With the Scudetto won on May 7th emblazoned on the Erreà Sport official polo shirts, bags, and training sweatshirts worn by players and staff, Itas Trentino, the Italian champions, gathered this afternoon at the BTS Arena (the new name for PalaTrento, which will officially replace the ilT quotidiano Arena on September 1st) to begin preparations for the season that will see them defend their Italian title and compete in at least two other competitions in addition to the SuperLega (the Super Cup and the Champions League).
Exactly two months before their regular season debut (scheduled for October 19th, once again in Cisterna di Latina), the yellow-and-blue team began their training program today. For the first forty days at least, the training program will feature a very limited number of players from the new roster: just five, which will become six this weekend thanks to the arrival of Spanish wing spiker Ramon in Trento. The other eight and the new coach Marcelo Mendez are busy with their respective national teams in view of the imminent start of the World Cup (12-28 September in the Philippines).
Only familiar faces were present at the first call-up today, including liberos Laurenzano and Pesaresi, spiker Bristot, setter Acquarone, and middle blocker Sandu, who was promoted from the youth sector but had often played in the first team during the previous season. The very limited presence of the new roster prompted Assistant Coach Adriano Di Pinto (who will be the group’s technical director during the first month of work) to supplement the squad with six players from UniTrento Volley. Matey Kaziyski will also be there: the legendary yellow-blue number 1 will spend his entire pre-season training with Itas Trentino.
“In this first part of the program, the focus will be on individual physical and technical work, so having a limited number of players from the new squad available won’t be a major problem,” Di Pinto explained before starting training. “The new Athletic Trainer, Davide Grigoletto, will have time to get to know the existing players better and work with them throughout this first week, during which ball exercises on the center court will be reserved exclusively for the young players who will help us during this period. Beyond individual goals, it will then be important to begin laying the foundations for creating a cohesive and effective working group like the one we’ve relied on in previous seasons.”
