A Rivierabanca Basket Rimini which on the day of the end-of-season assessment is already looking to the future with renewed enthusiasm. A few days after the end of the sporting commitments, Rbr immediately launches an important message of continuity, a sign of a project that will still aim to consolidate and grow: during a press conference organized in the auditorium of the main sponsor Rivierabanca the club announced the contract extension agreement with coach Sandro Dell’Agnello. The club and coach have signed a two-year contract, valid for the 2024/2025 and 2025/2026 sports seasons.
The announcement came with the entire team, led by the president Paolo Maggioli and the managing director Paolo Carasso, also in the presence of the Sport councilor of the Municipality of Rimini Michele Lari and the team to which the company has highlighted on several occasions the merits and gratitude for the journey which then culminated with an extraordinary second round, an almost perfect journey in the watch phase and participation in the promotion playoffs for the second consecutive year.
We report a series of extracts from the statements made to journalists during the press conference. Starting from the news of the day, i.e. the official confirmation of coach Sandro Dell’Agnello, the first piece for the restart and for the next season.
These are the words of the president of Rinascita Basket Rimini Paolo Maggioli: “Today’s news is the reconfirmation of our coach, it is the first step from which we start again for next season. Sandro earned this reconfirmation on the field with the results, it is a great pleasure that he enjoyed himself in Rimini. I think working in a positive environment is important, it is the first sign of a path that moves forward. The confirmation comes from extraordinary numbers, we are all very happy with this restart. I met Dell’Agnello from the documentary ‘Scugnizzi per semper’ and he moved me, because it is a story close to what is happening in Rimini. Good luck”.
Part of coach Sandro Dell’Agnello’s speech follows: “I thank the club and everyone for their trust, I am very involved in this adventure in Rimini. I’ve only been here for a few months, but Paolo Carasso and Davide Turci made me feel at home from the first moment, they tried to support me when things weren’t working out. Together with them, when I met the president, they told me what all coaches would like to hear: that here there is a project, the will to grow, that step by step we want to move forward. I dream, all together, of a type of path that can resemble the one Trento achieved a few years ago, here we have the means and the passion to be able to do it.”
The coach then talks about his approach with Rimini: “I brought here things that I believed in, luck was that the players followed me, because the players win the games and not the coach or the club. We then did something out of the ordinary, difficult to repeat, we won 13 games out of 15, it’s something that not even Real Madrid can predict. It can happen, but it’s very difficult: we all together did something extraordinary, we were even a little lucky, but we managed to get the satisfaction that serious people deserve. We can continue to grow, without proclamations, without presumption, with a lot of humility, which is what I have always asked of the players, but also with the ambition of trying to win every match.”
CEO Paolo Carasso has the task of drawing up the balance sheet of the sports season that has just ended: “It was a difficult and even painful season, but I consider it extraordinary like the others I have experienced. As in all beautiful fairy tales, at a certain point a difficult moment emerges, at that moment we had to be ready to react: and we found ourselves as a society transforming that moment by appreciating the positive things that arrived. The first thing was the push of our audience, not satisfying the need of our audience didn’t make us sleep at night, it was the hardest part. In the difficult moment, however, there were people who were there to suffer and support us, it was a positive aspect. The second positive thing, which I appreciated, was the unity of the partners and of the Board of Directors at the head. There was a moment when the members asked for a meeting, to tell us: we are here, we are ready for anything. The decisive step was certainly taken by Paolo Maggioli, he was the first to say that we had to do something: I have already told the boys and repeated that it seemed right to us to make the most of the choices made on the players, because in the difficult moment they taught us that we had to make excuses. The players demonstrated that to get out of that negative moment the best solution was to stay together, unite and work. We then had to make a painful, difficult choice, I took on the responsibility, we then had the luck and ability to make the change which proved decisive. The choice of Sandro Dell’Agnello led us to face the negative moment with the right positivity, he taught us to believe in it and to believe in the work”.
A mention to the fans, at the opening of the conference, also came from the president Paolo Maggioli: “The biggest thanks goes to the public and the fans, what is happening in Rimini in terms of passion is something extraordinary. The bitterness of the playoffs was above all that of being able to see the Flaminio show only once, it was a great shame, beyond the takings and the possibility of moving forward in the scoreboard”.
Now at Rbr there is still one official appointment left before concluding the season: appointment on Wednesday (22 May), at 7pm, at the Galli theatre, for the festive evening with which the sporting year will end.
Rivierabanca Basket Rimini Press Office
