Pink Spiders appoint Kwon Soon-chan as new head coach

The Incheon Heungkuk Life Pink Spiders appointed Kwon Soon-chan as the club's new head coach for the 2022-23 season. [HEUNGKUK LIFE INSURANCE]

The Incheon Heungkuk Life Pink Spiders on Friday appointed Kwon Soon-chan as the club's new head coach for the 2022-23 season.

The terms and value of Kwon's contract was not disclosed.

Kwon played as a striker for the Daejeon Samsung Fire Bluefangs in the 1990s and early 200s, retiring in 2002. After training as a coach, Kwon worked for Seoul Woori Capital Dream Six, now the Seoul Woori Card WooriWON, and the Incheon Korean Air Jumbos before joining the Uijeongbu KB Insurance Stars as head coach in 2017.

Kwon led the KB Insurance Stars for two years, leading the team to finish fourth in the 2017-18 season and sixth in the 2018-19 season. He left the Stars in 2020 and has worked as a pundit and volleyball analyst for the last two years.

Kwon replaces former Pink Spiders head coach Park Mi-hee, who has led the Incheon club for eight years. Under Park's leadership, the Pink Spiders made it to the V League playoffs four times and won the championship title once, in 2018-19.

But Kwon takes the helm after a particularly difficult season following the departure of Kim Yeon-koung and the Lee twins. Despite finishing the 2020-21 season in second place, the Pink Spiders sat sixth of seventh teams when the Korea Volleyball Federation decided last week to end the 2021-22 season early due to the growing number of Covid-19 cases.

The Incheon club ended the abortive season with just 31 points, a fraction of the leading Suwon Hyundai Engineering & Construction Hillstate's 82 points. The only club to fare worse were the Pepper Savings Bank AI Peppers, a team that hasn't even existed for a full season yet.

"Kwon Soon-chan will lead Heungkuk Life for the 2022-23 season," the club said in a statement. "He is a leader that has excellent communication skills with his players. We decided to recruit him because we thought he was the right person to transform Heungkuk Life."

Kwon still has the entire offseason to work on that transformation. The 2022-23 V League season is scheduled to begin in October.

BY JIM BULLEY [jim.bulley@joongang.co.kr]