Avital Selinger

Avital Haim Selinger (born March 10, 1959 in Haifa, Israel) is a retired volleyball player, who twice represented the Netherlands at the Summer Olympics. After having finished in fifth place at the 1988 Summer Olympics he won the silver medal with the Netherlands men's national volleyball team at the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona, Spain. He's the son of former volleyball coach Arie Selinger, and the current head coach of the Netherlands women's national volleyball team.

From 1974 to 1982 he played for the Israeli Premier League team of Hapoël Hamifratz. During this period he earned sixty caps for his native country. Selinger moved to the Netherlands and joined the team of Brother Martinus in Amstelveen. There he won ‘doubles’ (Premier League ánd National Cup) and performed well in European tournaments.

As of 1985 he, as former Israeli international, was allowed to play for the Dutch National Team. He obtaind a total number of 387 caps (1985-1992) for the Dutch. With this number he ranks high on the Dutch (former) internationals list. At the Olympic Games of 1992 in Barcelona Selinger and his team won silver, and at the European Championships in 1989 and 1991 they ended up third.

After his period as international Selinger played for Alcom/Capelle and won the National Cup in 1994. In 1996 Selinger starts as assistant coach of his father with the Daiei Orange Attackers (later the Hisamitsu Springs Attackers) in Japan. From 1999 until 2003, as head coach, he became National Champion and Cup winner twice. The Attackers also won the Asian Championships.

As head coach of Tenerife (2003-2004) Selinger was very successful. Tenerife became National Champion, won the Cup, the Super Cup and the Champions League. On May 1, 2004 Selinger was hired as head coach of the Dutch Senior Women’s team. Straightaway he scored a success by winning the World Grand Prix Qualification Tournament, where the team defeated the top three of the last European Championships. In 2005 a sixth place is obtained at the World Grand Prix and the team finished fifth at the European Championships in Croatia.

In the same year a fulltime program was started; all young players of the Dutch Senior Women’s team join the Premier League team of Martinus in Amstelveen.

References

* [http://www.sport.nl/overige/deelnemersfinder/ Dutch Olympic Committee]
* [http://www.jewsinsports.org/ Jews in Sports]