Bonitta: ‘She is a strong Italvolley and she knows she is: the world gold is a logical goal’

On 15 September 2002 in Berlin Italy won her first women’s World Cup: she surprised everyone by beating the United States in the final. On the bench of that team was Marco Bonitta, the first Italian coach to win gold. He is the protagonist of various seasons of Italian volleyball. Bonitta, today leads the Slovenia that has just qualified for the 2023 European Championship, how do you see this Italy?

“I see it very well. It seems to want to throw it to Davide Mazzanti’s team, but it is a team that has a lot of talent, a lot of physical strength and, although young, with great experience. He won the last European and the last Nations League. He has a long journey together that comes, in some cases, even from the youth teams ”.

“Plus he has great awareness. Our victory was created during the World Cup. This team, on the other hand, sets out to win. And in my opinion it has that dose of all the qualities you need. He can’t help but think about going and doing it. I think they know it too, I can see it from the declarations ”.

Can’t all the weight of a favorable forecast have a negative impact on the team in such a long World Cup with so many opponents?

“In my opinion it is not a burden. I believe awareness is a beautiful thing. It is clear that there is a thought that says “and if I don’t win after these predictions what happens?” But the positive influence of this awareness is greater. “I am the strongest and I want to prove it”. And in the team there are people who have “moral talent”. There are girls like Paola Egonu who know they are very strong or the strongest. It is not bravado, it is reality. Also considering that this team has also suffered some beating, so he knows what he is experiencing. And then you need those defeats “.

Do you find analogies or similarities between this Italy and that of 2002?

“Yes both are groups that come from afar. Many girls of similar generations, as had happened for the 2002 group. With a diagonal, Orro-Egonu, who plays together from the youth teams, as happened at the time with Togut and Lo Bianco ”.

You also witnessed the generational change on the bench that helped generate this team. Since it was you who cast Orro and Egonu in seniors at 16 …

“A change has started since 2014. Until that moment the golden generation had been the protagonist in 2002. Lo Bianco, Togut, Piccinini, Del Core and many others. The change begins between 2014 and 2016. That team that later qualified for Rio. The results at the Games were negative, but in that Olympics 4 of today’s players were owners. In the 2002 generation I had already found the generational change already done, with this group it was different ”.

How do you remember that World Cup 20 years ago?

“Like it was yesterday. I remember almost everything, details that have stuck with me. Things that resurface. Almost nothing has been canceled ”.

A victory that was epochal for volleyball. For her?

“At that moment I hardly realized what it meant to win the World Cup. Our goal was to win a medal. We were telling each other almost every day. For me it was the culmination of a journey that began in 1996-97 when I had changed to female. It was also the confirmation that I could lead a top-level team to a prestigious victory. And if in Bergamo I had managed a group of very strong Kirillova players, the Cubans, the best blue. A project had been built with that Italy. And on this path we had won, the year before, a European silver behind Russia. She had given us awareness ”.

What was the strength of that team.

“It was being able to cry out to themselves and to the whole world, that even girls, not just Italian boys, could be in the world elite. It was the demonstration that volleyball was also a winning sport for women, not only noteworthy for aesthetic reasons. The desire for affirmation that that group had was decisive. A granite group, a real captain (Manu Leggeri, ed) who had a little more experience. And then there was a good group also in the staff ”.