Handball
Handball history in Płock
Male Handball section was founded in 1964 by H Ludas, Orłowscy, J Krajewski, E Woroniecki. The team played their first game in Pruszków, losing with the local Znicz 12: 25. In the 1964-1967 period they took part in Class A tournaments and in the season 1967/1968, after obtaining promotion, in the central- eastern group of Międzywojewódzka League.
In 1975 the team of coach S Suliński, won a historical promotion to the 1st League but after one season left the first league however, they returned in 1977 to the highest level in the country. The adventure with the 1st league again lasted only a year and after the second fall, the Wisła players spent as much as 8 subsequent seasons "at the back of the first league".
In 1990 M. Motyczyński's team won the first medal in the history of Championships of Seniors of Poland. It was also then that the club, for the first time in history, took part in the European Handball Federation tournaments and in 1994 has been recognized by the Poland Handball Federation as the best handball section the Poland.
In season 1994/1995 the club won the first medal in the history of Seniors of Poland and the second Cup of Poland. Orlen won in addition, a silver medal in the Championships of Seniors of Poland, a gold medal in the Championships of younger Juniors of Poland and a silver medal in the Championships of youth of Poland.
In June 2007 a historical event took place - more than 40 year old owner - of the PKN ORLEN S.A. club (President Piotr Kownacki), handed over 100% of shares in the company to the town of Płock (the Mayor Miroslaw Milewski), remaining at the same time the strategic sponsor for 3 more years.
As a result, Wisła Płock became a city club.
In 2009 Wisła gave up the gold medal in the Championships of Poland to the team from Kielce, however, they recovered in 2011. Wisła won this medal in the following makeup: Marcin Wichary, Morten Seier, Bartosz Dudek, Adam Wiśniewski, Joakim Backstrom, Tomasz Klinger, Piotr Chrapkowski, Michał Zołoteńko, Adam Twardo, Lars Madsen, Vegard Samdahl, Luka Dobelsek, Kamil Mokrzki, Bostjan Kavas, Vukasin Rajkovic, Paweł Paczkowski, Arkadiusz Miszka, Tomasz Paluch, Dimitrij Kuzelev, Kamil Syprzak, Zbigniew Kwiatkowski. The coach of the team was Lars Walther.
The handballers won the following trophies in the period 1987-2011:
- Championship of Poland -1995, 2002, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2008, 2011
- Vice-championship of Poland -1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2003, 2007, 2009- Third place in league matches - 1990, 1991, 1994, 1998, 2010
- Cup of Poland -1992, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2001, 2005, 2007, 2008
Names of the Club:
In 1992 a change of the name took place "Wisła Płock" to "Petrochemia Płock S.A". In subsequent years the club will still change its name many times to "Petro Płock" (1999), "Orlen Płock" (2000) or "Wisła Płock", which was valid up to 2010. Finally the sponsor's name was added again resulting in – "Orlen Wisła Płock".
Sports facilities:
In May 1968, at the junction of streets: Gwardii and Łukasiewicza construction of the Wisła stadium started, which was commissioned 5 years later. 7000 people took part in the ceremony of opening of this sports facility.
Until October 2010 most matches as a the host the team played in Hala Chemika at Al Kobylińskiego 25 in Płock, dividing it with the Education Center School in Płock. This facility did not, however, meet the standards the European Handball Federation, therefore on 8 April 2009 at Plac Celebry 1 the construction was started of a modern arena able to accommodate approx. 5500 viewers. (Sports and Entertainment Center) was officially opened on 17 November 2010 with a match resulting in – 27: 34 with a match resulting in – of PGNiG Superliga against Viva Targi Kielce.
Wisła Płock - the champion of Poland
Season 2010/2011 turned out to be successful for the team and on 29 May 2011 Wisła Płock won with Viva Targi Kielce becoming the champion of Poland.
Before the season everyone predicted that Viva Targi Kielce will not give up the champion title but the Kielce team failed in the crucial stage of the season. Fourth finals play- off game was closed with Wisła winning 26: 23 (12: 12) and the whole rivalry for gold "Nafciarze" won 3-1!
On the seats of Orlen Arena more than 5 000 supporters watched "Nafciarze" coming back, after a two-year long break, to the throne of the best Handball team in Poland.
The first half of the meeting was exceptionally levelled, none of the teams managed to obtain an advantage greater than three goals, and at the results board the draw was seen eight times. The first half ended with a draw result of 12: 12
After the break the game was still leveled, until the moment in the 55th minute when Wisła advanced to 23: 20 and did not give up the lead till the end, thereby gaining the title of the best Polish team.
It was the seventh title of the handballers from Płock. Before that, they won in 1995 (as Petrochemia Płock S.A) and 2002 (Orlen) and in 2004-2006 and 2008 (Wisła).
In the previous two seasons, the Champions of Poland were the Kielce handballers.
Centrum Widowiskowo-Sportowe (Sports and Entertainment Center) at 1 Celebry Square Wisła Płock the Champion of Poland
