Volleyball, Women's Team Promoted to Third Division
"The goal? Missed by a mile," jokes Paolo Amendola, the coach of Bocconi Sport's women's volleyball team, which clinched promotion to the Third division by winning 23 out of 25 matches played, outdoing the prediction he had made at the end of last season, when he spoke of “keeping the category” as the most realistic result for this year. Talking about a “wonderful fairy tale”, as one could be tempted to do in these cases, would mean belittling the achievements of a team, staff and athletes together, that has done incredibly well so far: “We can count on a core of athletes which has stayed stable for a number of years, to which each season we try to add other talented girls,” says Paolo Amendola, “also considering the inherent turnover of a team with our characteristics.”
Cohesion, then, together with technical and athletic values, has been one of the strong points. But Paolo Amendola, who has spent many years coaching at the highest level, in First division, talks about another aspect: “No one studies matches and opponents as much as we do, it's a way to prepare for matches that is routinely adopted only at professional level. And it provides a great advantage.” And he has thankful words for the assistant coach, Stefano Bresciani, “the best assistant I've ever had.” The girls’ abilities played an important role: “Being university students, our players have above-average cognitive and game-reading skills. This, combined with the willingness to trust me and my staff, was another aspect that helped us achieve this promotion.”
During a season that will yield great results, especially when they go beyond the initial expectations, there is a moment when you realize that something big is about to happen. What was “the moment” for Paolo Amendola? “We have won 16 fixtures in a row, but the moment I thought we could really win the championship was in December, when we beat Opera and Cassina, that is, the two teams favored by the oddsmakers, one after the other. From then on, I have always believed in it.” And in this situation, the high-level experience of coach Paolo Amendola surfaced once again: “I urged the girls not to look at the rankings but to focus on the daily work and individual matches. Not talking about it, helps to achieve the goal. Focusing on the process and not the result was the key.” And next year, what kind of season will it be? “It will be hard, in the Third division we will compete at a very high level, against players who often come from professional leagues. I would like to say that we aim to keep the category. But predictions are sometimes proved wrong...".
Never giving up when close-ranked opponents were gnawing at our ankles was another building block of the final result. This is what captain Alice Bobbera thinks: “We started out with no prospect of breaking through, aiming at an unassuming championship. Then, as the days went by, we realized that we could actually win so the pressure increased, but we managed to keep calm,” Alice explains. She looks forward to the next season: “I have already played in Third and the level is really high and that is a great motivator. I think we will have to ramp up training and expand our roster if we want to stay competitive in the higher category as well.”
