For coaches Andrea Anilonti that of 2023/24 was one extremely formative year. Between ups and downs, injuries and abandonments, it was certainly not easy to bring the black-silver ship to port. Which, among other things, landed in a excellent fourth place which would have been difficult to predict even in November.
“It’s been a tough year – the coach begins -. The girls were good at holding their own when they could have fallen apart. It was a season that could have ended very badly, but instead they were all good, as were we on the staff, in keeping them calm. Even the club never put pressure on us and, on the contrary, gave us the right words of comfort in critical moments. The same company has decided, in agreement with us, to work on young people. We were practically with two seniors and 8/9 girls between Under 19 and Under 17 who weren’t ready to play in B, they weren’t ready to train at these levels. It was a gigantic job. If I think about October and I mention a name at random, Centrella, and I think about the last home match that you played against Pontevico and against two Serie A centres, you played 20 minutes and held the pitch very well. I mentioned her, but Fiori has also grown a lot, Emma Colombo is playing senior for the first year, Rotta we consider her a senior, but she is only 18 years old. Their growth must only make us proud of what we have done. The seniors were also good because they involved them and understood that the young people were important for us to be able to turn the season around.”
Maybe the victory with Canegrate is what made you definitively aware of your strength?
“I don’t want to sound presumptuous, but, in my opinion, something clicked inside when we lost the first leg in Pontevico. There we realized that we were in pieces: I was absent due to the flu, but I think we understood that we weren’t as poor as the results seemed to be telling us. We understood that by playing a certain type of basketball we could compete and have our say in this Serie B. The arrival of Sabatini and Faroni gave us the depth that was missing, the growth of the young players was exponential and these two things helped us Very. In Canegrate I saw their faces and already from the warm-up I had no doubts that we could lose that match. It’s clear that the victory was a further boost, but if I had to choose the real turning point match I’d say the victory on the Broni pitch. We ended up -19 in the second quarter and won by 12 playing the best basketball we’ve seen this year.”
Progress in the gym which led to your rapid confirmation, so much so that your confirmation for next year has already arrived in the spring. I would say a nice injection of confidence as well as a clear certificate of esteem for your work.
“I got along very well with Fabio Pozzi, we talk often, even three or four times a day. I think he feels me more than his girlfriend! Let’s say that they are very aligned on some issues such as the development of young people, giving space to the movement and investing in the youth sector. Even the purchases we made were scientific in the sense of filling roles where we didn’t have girls from our youth sector who could fill them. We completed the team in order to strengthen ourselves, but maintaining space for the young players. As a philosophy, I think that if you don’t work on young people, women’s basketball doesn’t make sense. Also for next year we would like to continue along this line and confirm as many elements as possible from this season’s roster. The idea is to strengthen ourselves by looking for young people in the area who don’t have spaces in other teams. This year there is this fantastic app that measures the players’ minutes on the pitch: Centrella and Fiori play more than 15′ on average, Colombo is close to 20′ while Rotta is close to 30′. They are all under 19 and we are having a B championship with the under protagonists. I would like to bring other young people to Varese who are fed up with projects only in words, but who want real projects where they really grow. It’s hard because I know I’m heavy in the gym, but then when you play the satisfaction of the effort is greater.”
Matteo Gallo
