Umberto Casellato in L’Aquila working for city rugby, a major coup. Casellato is a well-known personality of the movement: twice a championship winner as a player, twice as a coach, and former coach of the national team. He will be the reference for the second phase of the relaunch of the oval ball in the city, as coordinator of the L’A neXt generation project: an incubator in which the two clubs, La Rugby L’Aquila and Rugby Experience, will link up through coaches and players, to aim to prepare young people for higher levels of competition.
The presentation took place today at the Fattori Stadium, the cradle of a relaunch that in three years has achieved goals above expectations, given that the set time frame for returning to Serie A was five years. The stages were missed, therefore the A neXt generation, and the subsequent hiring of Casellato, were brought forward compared to the schedule. It is, he assured Alessandro Cialoni, technical director of the two companies, of “a dream from ten years ago”. We start immediately: from 11 to 13 June, tests for children born between 2006 and 2010, then we will also start with the older ones, those born between 2003 and 2005.
There is an emotional bond between Casellato and L’Aquila that has not been hidden although, he joked, “not from a sporting point of view because I have won a few times here. We want to work to give a final touch to a group of players, to make them ready for the senior team, for other clubs, for the national teams. It’s a challenge that stimulates me: Veneto offers a lot, but I have always chosen to go elsewhere to learn”.
The president of Rugby L’Aquila, Mauro Scopanosaid that “Today we feel ready to take this step. It is for the kids that we must spend our energy. We are making the figure of Umberto Casellato available to the technical staff of the two companies.”
The announcement of the project which will be coordinated by Casellato was combined today with an assessment of the first three years of activity of Rugby L’Aquila. “We managed to do better than what we had set ourselves, now we want to become a point of reference for the movement in the centre-south,” said Scopano.
The promotion to Serie A is the culmination of a growth that was even overbearing. At the center is the L’Aquilan community and young people, a horizon which is therefore maintained in this second phase. The commitment to the Fattori stadium was underlined, as were the interventions carried out in port with the support of the municipal administration and with the personal commitment of the mayor. The president recalled: “The Fattori today has a new look compared to three years ago, it is one of the most beautiful stadiums in the national rugby panorama. We have redeveloped the structures underneath the grandstand and the stands, regenerated the lawn, replaced the scoreboard with a latest generation LED wall”. The upgraded and polished facility was the ideal context for work that began thanks first and foremost to the commitment of the “older” athletes: they were the ones who called themselves into question by triggering and facilitating the participation of the younger ones.
