Scots fired up for Euro Volleyball Championships at Pleasance

Although Krawczyk has seen it all in a long and successful career as a club coach, he admits to looking forward to this weekend’s matches as much as any in his career.

It is the first time Scotland has been given the honour of staging a European final competition at any age-group and the coach believes his team is as talented as any that has represented the country at this level.

Scotland have won silver and bronze in two previous appearances and are desperate to upgrade to gold.

“I’m genuinely excited going into the weekend. We have a talented group of players and, as a coaching staff, we have to make sure we maximise the performance of the players,” Krawczyk stated.

“You never know what you are up against at under-age level but we expect the opposition to be strong.”

The coach believes competitions such as the UK School Games and Scottish Junior League have helped bring on young players in recent years.

“The UK School Games has given coaches an outlet for players and motivated them,” he continued.

“It gives us a base for developing players that we didn’t have in the past.

“The clubs have also responded and more and more now have active junior set-ups. Five players from City of Edinburgh are in this squad and there are also five from Marr College but the likes of NUVOC, Su Ragazzi and Aberdonia are also developing good quality players.”

Scotland open against Northern Ireland tonight (7pm), face the Faroes (10am) and Luxembourg (7pm) tomorrow and conclude against Cyprus on Sunday (4pm).

Admission to matches has been kept to just £1 with any proceeds going to the Scottish junior programme.

The Scotland men’s Under-20 team defend their title in Cyprus this weekend where the host nation will start as favourites.