TALMASSONS. Talmassons woke up in A1. The small municipality in the Middle Friuli, less than four thousand inhabitants, has arrived sportingly where no one has ever gone before in women’s volleyball since A1 and A2 existed and has done so one step at a time, transforming a small village club into a structured club that next season will host the queens of volleyball in Friuli, protagonists of one of the most beautiful championships in the world.
A path, that of the CDA Volley Talmassons, which has not lost its close bond with the territory and its people, with the economic fabric and the old fans who on Thursday were among the 1,500 people who packed the Latisana sports hall and who they saw their girls beat Futura Giovani Busto Arsizio by three to zero in game two of the play-off final and celebrate the historic achievement.
Winning mentality
«This success is the fruit of a winning mentality – states the CEO of Volley Talmassons Fvg and CEO of the main sponsor Cda, Fabrizio Cattelan – which involved not only the team but the entire community, businesses and volunteers.
Every season we wanted to add something to our objectives but we did it for the territory and for the people who dedicate themselves to the team: we put in the financial resources, they put in the resources and the time.
It is – he continues – a sort of social responsibility of the territory, a modus operandi that has led to success resulting from the work of many».
President Ambrogio Cattelan and his wife Filena, close to the team since the nineties and always with great discretion and affection, were among the happiest with the promotion.
Visionaries. There were those who spoke about A1 several years ago and received some laughter in response. Instead Piero Mauro Zaninmayor of Talmassons from 2009 to 2018 and then president of the Fvg regional council, took the long view.
«The company started in the hamlet of Flumignano – he says – then over the years it embraced the vision of some people like Gianni De Paoli and Ambrogio Cattelan with his wife Filena and children, and started to get serious.
The team and the club have grown, but the spirit has remained the same, the club has been structured in a professional manner as it should be but the principles have remained the same.
This success could be seen from afar because it was built on solid foundations and with a group of volunteers who always went out of their way.
The conquest of the A1 – he continues – must be an example of how a small municipality, in a land of sacrifice and which perhaps finds it difficult to talk about its successes, can reach so high».
Not just A1
Coach Barbieri’s girls are the tip of the iceberg of a solid movement with a very lively youth sector. The mayor of Talmassons reiterates this, Fabrizio Pitton: «In the next few days we will play the Under 14 territorial final while the Under 18 girls, already territorial champions, will be involved in the regional finals on Sunday.
The teams can count on a gym which was expanded in 2023 to reach a capacity of 600 people and which, after the violent hailstorm in July, we immediately managed to make accessible for schools and for some youth championships and which from September will have a new parquet.
I am convinced the A1 series will be a formidable driving force for the entire youth sector and, more generally, for our territory.”
For the mayor of Talmassons, collaboration was one of the key words for the success of the local volleyball club’s project.
«We have always worked in great synergy, first of all with the Region – he underlines – and then with the neighboring municipalities including Pocenia, which hosted some of our teams after the damage caused by hail to the gym, without forgetting those of Lignano and Latisana which hosted our girls during the championship.”
