4.6.1 “1940-1943 were the golden years of Villardian sport.”
—Tadeusz Łepkowski, student. A free Polish school in occupied France (2012), based on Wolna szkoła polska w okupowanej francji (1990).
There were many sporting activities at the high school, especially between 1940 and 1942, and mountain excursions were particularly popular.
The traditional school “PE” was not enough to satisfy the students. Whenever they could, they climbed the Cornafion rock or the Grande Moucherolle, wandered through the Bourne gorges, went for walks around Corrençon or Valchevrière, and explored the caves of the Vercors. Due to a lack of appropriate equipment, they rarely tackled the more difficult slopes and summits.
The school management, which was responsible for the logistical organisation, set up a sports club run by the students. Two teachers oversaw the sports equipment and lent it to the students. Among the many sports practised, football and winter sports (skiing, bobsleigh, ice hockey) were the main ones.
Naturally, football was the most popular. The school team was outstanding on account of its technique, speed, attacking ingenuity, exceptional striker Zygmunt Kaletka, and other excellent players such as Kazimierz Czech, Mieczysław Mularz, Witkowski Wolański and Edward Wolański. They beat all the local teams (including the one from the youth work camp by 4 goals to 2 and the one from Villard by 7 to 0!), and other teams from further away in the department.
The students also took part in local ski competitions, where they regularly occupied the top places. As for the hockey team, it was on a par with the local teams and even won a fierce match against a team from the national first division.
At the initiative of the teacher Jan Budrewicz, who had practised boxing before the war, several students tried their hand at the noble art, but volleyball and basketball were more successful. Meetings were organised with local French teams, as well as with those from the GAPF ‘s Polish centres. Only a few students played tennis, which was considered “posh”. Table tennis, on the other hand, was very popular with both boys and girls. The girls also played volleyball and participated in winter sports.
1940-1943 were the golden years of Villardian sport. From the start of the 1943 academic year, the skiers, footballers and hockey players who had built the school’s reputation were no longer students there. For them, it was time to fight.
