CONEGLIANO. Daniele Santarelli, coach of Imoco Volley, you have inaugurated this week your fifth season as head coach on the yellow-blue bench, in addition to the previous two as deputy. Can you summarize your summer spent managing the Croatian national team?
“It was a long and demanding summer. With the Croatian national team we worked with few breaks because from the beginning, with athletes who had been out for a couple of months and some physical problems in the group, we had to push to find the right one. condition. We managed to play a good tournament in the Golden League, always growing up to the final played at Bulgaria. We lost fighting (3-1), but the team made their mark by playing an excellent tournament. Then at the European Championship. that we were playing at home we started very well until the match with Italy which for us was at an unattainable level and we underwent a “lesson” in any case to be taken into account when you face teams that aim to win the competition. Unfortunately in the eighth of final with France, a team similar to us, we surrendered to the tie break in the sprint, unfortunately it went like this, I would have preferred to go all the way to the quarterfinals, there was, but the balance is still positive. “
What effect did it have on you to be an opponent for the first time of your wife (Monica De Gennaro) and of Italy of coach Mazzanti, who is particularly close to you (Santarelli was Mazzanti’s deputy in Casalmaggiore and in the first two years in Conegliano)?
“It was a strange feeling, both for her and for me. It was the first time this happened to us and at the national level moreover, it made a certain effect! In these four months we have only seen each other two days and see each other again. opponents in a European championship it was exciting and strange. For me it was a game full of meaning, my first time against the national team of my country, with Davide on the bench and Monica on the field … Unfortunately, the one that beyond the result it was supposed to be a party for us it was ruined by Sarah Fahr’s injury, it was very bad to see her suffer from her knee, she is a special girl and although she has only been with us for a year she has already entered everyone’s heart and I really wish her every good for his return to the field. “
Speaking of Fahr, you will start the season without her and Folie, luckily a guarantee like Bulgarian Vuchkova has arrived.
“Unfortunately, the summer has left us some important aftermath, but as always the club I thank has made a great move to immediately find a replacement in record time. After Sarah’s injury we spoke with Pietro Maschio and he was free on the market an expert player, with charisma and important technical means like Vuchkova, who has just returned from a great season in Turkey. “Accepting our proposal we have accepted her in the group. It will be very useful because she is a complete player with a very important block and knows both Italy and international competitions well. Initially missing two Italians we will have to adapt, only for the Italian championship,” to the rules on the number of foreigners in the field, but we usually have one more Italian in sextet so we will try to manage the choices in the league while waiting for the return before Foli and then of Fahr. But I don’t see big problems in this sense given the squad available. In champions and at the world championship, on the other hand, we will be able to be free and the problem of the Italians on the field is not there. “
It was at the final in Belgrade at the Stark Arena, packed with over 20,000 spectators (world record for women’s volleyball), what effect did it have on you after a year and a half of closed doors and with the prospect of starting the Italian season with 35% of the audience in the stands?
“I was in Belgrade in the role of” ultras “of the blue, I and a few other Italians in a building full with 20,000 people, I had the chills. It was a great emotion after a long time without an audience, but already at the Golden League final in Bulgaria at the final there was a wall of 5000 people to follow the game, almost all without masks as well as in Belgrade. Seeing these situations, in addition to the great emotion of seeing the sport experienced with the public, I hoped it was a new beginning and that even in Italy we could have gone towards a reopening, given that we have the Green Pass, vaccinations continue, in the fields the companies are very loyal in applying the safety rules. Instead we are still stuck at 35% of the public, really too much little seeing what happens in other countries with stadiums and sports halls of every discipline that are filling up more and more. We really hope that it can increase, it would be a good sign for everyone. “
How did you find your team after the first training sessions in Rua di Feletto?
“In the meantime it was really exciting to go home, to see the staff and the players who were there at the beginning of the week, with some of them working for 4/5 years and it was nice to meet again. For now we are a heterogeneous group, we have many girls of the youth who are giving us a big hand and which will be used on Saturday in the first friendly match in San Donà with Montecchio, a classic of our preseason. also the presentation of the youth sector which for us is a flagship, will be a great satisfaction for them. In these days the other athletes are arriving, the new Americans and the veterans from the European Championships. From Monday with the return of Sylla and Egonu will be complete and we will be able to progressively work with the whole group in view of the friendly match in Bologna with Bergamo and the subsequent tournament in Imola. attention to the physical part to avoid injuries and ailments, personalizing the activity of each individual athlete according to his condition. From next week we will start working as a team with the whole group, always taking into account the physical conditions of each in order not to take risks. “
On 2 October there is the Supercoppa with Novara, then the championship, how do you see the lot of competitors in Italy after the summer market?
“I am convinced that by now the Italian championship is in all respects the most beautiful, qualitative and difficult in the world, more than any other, including Turkey. Every year we say that the quality has risen, that the level is increasing, but it is not a A cliché, it’s the truth. There are many very strong teams, all of them have made important additions to their roster with interesting additions. The favorites? The usual ones, to contend for the trophies there will certainly be Novara, Monza, Scandicci, all reinforced, even Busto Arsizio who moved very well and comes from an excellent season, but let’s not forget Chieri who after a surprising season has relaunched to grow further, or newly promoted as Vallefoglia that we will face on the first day that has put together a team to keep an eye on. Particular attention must be paid to this type of team at the beginning of the season, which have the advantage of being able to work fully for some time, while the “big” teams have only recently returned with the return of the national teams. final. However it will be a tough and exciting season, we hope to experience it with the public. “
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