The Eighties seem to have returned to Campobasso, when football ‘pulled’ basketball and vice versa. Years of results and enthusiasm, years in which Mimmo Sabatelli, born in 1970, was an integral part of those passionate Sundays between Serie B football and PalaVazzieri. The current coach of Magnolia ate bread and basketball, he was the very young home-grown point guard who played on the parquets of Serie B, not as a starter, but certainly as a catalyst of interest for basketball neophytes and for aficionados, of course.
It is above all for this reason that last night, Sabatelli knew he was playing the most difficult and exciting match of his career as a coach. A challenge that she felt very strongly because she knew that her further rise in people’s affections and as a solid professional at the highest levels would depend on that result – the championship semi-finals of the top national women’s basketball championship. That step arrived, fantastic and deserved, in front of his fans.
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The words he gave us in this video, just 5 minutes after the end of match three against Allianz Geas of Sesto San Giovanni, are those of a man who knows he has done his part in full, that he has contributed to the The feat of the Campobasso club, in essence: of having given that little something extra that is expected from a real coach.
“Yes, tonight is our scudetto, dedicated to all the people who follow us with affection, dedicated to the people of Campobasso – he said immediately, dispensing smiles and ‘high fives’ to the very young fans placed on the sidelines, who he helped bring closer to the world of segmented ball. “Tonight we are enjoying a special moment: this audience and these girls, who form a wonderful group, deserve it. We have been repaid for the sacrifices made over the years. Venice in the semi-final? It’s incredible, but we compete with everyone, even the strongest. It will be wonderful to play these matches, a dream, for sure.”
A dream that has largely already come true. The Magnolia adventure began only seven years ago, with important ambitions, but few would have imagined such a decisive climb to the top of national basketball. Thanks to an organized, all-female team, well directed by Rossella Ferro, a great entrepreneur and wife of the coach, who intercepted the desire of the square to live a new experience.
Sabatelli took the technical lead, aware that he could have a big chance, after his already excellent experience following Andrea Capobianco. Last night he was understandably nervous, but his joy was also measured. In fact, he immediately took care to congratulate the opposing technical staff, then he literally dived onto the group of players who were jumping with their arms around each other. Finally he attacked the fans led by the precious Mauro Moffa. Then, climbing onto a chair, he incited the rossoblù crowd and took part in the party, almost like an ultra leader, or perhaps – as best suits today’s Sabatelli – the director of an orchestra that played marvelously in all its elements, fans in the lead. And then that fraternal embrace with Alberto Gatti, teammate at the time of Molisana in Serie B.
Yes, the fabulous Eighties of Molise sport, the ones that the kids of the new millennium are experiencing perhaps with even greater enthusiasm, because aggregating (and winning) today is certainly more difficult. And Sabatelli, a former enfant du pays with a smoking-hot character, knows this perfectly.
