Volleyball Serie A1F. Daniele Santarelli will start his fifth year at Imoco
the character
The leader of Imoco Conegliano will still be Daniele Santarelli. The Umbrian coach will be in his fifth season as head coach, the seventh in total in the Gialloblù club, after two years alongside Davide Mazzanti. The successes of the last few years bear his signature, which have been a real crescendo: in 2017/18 a trophy won out of three finals reached (and one touched in the Champions League), two the year after out of four finals, then three out of three in 2019/20, until this year’s poker. In total they make 10 titles out of 14 finals played, 158 victories out of 180 games played, with the incredible record of only one defeat in the last 82 games, with the record, which can still be improved, of 64 consecutive victories. And in December there is also the World Cup. «We are certainly not satiated, the appetite comes with eating and we never get used to winning. We are not lacking in motivation and five trophies are all good reasons to give our best ».
In 2015, the Imoco was just three years old, but it was already attracting attention. “There was something that inspired me, we talked about it with Davide Mazzanti before leaving Casalmaggiore. But I had already recommended to Monica (De Gennaro, free of Imoco since 2013 and wife of Santarelli since 2017, ed) to choose Conegliano: luckily I wasn’t wrong ».
Being champion of Italy, Europe and the world at the same time for the coach «is a fascinating feeling, I don’t know when it will happen again. It has a certain effect, I don’t deny it, and it fills us with pride, but it will be even better to try to confirm ourselves, let’s hope so much in front of our audience ».
The team will not change much and aims to grow further. «We still have margins, only at times were we at 100%; , the previous group offered capital performances and had a lot of consistency, but it will be more and more difficult in the future because the opponents are growing. The group that the company is putting together will be very interesting, it will be fun ”. Santarelli these days is preparing to participate in the Golden League of Croatia, engaged in the group that is played between Prague and Minsk against the Czech Republic, Belarus and Hungary. The tournament will be an end in itself, given that, due to the block decided by the Fivb, the winner will not be able to compete to enter the VNL 2022. The wait remains for the draw of the Europeans (Croatia is one of the host countries), fixed by 8 pm in Belgrade. –