It was a night that will go down in history. A packed PalaCalafiore, a thrilling choreography, and a crystal-clear message: “Reggio Calabria wants to win.” And so it was. Domotek Volley conquered Serie A2, giving the city a dream it had pursued for years. Sergio Vandir Dal Pozzo, assistant coach of the team under Antonio Polimeni, recounts the most authentic emotion from the bench.
“That choreography in the final against Belluno? ‘Reggio Calabria wants to win—it was written there,’ says the Brazilian coach. We won, and I promised my children: if we won the third match, I’d do a somersault. So it happened. In fact, I had to do it twice!”
“It was a thrill and a racing heart.”
Vandir Dal Pozzo retraces the team’s journey, highlighting the difficulties and key moments: “When we made that A2 playoff against Reggio Emilia, arriving at the fifth game against them at the Palabigi, everyone was saying, ‘Oh, if only we had played in Reggio Calabria.’ Then we reached this final against Belluno. The PalaCalafiore wasn’t there; for game one, we played at the Palabenvenuti, which was splendid: full, and it gave the team a boost. Winning the third game at home against this amazing PalaCalafiore was a marvel.”
The assistant coach, who has been a pillar of the coaching staff for two years, talks about the behind-the-scenes story of a slow but solid build: “When you’re behind the scenes and working every day, it’s not easy. You have to have patience and trust in the guys, and they have to have the same in your work. They come from many different backgrounds; they’ve had many coaches and trainers. You don’t have to be the best, but they have to believe in you. Little by little, we’ve built a team. “True.”
And he reveals the team’s tactical and mental secret: “In every final—or rather, every match—we said: our team isn’t the best at serving, it’s not the best at blocking, it’s not the best individually. But when we’re a team, we see this. For me, this was the main point.”
