The first week of training after the resumption of activity at home Cucine Lube Civitanova ended today. The red and white coach Max Merazzi began his thirteenth season in the red and white staff by calling six athletes from the first team (Francesco Bisotto, Enrico Diamantini, Matheus Motzo, Jacopo Larizza, Jakob Thelle and Ivan Zaytsev) and three young players from the Academy Volley Lube (Gianluca Cremoni, Francesco Giacomini and Marco Stambuco). With the exception of Simone Anzani, who is awaiting a decisive intervention to try to eliminate heart problems, the other national teams will join the group at a very advanced stage, some close to the SuperLega.

How did you physically find the athletes available?

Max Merazzi: “A very positive week of work is coming to an end. I found the boys in good shape. Partly because the average age is quite low, partly because there are some newcomers in our context who showed up with a great desire to do well right away. I’m really satisfied with how the players who are training these days have arrived!”.

How will preparation for 2023/24 be articulated?

“On the one hand, having young elements, we can feel free to load in an important way without living with the typical problems that more mature groups usually carry with them, but it is also true that it will be the longest preparation ever. The first official match will be played on October 22nd and we returned to the gym two months earlier. In my life I have never had the beauty of 9 whole weeks available to prepare the team, consequently the work can be distributed to have a total gradualness trying to reduce the stops related to physical discomfort as much as possible “.

The group at this stage boasts some guys from the Academy.

“They are immature for the SuperLega context, but they are very interesting kids, otherwise they wouldn’t be part of the group being prepared. Having quality human material in the red and white youth sector is a great help because carrying out a training session with eight/nine athletes, rather than six, is extremely different and allows you to carry out more useful and complex exercises by distributing the volumes of work in a balanced way . Those who join the first team from the nursery have a great chance to show off by participating with enthusiasm and great motivation. They can grow and improve, we get tangible support in the progression of the activity”.