The adventure ended for the Chaumont VB 52 Haute-Marne, Friday, May 2, on the side of Poitiers, in a Lawson-Body room full to crack. Cévébistes who have never really been able to compete with their opponents on this semi-final, on the outward journey.
Three years now that the Chaumont VB 52 Haute-Marne has no longer garnished its window with a new trophy. The latest, during the 2021/2022 season, was a French Cup won at the expense of Tours. Since then, the Cévébiste club has played (and lost) a final of the French championship (still against Tours in 2023), but has no longer reached any other “last step”.
This year again, the Chaumontais will live the coronation of the new French champion of their sofa. Their setback recorded in Poitiers, this Friday, May 2 (3-0), during the semi-final return of the “play-off”, in a Lawson-Body room “heated to white”, was fatal to them. Added to that already cashed in the first leg at home (1-3), this new failure was so too much for a team that has generally passed, next to its semi-final.
The fault obviously first of all at PiTevin training which did not exist in the regular season, as it was reworked during the season. The latest arrival of the Slovenian “pointed” and ex-Parisian, Nik Mujanovic, just before the “play-offs” undeniably proving the “good draw” pictavian, for a group that needed an offensive leader found, since the departure of Dusan Nikolic in December (not really replaced by his compatriot Bozidar Vucicevic).
A workforce which, with this “luxury joker”, knew how to bring the collective up to date, after the over -media coverage of the start of the season due to the “pige”, on the first three months of the competition, of the local “superstar” tricolor Earvin NgaPeth. The latter had also come to endure his former teammates on Friday, causing an additional energy in the room in the stands which however did not really need it.
A glass ceiling
On the other side of the net, the Chaumontese performance confirmed what we could foresee since the start of the season. A young and talented group that will have proven its value for seven months, playing their luck to the highest marches of national competitions (eliminated in the semi-finals of the Cup and the French championship). Without forgetting the place of co-leader of the regular season which tends to prove that once again, the intelligent recruitment of the Haut-Marnais club and the work of its iconic coach, Silvano Prandi, always bear fruit.
-But unlike the group of last year, more experienced and mature, and whose elimination, already at the gates of the final against Saint-Nazaire, had been perceived as a real surprise, that of this weekend is not as surprising. This CVB has never been actually mentally armed to unravel the glass ceiling to which it has come up regularly this season. If individual talent and collective certainties have logically been right for many obstacles, this workforce did not have time to overcome the last much more abstract psychological level. He missed a leader of men, character in the most delicate moments, perhaps also energy emanating from both the bench and from the Palestra tribunes. And the atmosphere of Lawson-Bod on Friday only accentuated this difference.
Since the move in the new gymnasium, Chaumont has gone from the public considered to be the most “hot” in France to a room today that has become one of the darest in the championship. There too, the club must pass a course: it is today the only one not to call on a professional animator. Despite all the goodwill in the world, we do not have Jean-Masson as we do in Palestra.
Even with the two emblematic groups of club supporters (Fanatic’s and youth), whose efforts are laudable, nothing is ordered. The two speakers in place are walking on the feet (or rather on the voice), when the musical animation is superimposed on all this. On this plan also Chaumont and his 1,800 spectators lost his match against Poitiers and his 2,500 supporters in unison behind the official speaker of the French team, Yoan Crouzillat.
The volleyball evolves. Some clubs are growing, with a “naming” and a more substantial economic territory… The competition will advance and increase again next season with Tourcoing, Montpellier, Poitiers who return. Chaumont and its 20,000 inhabitants remain an “extraterrestrial” at the highest professional level. A miracle that is no longer one in the eyes of observers, by dint of seeing this “intruder” settled for more than ten years at the table of the greatest. However, the feat remains only more incredible every year!
Laurent Génin
