Volleyball, the Bovolenta tribe: ‘Volleyball in our destiny in the name of Vigor’

“I have never felt alone”. This phrase often comes up when Federica Lisi talks about these ten years without Vigor Bovolenta. It was March 24, 2012 when Bovo’s heart stopped in the B-2 match of Forlì in Macerata. “And since that day I have never, never felt alone” Federica says on the phone. On March 24 at the Bovolenta house in Ravenna, there is no room for melancholy. “Maybe we light a candle, we remember dad with a thought, something. Usually Bovo’s parents are with us, because I like to involve them in the cauldron of the grandchildren, they have been tested with the disappearance of two children. the real celebration for us however remained on May 30th, his birthday “.

In Ravenna

–

Bovo arrived in Ravenna as a boy, at 16, and with the shirt of the same team his son Alessandro made his debut in the Superlega just over a month ago, in the challenge in Milan. For the strange games that fate holds, they both started with the same coach, Marco Bonitta. For years Alessandro has remained in the eye for that childish image with a father’s shirt that reached his feet. It was the first Bovo day, the national team and former teammates were on the pitch to remember it and he, who was 8 years old, threw the serve on the other side of the net. “We talk about him, but not very often. Alessandro was small, he doesn’t have many memories, it’s not like now that there are hundreds of photos on mobile phones. We had everything inside the PC, but nothing was found. always spoken “. I have never felt alone. “Bovo is there, but his presence has never gone away. He is not a shadow. He is light, because we all deserve to live and I feel lucky, privileged. I am healthy, we are fine, we can take it off. I am not afraid of anything “, says Federica. In 10 years she has brought up 5 grown-up children.” When Bovo died, Ale was 7 years old, Arianna would have turned 3 on July 3, the twins were one year old and a few days later I discovered I was pregnant with Andrea “.

Debut

–

Alessandro will turn 18 on May 27 and attend the fourth accounting department, then there is Arianna in the eighth grade, the twins Aurora and Angelica in the fifth grade, Andrea in the fourth grade. During the years of the lockdown Federica chose to keep everyone at home, the villa in a residential area built by her father-in-law, which became the family home in 2010 and then returned to being so in early 2013, after Federica had taken refuge with her parents in Rome with the newborn Andrea. “He is there, but he is not there”. And in the memory of what happened, on that evening when everything ended on the batting line, Fede says: “We have a destiny inside us. nice things, now in all gyms there are defibrillators, we have to fight to make them even more widespread. And they lit that fire “. Volleyball is in destiny. Federica played in Serie A, we know about Bovo. And now Alessandro and Arianna retrace the same path.

Defibrillator

–

“Alessandro had started with football, he was a goalkeeper and he wasn’t bad either. At my parents’ house they were very happy, my father is a huge football fan, my brother Francesco plays in Perugia after having made his promotion with Pisa, the other brother Fabio was in the Roma youth academy. At the age of 11 he came and told me: volleyball called me. When I replied that he had to finish the season with football first, he replied: why don’t you want to send me? I gave up. Arianna didn’t like volleyball, she started with dance and artistic gymnastics, now she is 13 and she is 186 tall, she has been in Rome for a month, she trains with the VolleyRò of my ex partner Laura Bruschini. Alessandro it is the opposite, that is his role even if at the beginning they had put him central. Arianna plays at the center. Alessandro has passion, body and mind. Because since he was a child he has been used to being the man of the house. that when we are in difficulty we must hug n cora more, so it happens that Andrea, the youngest, can help his big brother when he is in crisis “. Since last year Alessandro has lived in the guesthouse that hosts the young people of Robur Ravenna. He shares the apartment with Mattia Orioli and Lorenzo Ricci Maccarini. He did not want the number 16 jersey “because we are two different people”, Bovo’s former teammates were breathless when they saw him go to serve, with those movements so similar to his father. “I’m happy he chose volleyball – Federica smiles -, at the end of the game he calls me, let’s talk about how he played and I’m proud because this is my field, it was my job. I was thrilled to see Bovo on the pitch, to see a child there is none. And when he was called to the national team for the under 19 World Cup it was a great emotion. Because you see your son reaching an important milestone, such as a degree, a job. I took the cazzimma, for the rest he is like Bovo who remembered all the points and the matches of 10 years before. Alessandro concerns all the matches “. And the thread does not break. “Volleyball is really a big family. If I call Bovo’s former teammates to organize an event, there isn’t one that says: I’m not coming. And they remember him for what he was like as a person, not for what he won Every now and then I say to my children: “You see daddy what a mess he still makes.” In my heart, things never end.