Not since the time of Beppe Frausini, now an esteemed architect, has a player from a Fano school risen to the top basketball league. Now comes another: Andrea Bargnesi, 23 years old, 1.82 centimetres, playmaker. Because the team where he played, the historic Libertas of Livorno, was promoted to the A2 series championship and therefore next year Pino Sacripanti will find himself facing him as an opponent. This is because the Tuscan club seems to intend to keep him on the roster next season too. It must be said, among curiosities, that together with Andrea Bargnesi, Rodolfo Terenzi’s son Diego also played for Livorno, but he celebrated his promotion from the stands due to an injury.
For a series of reasons Andrea Bargnesi never landed at Vuelle even though one of the first to point him out as a real talent was Mauro Procaccini who knows the subject, having played as a point guard for many years in the top flight. Why Mauro Procaccini as Bargnesi’s sponsor? “Because when Bargnesi was 14 years old, Basket Fanum had a collaboration with Pesaro and I went to train those young people. With the Under 14s we reached the national finals, but Bargnesi impressed everyone in a Christmas tournament because we were playing against Armani Milano, a steamrolling team and Andrea scored 50 points without even forcing. Honestly, I didn’t even realize – continues Procaccini – that he had scored so much also because he had never forced situations on the pitch I had reported this reason to the Vuelle managers, but something didn’t go right.”
Now Andrea Bargnesi is back in the news for this promotion. “We must take into account – continues Procaccini – that he played a lot in a situation where he had an American in front of him in his role. And despite this he played an average of twenty minutes per game, scoring around ten points per game.”
We are faced with the usual story and that is ‘that one is too small and doesn’t go anywhere…’ “Yes, the usual cliché story according to which small children have no history at high levels. Which however is not true at all – says Procaccini – because in basketball there are also little ones, especially if they know how to play basketball player from Pesaro, namely Giovanna Diana but in general these discussions have been heard for several other local school plays. Commonplaces that make little sense. However, as far as Andrea Bargnesi is concerned, we are faced with a very good boy and He also has a nice family behind him. We talk every now and then because we have stayed in touch and the fact that he has arrived in Serie A with Livorno makes me very happy.”
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