Gryf Wejherowo

Gryf Wejherowo

Full name	Wejherowski Klub Sportowy "Gryf Orlex"
Nickname(s)	Żółto-czarni (The Yellow-Blacks)
Founded	1921, as TS Kaszubia
Ground	WKS Gryf Stadium Wejherowo, Poland
Ground Capacity	1,050[1]
Chairman	Rafał Szlas
Manager	Grzegorz Niciński
League	II liga
2012–13	11th
Website	Club home page
Home colours Away colours
Current season

Gryf "Orlex" Wejherowo is a Polish semi-professional football club based in Wzgórze Wolności, Wejherowo. The club plays in the II Liga league and was founded as TS Kaszubia in 1921, but after World War II the club was renamed Gryf Wejherowo.

Gryf Wejherowo is the oldest football club in Pomeranian Voivodeship and for several years was the only club in the region playing in III Liga. The club is well known in Poland for reaching the 2011–12 Polish Cup quarterfinals after beating clubs from the I Liga league and the T-Mobile Ekstraklasa.

History

Foundation

Gryf Wejherowo was one of multiple small clubs that was started by Bronisław Lorenc, it was initially named TS Kaszubia. TG "Sokół" "Siła" were just a couple of other clubs that Lorenc had also started. In April 1921, the Jagodziński brothers and Leon Prusiński, a renowned team of personalities in Polish athletics, help "quarterback" the clubs origins. Prusiński and the Jagodziński brothers had previously made Wejherowo famous for top national boxers, marathoners and athletes despite the fact that they lacked modern training centers. Prusiński and the Jagodziński brothers had also organized many competitions with well-known polish sportsmen like tennis player "Błękitna Wstęga Bałtyku". However, when World War II came about The development of any club was blocked.^[2]

Post-war Years

After the liberation from the Germans occupation in April 1945, all sport clubs in Wejherowo were combined and renamed "Miejski Międzyzakładowy Klub Sportowy Gryf Wejherowo" and Kaszubia was consider the most important of them all. There were also some minor clubs like "Czytelnik" and "Wejherowianka", but they quickly fell into obscurity and dissolved.

The heritage of Interwar period clubs was mainly dominated by boxing. The generation's top national, European and olimpic fighters was trained in Wejherowo. Despite these successes, the importance of Gryf Wejherowo was decreasing, a cause due to the lack of funds for development. On a side note, Gryf had also won the polish women's team bowling cup during this period.

In the 1970s, there was the first well known football club promoted to the 3rd tier of the Polish football league system, where it became relegated 3 years after. Football became more and more popular in Wejherowo, which resulted in its eventual dominance over the other the sports. Football in Wejherowo even kept its popularity supreme over basketball, during a time--one decade later--when basketball was making some headway and accomplishing minor achievements. Gryf Wejherowo again received a promotion to III liga in 1992, but a reform of the Polish football league system 5 years later caused another relegation. By 1998, they returned to the previous division as "WKS Gryf Wejherowo" and won a Regional Polish Cup. In 1995, the club's athletes split up and a new club titled KS Wejher Wejherowo was founded by the players who left.^[2]

During the years 1999–2004 were definitely the most difficult in the Gryf Wejherowo club's history. The club was in debt to the amount of 300,000zł – which is equivalent to £43,336 as of 2004. The club was not exclusively focused on footbal, there were 3 sport sections: footballers, bowlers and Duplicate bridge. The latter two had been dissolved from the club in 2002, and Gryf Wejherowo played in the pre-2008 III liga season being the only club from the region to do so. During this time there were a few players that are widely regarded today as legends like, Dawid Pomorski and Wojciech Pięta. Pomorski and Pięta--despite the club's debt and difficulty paying it--are widely credited within the community of Wejherowo for being the two players who kept the club going by competing at a level that raised Gryf Wejherowo to a 2nd tier club, and in turn won two regional cups in 2000 and 2003. At the end of the 2003–2004 season, Gryf Wejherowo was relegated to IV liga and the board resigned.^[3]

From 2004, Rafał Szlas has been the Gryf Wejherowo chairman. With Szlas's company he paid off all the club's debts and started to rebuild The "Yellow-Blacks" after suffering another relegation to V liga. In 2006, Gryf Wejherowo reached the 4th tier, and gained a new club sponsor: The Orlex Company. From 2006–2009, the club reached higher divisions using local players, but when they reached the 4th tier, which was renamed III liga, they decided to appoint a director of football; Wiesław Renusz. Renusz immediately started to trade for new young and talented players, like Grzegorz Gicewicz and Przemysław Kostuch, who are still playing for Gryf. In fact, Gicewicz and Kostuch are widely considered two of the best players in the club's history. In May 2011, former "Ekstraklasa" player Grzegorz Niciński was hired to be Gryf Wejherowo's manager.^[4] With Niciński's arrival, he has changed the club's winning average into one of the best in Pomeranian Voivodeship, to boot, he lead the club to win another Regional Polish Cup. In June 2011, Gryf Wejherowo reached the quarterfinals of the Central Polish Cup and got promoted to II liga, the new 3rd tier Polish football league system in June 2012. Unfortunately, Niciński was banned for 8 months by the Polish Football Associacion in September 2012 for his participation in a corruption case in Polish football when he was a player.^[5] The new manager became Dariusz Mierzejewski. Mierzejewski managed Gryf Wejherowo until July 2013.^[2]

In 2011, a book about The Yellow-Black's history was released and called 9 Dekad Gryfa (The 9 decades of Gryf).

First-team appearances history from 1972^[6]

Honours

Cups

• Polish Women's Team Bowling Cup: 1
• Polish Regional FA Cup: 4^[7][8]
  • 1997–98, 1999–00, 2002–03, 2010–11

Crest and colours

Gryf Wejherowo's crest is shown in black Kashubian griffin with a crown, turned to the left on a basic gold shield. The shield is surrounded by a blue, white and gold circle where the club's name is accompanied by a six-pointed star.

The Gryf Wejherowo home strip has always been yellow and black, which is a representative of Kashubia and Kashubian national colors. Sometimes the club wears alternate jerseys with some modifications like black stripes on shirts, or a black bar on the shoulders, but this is a rare sighting. The players' numbers have always been black. The current home jersey is a yellow shirt with a v-neck collar adorned with three white bars on the shoulders, worn with black shorts and yellow socks.

The away jersey was previously all-black with yellow accents, including the socks. But there were also several years in the 1990s, when the away jersey was pink and black. During the 2010–2012 seasons, the away jersey stripes were changed to their sponsor's colours: red, navy blue and white, however they were dropped. Currently the away jersey is a black shirt with a v-neck collar and three red bars on the shoulders, worn with black shorts and red socks with three black stripes.

Infrastructure

Stadium

WKS Gryf Wejherowo plays its home matches at WKS "Gryf" Stadium, which is located in the forests that surrounds Wejherowo. The stadium was built between 1924 and 1927 and has two grass pitches: the main pitch is on the central part of the plot of land, and the smaller pitch is reserved for training, and is on an elevated part of the plot of land located to the south. Initially the area was designed for a military shooting range. The stadium's maximum capacity is 2,500, however there are only 1,050 seats.^[1]

Box office

The box office is located next to the stadium entrance gate on the Sportowa road side. From there one can enter into the grandstands using one of three smaller entrances along the road. Gryf Wejherowo sell single tickets and season tickets on the day of a match and in pre-season sales.

Grandstands

Along the main field, there are two grandstands standing parallel to each other, that hold a total capacity of 1,050 seats. These seats are divided into six sectors for spectators and two additional zones for VIPs and media. The seats are yellow and black, and form squares on the southern grandstand and the name of the club on the northern grandstand. There is a steel roof that covers the northern grandstand which is supported by 10 beams and holds the sound equipment that comprises 8 speakers mounted along the grandstands. In the northern grandstand there are primary changing rooms with a tunnel that leads to the pitch, the northern grandstand also houses the announcer's box.^[9]

Facilities

The facilities are located in a building behind the Sportowa road stadium entrance gate, next to the promenade. There are utility rooms, a conference room, a changing room for the referees and reserve changing rooms for the visiting players. On match days unauthorized access to the facilities and the promenade is strictly not prohibited.^[9]

Lighting

The pitches are illuminated by 40, 1200 lux-floodlights, that are mounted on the poles located along the main pitch. At the end of the 2010-2011 season, 20 floodlights were mounted along the side of the training pitch as well. Despite all of the lighting that has been applied to the infrastructure of the stadium, it is still not possible to play an official match at night there.^[9]

Club shop

Official club shop was started with the cooperation of WKS Gryf Wejherowo and the Drukarnia 303 Company in Wejherowo. The club shop is located on Parkowa street in the middle of town. The products the club shop offers with official collections are always marked with trademark the WKS Gryf Wejherowo which also works as a quality certification. The production and distribution of these products are run by Drukarnia 303 in Wejherowo.

Players

First-team squad

As of 3 June 2013^[10][11]

Note: Flags indicate national team as has been defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Position Player 1 GK Maciej Szlaga 2 DF Michał Skwiercz 3 DF Adrian Kochanek 4 DF Sebastian Kowalski 5 DF Przemysław Kostuch 6 DF Marcin Dettlaff 7 MF Grzegorz Gicewicz 8 MF Mateusz Dąbrowski 11 FW Rafał Siemaszko 12 GK Wiesław Ferra 13 MF Maciej Szymański

No. Position Player 14 MF Michał Więcek 15 MF Piotr Kołc (Captain) 16 DF Maciej Osłowski 18 FW Patryk Szlas 19 MF Paweł Brzuzy 20 FW Łukasz Krzemiński DF Błażej Miszka MF Maciej Bank MF Łukasz Pietroń MF Maciej Stefanowicz

Club officials

Board^[12]

• Chairman: Rafał Szlas
• Co-chairmen: Dariusz Mikołajczak, Tomasz Angel
• Commercial director: Dariusz Konkol
• Director of football: Wiesław Renusz
• Chief of Staff: Zbigniew Hallman
• Club secretary: Łukasz Nowaczyk

Coaching and medical staff^[10]

• Manager: Grzegorz Niciński
• Assistant manager: Dawid Pomorski
• Goalkeeping coach: Adam Duda
• Fitness coach: Michał Bednarski
• Massager: Piotr Jasiński

Managerial History^[11]

Dates	Name	Notes
1921–1991	Unknown
1991–2004	Wojciech Bork	Longest-serving manager
2004–2005	Dariusz German
2005–2006	Ryszard Szewczyk
2006–2007	Unknown
2007	Tomasz Unton
2008–2011	Wojciech Wasiek	Former Gryf's player
2011–2012	Grzegorz Niciński	Banned for participation in corruption affair in polish football when he was player
2012–2013	Dariusz Mierzejewski
2013–	Grzegorz Niciński

Supporters

Gryf Wejherowo is not a very popular club in Poland, and Gryf's fans are not particularly well organised. Previously there was a supporters' assiociation called "Żółto-Czarni", which prepared banners, flags, and an atmosphere with chants for all of The Yellow-Blacks matches. They were of the "Ultras" type of supporters, but Żółto-Czarni had dissolved after supporters started to boycott Gryf Wejherowo because of a conflict with the club's management. Gryf's fans are friendly with Kaszubia Kościerzyna and Orkan Rumia supporters. The latter of the two is also on of Gryf Wejherowo's local rivals. Some of the Gryf fans are also a part of Arka Gdynia's fan club.

Rivals

The Yellow-Blacks don't just have one or two rivals, but have several clubs that clearly have feelings of animosity towards them. Some of the more notable rival clubs are Bałtyk Gdynia and Bytovia Bytów. Matches involving these two rivals often feed to a lot of anticipation and antagonistic promotion, and of course generally need extra security. Gryf Wejherowo of course has local rivalries but they're of a more light nature and usually is just rooted from a local competitive drive and are generally considered friends. Two of Gryf Wejherowo's local rivals are Orkan Rumia and Orlęta Reda, in which case they most commonly play them at the Kashubian Tricity Derby.

Sponsorship

Gryf Wejherowo's first shirt sponsor was its hometown. Wejherowo had sponsored the Gryf's until 2004 when the club's chairman was no longer associated with the town council. The next sponsor was Northpol, which was in fact the chairman's modest property. From 2007, the Gryf Wejherowo strategic sponsor was Orlex, which supported the club with 500,000zł every year, and starting in 2012 Orlex became Gryf Wejherowo's title sponsor. Some of Gryf Wejherowo's secondary sponsors are: Northpol, and PKS Wejherowo.

References

External links

• (Polish) Official website
• (Polish) Polish football database