And two year contract with an immediate goal, go to Olympic Games of Paris and maybe return with a medal. And we are already keeping an eye on what will happen next. Julio Velasco has signed as of today for the position of coach of women’s national volleyball team, a team that will have to recompose after the latest results below expectations: “I feel a great responsibility and I am very happy to accept it,” he declared. “From today we turn the page,” said the president of the Italian Volleyball Federation Giuseppe Manfredi announcing what is in reality a return: Velasco had left the post of director of the national youth teams in the summer, before sitting on the bench of the team for a few months Uyba Busto Arsizioa team from the women’s A1 series, and returns to coach the Italians afterwards a brief experience between 1997 and 1998.
Repairing the locker room – If in those years, after having led the Azzurri to dominate the world, his challenge was to make the pink Italvolley a competitive team, now the challenge is to bring it back to the highest levels mending those rifts that occurred in the last years of the management of Davide Mazzantiwith the exclusion of some veterans and the mixed performances of the star PAola Egonu: “Many comments on Mazzanti’s work have been unfair. He is a great coach and a beautiful person. He had a complicated situation and sometimes, simply, cycles end”.
Presenting himself to the media today, Velasco has already set some conditions. “I listen to everyone and I will continue to listen to everyone, but…”, however demands unconditional availability for the blue shirtas done with the Azzurri upon her arrival in 1989. Therefore a player “must be in the national team because it is the highest goal she can aspire to. We are all important, no one is essential. It is essential that a team has the best players, but availability must be total.” My thoughts turn to Egonu, who on two occasions had announced a stop to his activities with the national team after the disagreements with Mazzanti. Velasco announces that he will pay attention to the personal needs of the athletes, but makes the conditions clear: “The role of a coach is to decide”.
To those who ask how he will manage the presence of two very strong players like Egonu and the young girl Ekaterina Antropova (20 year old naturalized Italian in August), provides an answer of her own: “The problem is playing with bad players. Having two opposite (the role of those who attack from the area on the right, ed) like Egonu and Antropova is the best. If anything, I want to find more players who receive well.”
The next goals – The Italians will join the national team retreats after having concluded their championship and having spent a week resting. We will have to face the tournament of Volley Nations League to earn useful points to secure a place at the Olympics: “We have to win a lot of matches to qualify. The VNL must be played as much as possible with the first team, because it is the only chance to play matches that count.” Once in Paris, it won’t be easy and he doesn’t want to create excessive expectations. “What I can do is create an ability to adapt to tension”. Train your head, so that it is stronger, fighting as done in the past against the culture of alibis: “There will be tough conditions and we will have to adapt. Talk to your grandparents who rebuilt Italy after the war and they didn’t all end up at the psychoanalyst. We have to overcome problems, endure tiredness, tension, expectations.”
A staff of expert coaches, open to women – Velasco has announced that on his staff, as his assistants, there will be two coaches of Serie A teams, Massimo Barbolinicoach of Savino Del Bene Scandicci and for years his deputy, and Lorenzo Bernardiamong the strongest players of the “Generation of Phenomena” and now coach of Igor Novara. He will be the one to coach the players not involved in the Volley Nations League and the Olympics: “I want a big shot who thinks about tomorrow”, added Velasco. Among the changes that the new coach wants to make, there is the introduction of a greater number of women on staff. For now we’ll start with a physiotherapist, then maybe even a doctor. “I would like some staff members who, being women, relate better to girls, in another way. I would really like to bring in a young coach.”
The issue of the “dual role” and the accusations of his former club – To be able to coach the national team, Velasco had to resign from Uyba Busto Arsizio, a team that I thank “because it was the only women’s team to call me and offer me a contract in A1 when everyone told me that the women’s world would not welcome a coach from the men’s sector”. The contract was terminated last night. The Busto Arsizio club, after having obtained the support of other clubs and the women’s volleyball league, hoped that the Federation would abolish the ban on double roles according to which a national team coach cannot coach a club. Thus Uyba, on the morning of the presentation, complained about Fipav’s lack of attention towards him and predicted “actions to protect him”. “No one wanted to take anything away from anyone – stated President Manfredi -. I received the mandate from the Federal Council to say no to dual roles. We responded to Busto Arsizio, because Julio, when he signed with the club, had the possibility of freeing himself at any time to join a national team.” No problem, however, for the roles of Barbolini and Bernardi. The ban on dual roles applies only to the technical commissioner and not to the deputies.
2023-11-21 17:35:09
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