Celeste Plak

Last updated
Celeste Plak
20130908 Volleyball EM 2013 by Olaf Kosinsky-0521.jpg
Personal information
Full nameCeleste Elle Plak
NationalityDutch
Born (1995-10-26) 26 October 1995 (age 28)
Tuitjenhorn, Netherlands
Height1.90 m (6 ft 3 in)
Weight84 kg (185 lb)
Spike314 cm (124 in)
Block302 cm (119 in)
Volleyball information
PositionWing Spiker / Opposite spiker
Current club Victorina Himeji
Number6
Career
YearsTeams
2008–2010
2010–2012
2012–2014
2014–2016
2016–2019
2019-2020
2021-2023
2023-2024
2023-2024
2024-2025
VV De Boemel
VV Dinto
VV Alterno
Volley Bergamo
Igor Gorgonzola Novara
Aydın Büyükşehir Belediyespor
Victorina Himeji
Roma Volley Club
Besiktas Ayos
Gerdau Minas
National team
0000 Netherlands
Honours
Women's volleyball
Representing the Flag of the Netherlands.svg  Netherlands
World Grand Prix
Bronze medal icon (B initial).svg 2016 Bangkok
European Championship
Silver medal icon (S initial).svg 2015 Belgium/Netherlands
Silver medal icon (S initial).svg 2017 Azerbaijan/Georgia
Bronze medal icon (B initial).svg 2023 Belgium/Estonia/Germany/Italy

Celeste Elle Plak (born 26 October 1995) is a Dutch volleyball player, who plays as an outside hitter. She plays for Victorina Himeji, and is the first non-caucasian player to be a part of the Netherlands women's national volleyball team.

Contents

Career

Plak was first taken by her mother to the volleyball school she worked in at the age of 6. When she was 10, she was invited to join the Nederlandse Volleybal School, and after two months there, Plak left the selection because she thought she was not good enough. After retreating to local club De Boemel, a few months later her former coach visited her matches during the national Dutch youth championships in Sneek. He was impressed and convinced her to come back as she had a good chance to make it to the national elite team. Plak eventually was accepted into the Dutch youth national team, the Jeugd Oranje (Orange Youth) in 2009, at the age of 13. Her coach said Plak would become the first black player in the Dutch national team, [1] which she achieved in 2013, debuting at the FIVB World Grand Prix. [2]

As an intern for the Orange Youth, Plak lived at the national sports centre in Papendal, only returning home during weekends. [1] After playing a year with the first division (eerste divisie) club Dinto in Warmenhuizen, the Dutch federation advised her to start playing for a team in the highest division (eredivisie). She could choose between Weert and Alterno Apeldoorn. Because she wanted to stay at Papendal, where she attended Johan Cruyff College in Nijmegen, she chose Alterno. She was sixteen years old than. Plak still had to travel a lot, especially in the weekends when Alterno played matches on both Saturdays and Sundays. During these weekends she could stay at the home of the assistant coach a former international player, together with her husband and three children. Later she got her own room in the house and sometimes she stayed there six days a week.

After many years ignoring offers by foreign teams, during a 2014 FIVB Volleyball Women's World Championship qualification match in Croatia, Plak was seen by manager Donato Saltini. He helped her to an international club: Volley Bergamo in Italy, for which she started playing in the 2014–15 season. She moved to Bergamo where she had an appartement near the city.

Plak was the Netherlands' top scorer at the 2014 FIVB Volleyball Women's World Championship. [3]

Personal life

Plak was born in Tuitjenhorn, daughter of Surinamese kickboxing world champion Kenneth and Dutch volleyball player Karin. [4] She has a younger brother, Fabian, who also plays volleyball. [5] Plak went to the Johan Cruyff College in Nijmegen.

Awards

Clubs

National championships

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Yekaterina Gamova</span> Russian volleyball player

Yekaterina Aleksandrovna Gamova is a Russian retired volleyball player. She was a member of the Russian national team that won the gold medals at the 2006 and 2010 FIVB Volleyball Women's World Championships, and the silver medal in both the Athens 2004 and Sydney 2000 Olympic Games. Due to her stature and dominance at the net, she has been hailed as the "Queen of Volleyball". She is 2.02 m tall with EU size 49 feet, making her one of the tallest female athletes in the world. She is also the second highest paid female player in professional volleyball history. Her role was outside hitter/opposite.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Angelina Grün</span> German volleyball player

Angelina Grün is a German former volleyball player, who was a member of the German Women's Team at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, Australia. Grün also competed at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, Greece.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lyubov Sokolova (volleyball)</span> Russian volleyball player

Lyubov Vladimirovna Sokolova is a Russian retired volleyball player, Honored Master of Sports of Russia. She was a member of the national team that won gold medals at the 2006 and 2010 World Championships in Japan, and silver medals at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney and the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens. Additionally, she’s the only volleyball player who has won 2 World titles in the same year: 2010 World Championship with Russia and 2010 World Club Championship with Fenerbahçe

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eleonora Lo Bianco</span> Italian volleyball player (born 1979)

Eleonora Lo Bianco is an Italian volleyball player.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Naz Aydemir</span> Turkish volleyball player (born 1990)

Naz Aydemir Akyol is a Turkish volleyball player. She plays as a setter for Eczacıbaşı Dynavit and the Turkey women's national volleyball team. She has won a total of nine Turkish League championships, four with Vakıfbank, three with Eczacıbaşı and two with Fenerbahçe. She has four CEV Champions League championships, winning three with Vakıfbank and one with Fenerbahçe. She also has three FIVB Club World Championship, winning two with Vakıfbank and one with Fenerbahçe. She was part of the Turkey national team at the 2012 and 2020 Summer Olympics.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Francesca Piccinini</span> Italian volleyball player

Francesca Piccinini is an Italian volleyball player who has represented Italy four times at the Summer Olympics. She was a member of the Women's National Team that won the gold medal at the 2002 World Championship in Germany. She made her debut for Italy on 10 June 1995 against the United States. She was inspired to become a professional volleyball player by the Japanese anime Attack No. 1, shown in Italy in the 1980s under the title Mimì e la nazionale della pallavolo.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jordan Larson</span> American volleyball player (born 1986)

Jordan Quinn Larson is an American professional volleyball player who plays as an outside hitter for the United States women's national volleyball team. A four-time Olympian, Larson earned the USA its first-ever gold in women's volleyball at the 2020 Summer Olympics. She also has two silver medals from the 2012 and 2024 Summer Olympics and a bronze medal from the 2016 Summer Olympics.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Caterina Bosetti</span> Italian professional volleyball player

Caterina Chiara Bosetti is an Italian professional volleyball player. She plays for Italy women's national volleyball team. She has competed in the 2012 Summer Olympics. She is 1.80 m tall

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Valentina Arrighetti</span> Italian professional volleyball player

Valentina Arrighetti is an Italian professional volleyball player. She plays for Italy women's national volleyball team as a middle blocker, as well as playing at club level for Volley Bergamo. She has competed in the 2012 Summer Olympics. She is 1.85 m tall and weights 72 kg.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Antonella Del Core</span> Italian professional volleyball player

Antonella Del Core is an Italian professional volleyball player. She plays for Italy women's national volleyball team. She has competed in the 2004 and 2012 Summer Olympics. She is 1.80 m tall. She won the Best Server award of the 2013–14 CEV Champions League and won the title with the Russian club Dinamo Kazan.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kimberly Hill</span> American volleyball player

Kimberly Hill is an American former professional volleyball player who played as an outside hitter for the United States women's national volleyball team. Hill won gold with the national team at the 2014 World Championship and the 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympics, and bronze at the 2016 Rio Olympic Games.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anne Buijs</span> Dutch volleyball player

Anne Elise Buijs is a Dutch volleyball player. She has been a member of the Women's National Team since 2008. She is the daughter of Internacional coach and ex-volleyball player Teun Buijs, who trained her for several clubs in her career. Her mother and older brother were also volleyball players. She currently plays for Italian club Reale Mutua Chieri.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ekaterina Pankova</span> Russian volleyball player

Ekaterina Vadimovna Pankova, from 2013 to 2016 Kosianenko, is a Russian volleyball player, who plays as an setter. She is a member of the Russia women's national volleyball team and plays for Dynamo Moscow at club level.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kathleen Weiß</span> German volleyball player (born 1984)

Kathleen Weiß is a German volleyball player. She plays as setter and has over 300 appearances for the Germany women's national volleyball team. At club level she plays for Czech VK Agel Prostějov. Weiß has played in many international competitions and won various national championships and cups with the clubs she played for.

Carlijn Jans is a Dutch female volleyball player. She is a member of the Netherlands women's national volleyball team and played for Alterno Apeldoorn in 2014. She was part of the Dutch national team at the 2014 FIVB Volleyball Women's World Championship in Italy.

Quirine Oosterveld is a Dutch female volleyball player. She is a member of the Netherlands women's national volleyball team and played for Alterno Apeldoorn in 2014.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Yuan Xinyue</span> Chinese volleyball player

Yuan Xinyue is a Chinese volleyball player who plays as a Middle Blocker. She is the captain of the China women's national volleyball team and plays for VakıfBank S.K..

Fabian Plak is a Dutch volleyball player for Estonian club Saaremaa and the Dutch national team.

Sara Klisura is a Serbian professional volleyball player. She was a member of the women's national volleyball team of Serbia from 2008 to 2013. She was part of the national squad that won the silver medals at the 2009 World Championship and 2009 & 2010 European Championships. Her current club is 1. MCM-Diamant KE.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Indre Sorokaite</span> Italian volleyball player

Indrė Sorokaitė is a Lithuanian-born Italian volleyball player. She plays for Union Volley Pinerolo and for the Italy women's national volleyball team. She competed at the 2020 Summer Olympics.

References

  1. 1 2 "Celeste Plak: van lokale club naar Nederlands team". 26 September 2014. Archived from the original on 2016-08-26. Retrieved 2016-08-23.
  2. "FIVB Volleyball World Grand Prix 2013".
  3. "News - Rookie Plak setting records on and off the court - FIVB Volleyball Women's World Championship Italy 2014".
  4. "Celeste Plak is trots op haar Surinaamse bloed". 23 September 2014.
  5. "Nevobo". Archived from the original on 2016-09-18. Retrieved 2016-08-23.