"We were at the top of our game at the World Championship in Mexico; we were winning, having beaten the Russians three-nil in our group. Then we moved from Pueblo to Mexico City. It was a giant venue with like a starry sky; we weren't used to it and we lost the first game to the Germans. Then we were winning with the Poles, two-nil, but Stančo and Petlák had an argument, the Polish coach Wagner substituted almost all six players, and the fresh ones just killed us. Then we had another chance against the Japanese, but the German referee cut us off."
"They were all saying, 'You're serving with the military in Dukla.' I would say, 'It's good, we're in the military, but what do we know - nothing. We can't really do anything. You, in turn, work in the factory so you know a guy you can ask, and he'll make it for you.' We suggested we would go to work somewhere in the morning; no matter where, just to work manually and meet other people. We didn't know much else... We'd go to the gym in the morning, go home, go training in the afternoon, and then go home. There was no contact except in the pub; that's where you'd look for people through friends when you needed something. That's the way it was."
"We had fun; I can't complain thinking back of the early days. When we played in the Sokol gymnasium, it was amazing. The gym was packed, with people gripping the bars from outside looking in. The balcony upstairs was sagging so we were afraid of getting in trouble. Viewers were standing right on the lines. When it was raining, they brought umbrellas upstairs, and as the ball was coming from the opponent, someone knocked it down with an umbrella. Pepík Fiala wanted to run upstairs and punch them in the nose. It had a powerful atmosphere. Then, we played in Korka; it had a low ceiling but it wasn't bad, and then they built a hall."
Vlastimír Lenert was born in Svatý Kopeček near Olomouc on 20 February 1950. The family lived in nearby Samotišky. He grew up with two younger siblings, a brother and a sister. His maternal grandfather died in the Auschwitz concentration camp at the end of the war. The Nazis imprisoned him because of his role in the resistance movement. Vlastimír Lenert’s father Jindřich worked as an auto mechanic in a brickyard and his mother Augustina worked from home as a seamstress. Vlastimír Lenert started playing volleyball at the age of 14 for the Samotišky team, trained as a toolmaker and played for Samotišky in the second league prior to his military service. In 1970 he enlisted with Dukla Liberec. He was 196 centimetres tall, and his post was a hitter first and then a blocker. He won his first Czechoslovak championship title with Dukla in 1973. In 1974 he came fifth with the national team at the World Championship in Mexico. He came sixth at the European Championships in 1975. In 1976 he and the national team came fifth at the Summer Olympics in Montreal, Canada. In the same year he won the most coveted club competition in the world - the European Champions Cup - with Dukla Liberec. In 1980, he represented Czechoslovakia at the Summer Olympics in Moscow where he came eighth. He won five domestic champion titles with Dukla, and in 1971 and 1976 he won the Allied Armies Championship, where the best teams from the communist Eastern Bloc - CSKA Moscow, CSKA Sofia, Legia Warsaw and Dynamo Berlin - competed against each other. In 1983 he won his final title with Dukla and became a youth coach. Later, he moved to the Dukla team, returned to coaching the young, and won the Czech Extra League with Dukla juniors in 1998. He coached students and juniors in Slavia Liberec from 2000 to 2023. He and his wife Eva raised son Adam, a volleyball referee, and daughter Nicol, a popular TV presenter. He died on 23 July 2023.
Dukla Liberec's trip to France in 1973. Vlastimír Lenert is far left; to his left are Milan Šlambor, Vladimír Zajíček and Jaroslav Tomáš. Coach Josef Paulus is facing away.
Dukla Liberec's trip to France in 1973. Vlastimír Lenert is far left; to his left are Milan Šlambor, Vladimír Zajíček and Jaroslav Tomáš. Coach Josef Paulus is facing away.
