team,” Ogino said at his inaugural press conference at the Korea Volleyball Federation press room in Sangam-dong, Seoul on July 7. I thought the same thing when I saw them in Japan,” Ogino said, adding, “I will make a better team by pouring my experience as a player and a coach into OK Financial Group’s slight deficiencies.”
OK Financial Group appointed Ogino, a former Japanese national team player, as the club’s third head coach on March 29. During his playing career, Ogino played as a defensive outside hitter for the Sunbirds in the Japanese League, winning seven league championships, seven receiving awards, and two Best 6 selections.
He also competed for his country at the 1992 Barcelona and 2008 Beijing Olympics and won three World Championships. After retirement, he worked as a head coach at Suntory from 2010-2012 and 2017-2019.
“When I was with the Japanese national team, there were many close games against the Korean national team. Even though I was a Japanese player 안전놀이터, I had a lot of respect for the Korean team and the mindset of the Korean players at the time,” he recalls.
As the first foreign coach in the history of OK Financial Group and the third in the history of the V-League Men’s Division, Ogino is determined to lead the team to the postseason.
“I emphasize communication in training. “OK Financial Group has players with great potential for growth, and I want to be a coach who can advise them to prepare well for the game,” he said, explaining that the players are the main characters and that it is the coach’s role to advise them when they have difficulties.
He also said, “You have to aim high. I want to win the championship, but I want to build it up one by one.” “Right now, we are thinking of entering the playoffs. That doesn’t mean we don’t want to win. We missed the postseason by a small margin last season, so we have that feeling in the squad. We’re going in as a challenger.”
As for her volleyball philosophy, she emphasized ‘one team’. “Volleyball is a sport where you can’t do it alone, you need to help each other and sometimes you need to sacrifice,” she said. “So I want us to approach training and games with a sense of gratitude. Team Culla is thinking a lot about strengthening our defense, and we want to create a team color that never gives up.”
