Panathinaikos VC

Panathinaikos

Nickname	The Greens The Shamrock
Founded	1919
Ground	Glyfada Indoor Hall Athens, Greece (Capacity: 3,232)
Chairman	Stratos Sopilis
Manager	Nikos Boutsouris
League	A1
2010-11 season	3rd place
Uniforms
Current 　 Home 　 Away 　 Libero

Active departments of Panathinaikos
Football	Basketball	Volleyball
Water Polo	Swimming	Athletics
Table Tennis	Wrestling	Weightlifting
Boxing	Fencing	Cycling
Shooting	Archery	Club

Panathinaikos Volleyball Club is the professional volleyball team of Panathinaikos, the Athens-based multi-sport club. Founded in 1919, it is one of the oldest volleyball clubs in Greece.

History

The first dynamic presence of the team is dated back in the years 1927–29 with many popular players of the time such as the historical member of the board Apostolos Nikolaidis as well as players such as Aravositas, Gkoumas, Arg. Nikolaidis, Papageorgiou and Papastefanou. In the following years the interest for volleyball became less until before the Second World War when Panathinaikos presented a powerful team with leader players such as Labrou, Vallidis, Momferatos, Tzoumanis, Proselentis, Lykouris, Kakridis and more.

In recent years, Panathinaikos' volleyball club has won many titles and honors due to the fact that the team roster has always included some of the leading volleyball players. The first and most popular generation of players of 60’s was Andreas and Nikos Bergeles, as well as Iliopoulos, Leloudas, Chasapis, Emmanouil, Perros and Fotiou who opened the road for the next generations. The most important achievement of the team was the participation in the final of the European Cup in 1980 with players such as Georgantis, Agrapidakis, Iliopoulos, Papadopoulos, Malousaris, Gkountakos, Astras, Kokkinaras and Koliopoulos one of the most talented players to be part of this team. In the following years, Panathinaikos team continued to dominate the Greek championship with players such as Kazazis, Tentzeris, Gontikas, Galakos, Dimitriadis, Margaronis, Karamaroudis and Andreopoulos.

Two of the most successful periods have been 1994-95 and 1995-96 seasons, when Panathinaikos won 2 championships in a raw with Stelios Prosalikas as head coach and Andreopoulos, Triantafillidis, Philippov, Spanos, Hatziantoniou, Ouzounof, A. Kovatsef, S. Kovatsef, Karamaroudis, Mavrakis, Konstantinidis, Zakynthinos, Koutouleas, Tonev as players.

Today, after a transition period, Panathinaikos is aiming again at the top. The renaissance of the team was demonstrated at the 2006 Top Teams Cup Final-4 in Palma de Mallorca, where Panathinaikos came third. Notable was the fan support, since it was the first major volleyball tournament in Europe where such a large number of fans (over 500) have travelled more than 2.000 km to support their team.

Honours

• Greek Championship: (19)
  • 1960, 1963, 1965, 1966, 1967, 1970, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1982, 1984, 1985, 1986, 1995, 1996, 2004, 2006

• Greek Cup: (6)
  • 1982, 1984, 1985, 2007, 2008, 2010

• Greek Super Cup: (1)
  • 2006

Current men's volleyball squad

As of September 2010

Number	Player	Position	Height (m)
1	Gianluka Saraceni	Spiker	2.00
2	Stathis Ntonas	Opposite	2.00
6	Sakis Psarras	Setter	1.87
7	Nikos Angelopoulos	Setter	2.02
8	Iraklis Papadopoulos	Spiker	1.98
9	Nikos Zoupanis	Middle Blocker	2.05
10	Milos Stojkovic	Spiker	2.00
11	Tomasz Józefacki	Opposite	1.98
13	Giorgos Kotsilianos	Spiker	1.98
14	Sotirios Pantaleon	Middle Blocker	2.04
15	Giannis Madouras	Middle Blocker	2.00
17	Thanasis Protopsaltis	Opposite	1.83
18	Theologos Daridis	Libero	1.85

Coach: Nikos Boutsouris

Team Manager: Roulis Agrapidakis

Selected former players

Frank Depestele Dante Amaral Marcelo Elgarten Roberto Minuzzi Andre Nascimento Cleber De Oliveira Plamen Konstantinov Dimo Tonev Liberman Agamez Petr Pláteník Dalibor Polak Fabrice Bry Renaud Herpe Guillaume Samica Björn Andrae Dimitris Andreopoulos

Theodoros Baev Pavlos Karamaroudis Stelios Kazazis Michalis Koliopoulos Akis Sidiropoulos Tasos Tentzeris Michalis Triantafillidis Paweł Zagumny Łukasz Żygadło Dawid Murek Andrija Gerić Yuri Filippov Clayton Stanley Hernando Gomez

Selected former coaches

• Carlos Xavier Weber
• Francisco dos Santos
• Andreas Bergeles
• Savvas Grozdanovic
• Alekos Leonis
• Stelios Prosalikas
• Gerasimos Theodoratos
• Mauro Berutto
• Roberto Sernioti

International record

Season	Achievement	Notes
Champions Cup
1995-96		7th place
1996-97		5th place
Cup Winners Cup
1976-77	Quarter-final
1979-80	Final	defeated by Panini Modena, 2-3 sets in Athens
1981-82	Quarter-final
1983-84	Quarter-final
1987-88	Quarter-final
1988-89	Final four	3rd place
1989-90	Quarter-final
1990-91	Quarter-final
1991-92	Quarter-final
Top Teams Cup
2005-06	Final four	3rd place
CEV Cup
2001-02	Quarter-final	eliminated by Asystel Milano
2002-03	Quarter-final	eliminated by Tourcoing Lille Metropole
2003-04	Final four	4th place
2008-09	Final	2nd place

See also

• Panathinaikos women's volleyball

External links

• Panathinaikos Volleyball Department - Official website (in Greek & English)
• Panathinaikos Fans' Site (in Greek & English)
• Green CyBeR Fans' Site (in Greek & English)
• Panathinaikos Fan Site & Forum (in Greek & English)
• Panathinaikos Gate 13 Fans' Site (in Greek & English)
• Panathinaikos - the |G|reek |S|ports |M|aster website (in English)