Women’s volleyball, Julio Velasco wins the national team: via Mazzanti, Egonu returns

That attack by Martyna Lukasik on the night in Lodz, on Sunday evening in front of 8,000 Poles celebrating having achieved Olympic qualification, was the last flash of the Italian career of Davide Mazzanti who a few minutes later was already declaring: “Coaches are judged based on the results…”, aware that this time “his” story is truly over. The farewell between Federvolley and Mazzanti is then also certified by the federal president Giuseppe Manfredi, who has already spoken with the interested party, waiting to embark on a new path, which leads right to Julio Velasco.

The bureaucratic times remain. To ratify the change of technical leadership we must wait for the next Federal Council (not before mid-October, after the men’s Olympic qualification) where the Velasco proposal will be brought which would thus return to the federation a few weeks after having closed the contract as technical manager of the national teams male youth. A new Olympic opportunity 27 years after leading the men’s Italy in the 1996 Atlanta final (with the gold going to the Netherlands after the legendary tiebreak). In 1997 Velasco coached the women’s national team for a few months, before moving to Cragnotti’s Lazio. The experience was not unforgettable from the point of view of results (a fifth place at the European Championship in Brno), but in that management then entrusted to Frigoni the foundations were laid for the first Club Italia in history (Velasco requested it, then Magri realized). And a leap in quality also from the point of view of the work methodology, which was then confirmed a few years later with the first great successes of the national team starting with the European silver in 2001 and the gold at the 2002 World Cup, both obtained with Marco Bonitta on the bench.

“Qualification for the Paris Games – said the federal president Giuseppe Manfredi after the defeat in Lodz – is well within our reach and for the new season the Federvolley’s objective will certainly be to reschedule the entire event on new bases and with accuracy. “Italian activity, to allow the women’s national team to return to the top of world volleyball”. As if to say that the new course has already begun. Aside from the historical suggestions linked to the name of Velasco, the Federation also needs a name of great weight. Because it is necessary to reunify an environment which in the last 2-3 years has shown technical, field and management problems. With a group that may not be as granite as has been said in recent months. A team shaken by violent earthquakes, and then there is the Egonu issue (but not only that, given the other excellent exclusions, De Gennaro first). Velasco has the task of gaining the Olympic pass and bringing back some serenity to a team that remains among the strongest in the world, but must then prove it. Sometimes it happened to this group, but often it wasn’t like this, as was also seen in the last summer, one of the stingiest in the recent history of the national team, without even a podium. Now it will be a matter of managing Velasco’s contract (he has a three-year contract with Busto Arsizio) and finding an economic agreement to take charge of Italy. But the problems on the table, which nevertheless exist, do not seem insurmountable, almost all of them technical-bureaucratic. It seems more complicated to put together the pieces of the many vases that have been broken in recent years in the national team (and not all of them the fault of Mazzanti who has to share the responsibilities with the Federation). Among other things, even if it is obvious, Velasco’s arrival guarantees that Paola Egonu will be with the group again. And it is to be believed that the La Plata coach will also make a series of considerations on other exclusions from the season. Italy, we are changing, trying to avoid the latest macroscopic errors.