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Han Yoo-mi joins AI Peppers coaching staff ahead of 2025–26 season

Published: 13 May. 2025, 14:38

PAIK JI-HWAN
[email protected]

Newly appointed Gwangju Pepper Savings Bank AI Peppers assistant coach Han Yoo-mi [SCREEN CAPTURE]

V League legend Han Yoo-mi has joined Gwangju Pepper Savings Bank AI Peppers as an assistant coach, the club announced Monday.

Han, 43, worked as a volleyball commentator for KBS before her appointment. She joins the Peppers following a brief coaching stint with the Korean national team in 2023 and a nearly 20-year playing career in the V League.

Han’s playing career, which spanned from 1999 to 2018, included two separate stints with Suwon Hyundai Engineering & Construction Hillstate, where she spent her prime from 1999 to 2010 and returned for the final chapter of her career from 2017 to 2018. She also played for Daejeon KGC — now known as Daejeon Jung Kwan Jang Red Sparks — and GS Caltex Seoul Kixx.

Han’s appointment follows the Peppers’ most successful yet still disappointing 2024–25 season. The club finished at the bottom of the seven-team table for the fourth consecutive time, despite recording a franchise-best 11 wins since its founding in 2021.

The 2025–26 campaign will mark head coach Chang So-yun’s second season in charge.

The Peppers have already bolstered their roster, signing veteran outside hitter Go Ye-rim from Hillstate as a free agent, and opposite hitter Zoe Weatherington through the V League foreign player tryout.

The upcoming season presents a key challenge: whether the Peppers can finally break free from four seasons of struggles and escape from the bottom of the table.

Still, the team showed signs of progress last season, achieving their first-ever three-game winning streak in January and putting up strong fights against higher-ranked teams.

A late-season slump — losing five of their final six games — ultimately sealed their spot at the bottom of the table for a fourth straight year.

The 2025–26 season begins in October, with defending champions Heungkuk Life Insurance Pink Spiders and the rest of the V League sides set to battle for the regular season title and postseason glory.

BY PAIK JI-HWAN [[email protected]]