Home > Sports > Volleyball

Kim Yeon-koung to be head coach of volleyball team for upcoming MBC entertainment show

Published: 21 Aug. 2025, 18:10

PAIK JI-HWAN
[email protected]

Kim Yeon-koung reacts after the KYK Invitational 2025 All-Star game series at Incheon Samsan World Gymnasium in Incheon on May 18. [YONHAP]

Korean volleyball legend Kim Yeon-koung will lead a newly-formed volleyball team for MBC’s yet-to-be-unveiled entertainment show as head coach with the goal of entering the women's professional V League.

MBC on Thursday announced through a press release that a retired Kim will feature in the show, which will air in September, as head coach for the Pilsung Wonderdogs, a team reportedly including players expelled from pro teams, business team players who dream of playing in the pro league and retired players.

An MBC source told the Korea JoongAng Daily on Thursday that the show has "the goal of making the Wonderdogs an eighth team in the V League," but added that viewers must tune in to find out whether this is achievable. The source also declined to comment on how many episodes will air or which teams the Wonderdogs will play against.

If the Wonderdogs join the V League, this would mark the league’s first addition since the Gwangju Pepper Savings Bank AI Peppers in 2021.

Coaching the Wonderdogs in the MBC show would also mark Kim’s first coaching job. She briefly worked as an adviser for the Korean national squad during the country’s 2023 Volleyball Nations League run, but has yet to coach any business or pro team.

Kim, 37, fully retired from the sport after the end of the 2024-25 V League season in April, which she capped off by sweeping both the league and championship titles with the Heungkuk Life Insurance Pink Spiders.

Her career spanned 20 years, during which she had stints in Japan, Turkey and China and clinched five V League titles — in 2006, 2007, 2008, 2023 and this year — and four Korean championship trophies in 2006, 2007, 2009 and this year.

She was also an integral part of the Korean national team at the 2012 and 2020 Summer Olympics, leading the country to the semifinals at both Games.

BY PAIK JI-HWAN [[email protected]]