Beyond Salvation: Spiritual Growth

The verb of Sambugaro. Three days after the unexpected, especially given how it developed, a home defeat against Cantù, the general manager of the Reggiana Basketball intervenes on a broad spectrum of the situation. For the present and above all, with clear declarations, on the short future.

Sambugaro, let’s be honest, after a month of good performances no one expected any steps backwards, especially in terms of mentality. And instead…

“And instead, after an excellent first half of the match, especially in the third quarter, but also afterwards, we were really negative, especially from a mental point of view, and above all we were not aggressive.”

A tremendously fragile team has emerged again…

“I don’t think this is the point now. Against the Brianza team we looked at ourselves too much in the mirror after the first half, we said to ourselves: how beautiful we are, how good we are. It must never happen again. On the contrary, we have to gnash our teeth for forty minutes out of forty, hammering the opponent every second. From now on we will no longer have to allow those who face us to regain confidence or come back from a disadvantaged situation. But play our basketball from tap-off to the siren.”

After the matches thrown away first against Trieste and then last Sunday, can you assure us that we will avoid the ‘there’s no two without three’…?

“We will do everything we can to dispel it, but that remains a figure of speech. The real issue is how we will play: we will never again have to stay on the parquet with a relaxed attitude, we will have to be constantly solid and always convinced.”

The impression is that this team was born mentally weak…

“I look at today, and I say that elements of experience and personality have been added, the group has changed. Precisely for this reason an episode like the one against Cantù must no longer occur; we were not emotionally fragile, we were superficial.”

In a year with many changes and ups and downs it comes naturally as is the relationship between her and coach Priftis.

“More than good, but with a lot of discussion. Not knowing each other, at the beginning, required some adaptation time. As in all teams we discuss, with total mutual respect but, above all, the same aim: to move forward together to achieve the primary objective, salvation, and then look higher. On this the identity of intent is total.”

Are you therefore thinking beyond mere salvation?

“Mathematics and the rankings tell us that, once we have obtained a place in Serie A, we can think of something else.”

Does the potential of the current Una Hotels suggest this?

“Absolutely yes. And I would say that the team demonstrated this in the last matches before Cantù. I repeat, we must no longer be superficial, not even for a minute and against anyone.”

Is the market closed with Rossato’s arrival?

“We still have memberships available, so anything is possible. Today we are satisfied like this and we are not looking around. If it were to become necessary we know that we have margins.”

The first team is still chasing its goals, but there are those who have already achieved them. The Under 19 has reached the final phase of the Next Gen…

“We are very proud of it, especially since we achieved this result without borrowing players from other clubs, as the regulations would allow. They are all young people from our cantera and we also had the satisfaction of seeing Pablo Abreu included in the ideal quintet of the first phase.”

The social project initiatives are also going swimmingly”We CaRE“.

“Being a reality that asks a lot of the territory, we felt the duty to give something back: with the Hang Up initiative we contribute to the education of tomorrow’s adults. Kobe Day truly conveyed a special atmosphere. I also like to remember among the most significant responses in the We CaRE context, we like to remember the two people who signed up to the bone marrow donor register directly at the PalaBigi, at the Admo stand during the match with Oradea”.