There are clubs that win and, once they have exhausted the legitimate satisfaction of a brilliant result achieved, they start again with momentum on the wings of the enthusiasm blown by the wind of that success. Domotek Volley Reggio Calabria no, in Domotek Volley Reggio Calabria there is no split between past and future, with the present acting as witness to both. In Domotek Volley Reggio Calabria the victories, even the prestigious ones, even those capable of making a turning point in the course of events, are a single and united thread.
The end of one season overlaps perfectly with the beginning of the next: both bear the stamp of quality of ambition that doesn’t build fences around itself. Saturday 8 June the door of the A3 Series is being pushed with its shoulders, not even a week’s gap and it’s time for presentations of what’s to come because Domotek Volley is, first of all, detailed programming with binoculars scanning the fixed horizon on the next mountain to climb, to carefully admire the summit and to carefully learn about hairpin bends and potential obstacles.
To do this, the Amaranth club has identified the first sporting director card, others will follow starting from the technical director announced by Antonio Polimeni, to fit into the dazzling mosaic and a figure who better reflected the ideals and principles of the Reggio association could not be involved: Cesare Pellegrino, or volleyball. Decades filled with dunks over the goals of the elite, full Serie A and the blue shirt to chisel with luster a career steeped in satisfaction.
Then the bench, teaching volleyball, explaining how to do it, revealing which technical and human characteristics cannot be ignored. Now, with Domotek Volley having obtained residency on the upper floors, the right time to take off the role of coach and put on those of sports director. Sports director on and off the pitch, because Pellegrino loves being in contact with the players, following their evolution, exploring their behaviour, studying individual and locker room dynamics: the best way to understand what is needed to build a harmonious team. “Balanced and with the hunger to always improve: this is – reveals the new sporting director – the roster we are building in symbiosis with the club.
With Antonio Polimeni the deep bond and esteem have ancient roots, we have already worked together and I appreciate both his continuous desire to progress and his human side, which is what matters most to me.” The new manager of Domotek Volley Reggio Calabria then goes into detail about this important step in his professional life: “When I finished the championship I was involved in we talked to each other. Realizing immediately that the prospects for operating well were excellent, I decided to accept the proposal responsibly.
What convinced me was the observation of how well the corporate organization was structured. Having had the opportunity, over the years, to get to know many realities up close, I deeply harbor a certainty: what happens on the pitch is the reflection of a club, what happens on the pitch is a direct consequence of the quality of a club’s work. Although she has been on the scene for less than a year, that girl from Reggio, a mix of competence and passion, has forged ahead, growing rapidly.
Realizing closely how it was set up, how everyone knows what to do and what their role is; happily becoming aware of the way in which I was welcomed, I had no doubts whatsoever.” The sports director, a volleyball man by definition, followed their exploits during the sporting year that the Amaranth team had just closed with the sumptuous result of promotion to A3, also attending the playoff matches.
The ideas on what the path of the dominant team in Group I of Serie B was very clear: “The management of the group is, for a coach, the most difficult part of his job, but Antonio Polimeni has been smart since the pre-season when he decided to intelligently rely on good players he already knew. An ambitious person who likes challenges, difficult ones, arduous ones.”
Ambition, a concept dear to Cesare Pellegrino and which he found when discussing with the club’s top management, in dialogue with the general director Marco Tullio Martino: “Everyone is centered and concentrated, everyone moves animated by the fixed idea of constantly progressing, of perfecting oneself, to get the best.
I return to a Serie A context, an environment where I know many players and coaches. The level of the tournament will be high, with two groups making it up, and this new role stimulates me a lot. I’m fully engaged studying a huge amount of videos, but the highlights aren’t enough for me, I want to see the player under stress on the pitch. The primary objective is a place 4 who attacks on a high ball.
In American colleges they work very well and the players are as good as in Eastern countries where, moreover, a notable tradition persists in wise training in basic fundamentals. Furthermore, another important step, I am interfacing with the League. I want to make the most of this opportunity and give everything for my city which, after 38 years, thanks to this club, has rediscovered Serie A in men’s volleyball.” From the long experience accumulated on the bench she has gathered the best, also learning a lot from leading women’s teams.
A wealth of experience that places him in the ideal position to also express an opinion on the recent championship final which culminated with the leap into the higher category: “Well done, they were good at receiving the stimuli coming from the club and staff, picking up the pace at the decisive moment and keeping it equal to that of the strong Apulian teams, clearly surpassing them just when it was needed to make the season majestic”. The thoughts have a precise direction: “We are working with Antonio on the basis of the team that won Serie B”.
When asked a specific question, the sports director and coach did not hide behind a finger: “The foreigner who arrives must make the difference. He will be a striker, a winger.” Calm but decisive character, with an imprint oriented towards a resolutely professional mentality: “The landing on a higher step requires that discipline occupy an important space. Harmony in the locker room is an indispensable thing. Those who are part of it must assume their responsibilities while maintaining irreproachable behavior. Seriousness is essential to play at a certain level. Every victory is the result of sweat and sacrifice, as well as the skills to be shown on the field. Volleyball is a very technical sport. I’m fixated on the fundamentals.”
The mix is this: obstinacy in work and technical qualities: the words of Cesare Pellegrino, the ideal sports director of a sports reality which, maintaining faith in the objectives set at the time of its birth, has demonstrated, results in hand, that it is in a position to safeguard deep dreams. The natural habitat for a prestigious, calm and steady character, like the fresh sports director who, in fact, comments: “We live sport chasing the same goals, believing in the same ideals”.
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