Stanislaw Gosciniak took over for the second time as the head coach of the Polish national men’s team in November 2003 after Waldemar Wspanialy decided to resign after Poland’s fifth-place finish at the European Championship in Germany.

Gosciniak, who was Wspanialy’s assistant from 2001-2003, first coached Poland in 1986-1987 for which he has the illustrious honour of seeing the White and Reds fail to qualify to the European Championships Finals for the first time.

The former setter was one of the best in the game collecting 218 caps for Poland between 1965 and 1974. In 1967 he was among the pioneer medalists for Poland as the national side reached the podium for the first time, a bronze medal at the European Championships in Turkey. In 1968 and 1972 he took part in the Olympic tournaments in Mexico and Munich respectively before reaching the highlight of his and Poland’s career, helping the team win gold at the 1974 World Championship in Mexico with an MVP performance.

Gosciniak spent most of his coaching career, which began in 1975, in the city of Czestochowa. He has collected four Polish Championship winner’s medals with AZS (also known as Yawal, Galaxia or, more recently, Pamapol).