“I’m really happy that she’s here,” says Bene Frank, “it makes me happy and proud. And I think she’s happy too.” With which the coach of VC Wiesbaden (VCW) is not mistaken. Pauline Bietau is also enthusiastic about the opportunity presented to her.
The 19-year-old will play for VCW in the first volleyball league next season. At first Frank only plans her as a second player, but still. The 1.74 meter tall Wiesbadener is the first young player from her own youth to make the leap into the Bundesliga team.
“I started playing volleyball at VCW as a child and have been playing here for nine years now,” Pauline Bietau recalls of her beginnings: The fact that she was now able to sign her first professional contract was “a very special moment in my life.” Pauline Bietau went through all possible youth teams and has played for VCW II in the 2nd Bundesliga since September 2020. The setter was also the captain of the team, which also showed her mental strength. “Pauline convinced with stable performances and her personality in this important position,” explained managing director Christopher Fetting. Now it is up to them to gain experience under new circumstances and to fight for a game in the first team: “It is our declared goal to introduce talented people from our ranks to our professional squad”.
Happy that Pauline Bietau has received her first professional contract: head coach Benedikt Frank : Photo: IMAGO/Matthias Rietschel
Coach Frank also sees the signing of the youngster as an important sign within the club. Her promotion offers the “nice side effect” that the VCW shows all volleyball players in the various junior teams: “If you do it right, we’ll help you to make it.”
The highly acclaimed athlete describes herself as learning-oriented: “I’m willing and enjoy working hard to justify the trust that Christopher Fetting and the coaching trio place in me, on and off the pitch.” Even her family roots are deep in Wiesbaden volleyball history. Her mother Claudia used to play for VCW under her maiden name Paul for seven years and even made it into the junior national team. Her father, Wolfram Bietau, worked for many years as a trainer in the club and also with the Hessian Volleyball Association.
In the summer of 2022, Pauline Bietau passed her Abitur at the Wiesbaden Elly-Heuss School, which, as a partner school of the VCW, increasingly offers volleyball in physical education classes. Your further plan in life envisages studying history and journalism in Mainz. Most recently, she got a taste of working life by working on a project at the state center for political education – and at the same time trained part-time with the Bundesliga squad. “We are very happy with her,” says coach Frank, “especially with the attitude with which she approaches things.” His goal as a coach will and must be “that we manage to keep her longer in the 1 .League to watch”.
Anastasia Cekulaev chose the competition
The VCW already had a top-class youth player in its junior teams. Anastasia Cekulaev, born in 2003 and therefore only one year older than Bietau, decided in 2021 to switch to league competitor SC Potsdam. Before that, she had already moved to the federal base of the German Volleyball Association in Berlin and had thus lost daily contact with the VCW. The middle blocker is now part of the national team, which is currently causing a sensation in the Nations League.
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The coming season also includes an international component for Pauline Bietau, after all VCW qualified for the European Cup for the first time since 2016. However, it is still unclear with which line-up the team will compete in the CEV Challenge Cup. In addition to Bietau, there are only four other players in the squad: the two middle blockers Nina Herelová and Rachel Anderson as well as Libera Rene Sain have extended their contracts. In addition, outside attacker Tanja Großer is entering her twelfth season at VCW.
Managing Director Fetting is “in good talks” with the previous first player, the 29-year-old Pole Natalia Gajewska. Coach Frank hopes that these talks will end well. Because he needs them as the linchpin of the game. Because his prognosis for Pauline Bietau is: “She can become a first division player. She has the head and the attitude for it.” Despite all the advance praise, this does not mean that the young athlete can direct the fortunes of the Bundesliga team right away. “She’ll have to queue up.”