Mária Labayová

* 1953

  • Laco Gross called me, I have to come to Bratislava because Gunár Prokop wants me,so I should take a plane and If I want, then take my mother and go to Hypobank. Well, I arrived in Bratislava, Gunár Prokop came there also, he translated and wrote to me when I had to come.This, we will arrange through Pragošport, the Slovak Association of Handball, all necessary papers. He says we'll be waiting for you at the airport, you are the player of Hypobank. It was done in two or three weeks. All papers with Pragošport were arranged, but I had a problem getting days off at the factory, also the reason was going abroad for two years. I'm going to the capitalist state. Come on, God, what kind of state it is, I could go to play in Russia also, I don't care, hey. But when the best club in the world shows interest in you, they don't need you in the national team, they don't need you in the parent club and you get such a chance and you're reconciled to the fact that your career is over, so you say I'm going for at least three months, at least half of the year. I want to try it. I'm trying hey, I'm trying. But it worked, after some turbulence, difficulties and I don't know what else. The first half year wasn't simple. There were top players from Yugoslavia, Hungary and so on. Their names would say something to that generation, Mariana Rac, Mariana Godor, Jánoščík national team coach, Radovič, Vesna Kolar. Just world-class players and I'm there among them, a little bit with a language barrier. I also packed my bags and suitcase after three months and took the keys to the apartment, the car and went to see Gunár Prokop. And I say, you know, broken German, I came here to play, not run.

  • Unfortunately, they told me again at school, that she does sports with old women and that it has a bad effect on her. And because of this I had problems at school, and my father had to go there, I was already in my third year and he said if you don't want my daughter to do sports and represent your school, I'll take her from school. This is a problem as a future teacher, that she does sports and simply it gives her something to life. So it was already there. At a meeting after twenty years, the school principal and the class teacher apologized to me. She says if I knew it, it was such a time, and you know it, and so on. Well, that was after those years, after that normalization, those 68-72. It also affected our family, of course, brother-in-law, there was a problem, my brother had a problem graduating from college, just something happened in the family. A few times it happened to us, that we went on a tour and some player had to get off the bus and sent her home. Yes, because she had someone in the family, who is abroad. Questionnaires were signed to know if you have anyone abroad. It wasn't so bad, but at that time we realized that we had to be careful that we were in control, that strangers were always traveling with us, maybe they shaped my sports career, or I don't know what.

  • But after a year in the season, I couldn't play again. They stopped me from day to day, that you cannot play. For a whole year nobody knew me to say why. I went from the director of the company, from the coach, they didn't tell me, the functionaires didn't tell me. And after a year they called me and said to me, that you can permeate to Partizánske or Šaľa, because while this coach is here, you will not play. In the meantime, I also got a coaching license, I worked as an educator at the school and I was very satisfied. I had a dream and goal, it was just to go back and train the kids. I wanted to use all my experience and I still enjoyed working with people. It didn't happen to me either, it didn't get to me, until the next year, when this coach left Prešov. So I was called back and then I spent the last four or five years there and the era began, the best era of Prešov women's handball, in Prešov. At that time, everyone had to be employed and you played for ZVL Prešov, please translate this short cut, because today people don't have to know what it meant. It was a state-owned enterprise, and ZVL as a short cut meant a plant of roller bearings. But you called it a different way. Well, just like employees, we were joking, that it's a race of great love, well. So, it was probably a love of sports.

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From day to day, the coach told me that I wouldn‘t play

Mária Labayová was born on February 18, 1953 in Prešov. She comes from five siblings and she is the daughter of Michal and Mária (as single Benčíková), Labay. She spent almost all her childhood in Prešov, until she started high school. Her next choice was a secondary pedagogical school in Nitra. Already at the age of sixteen, she became a junior handball representative. Right away, at the beginning, she was very successful, she won many titles, she is in the hall of fame and has played ninety-nine matches for the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic. In 1973, in Prešov, she advanced to the first league, where shoulder health problems have occurred. However, it was something that passed quickly, but in spite of this, Prešov suddenly did not need her. She changed club for Plastika Nitra. Due to a disturbed retina, she returned to Prešov after five years. She played one season and was weaned again. During the break, she worked at ZVL Prešov, in the plant of roller bearings. In 1983, a new generation of players began to form in Prešov and Mária became a member of the national team again. Originally she wanted to play only one season, but one of them became four and she played for Prešov until 1987. Due to her non-nomination, she changed the club in the same year and started playing for Hypobank in Austria. She officially ended her career at this club as a thirty five years old. After the summer of 1989, Maria returned home from Austria to Prešov. She expected the company to appreciate her, but it did not happen as she had imagined. Almost a year passed and Maria gradually stopped engaging, she was not interested in sport events. It can be said that her career is completely finished. After a sports career, she started a business. She built a sports club from a former hostel. Currently the memorial does not use the company but she enjoys a pension. Although she doesn‘t play sports, from time to time she goes swimming and still watches sports on television.