Marco Mencarelli is one of the most important figures of Italian volleyball in the last thirty years. Among the most prepared coach and teacher in the world, he conquered the gold medal at the 2002 World Cup with the women’s national team (on that occasion he was Marco Bonitta’s deputy). Over time, the technician born in Orvieto, but for a long time residing in Urbino, has made an inception of titles and medals with the female youth national teams and for some years he has been holding the role of technical director of the female youth volleyball national teams. In these days he spent a few moments of relaxation in Calabria at the sea and we had to have a chat with him, starting from the new memorable feat of the blue of Julio Velasco, capable of Olympic champions in charge of winning the world championship 23 years after beating Turkey in the final.
“The girls were wonderful and with them Julio (Velasco Ndc) and all the staff. It is the result that crowns a job carried out over the years with a project on which a lot has been worked. A praise to all those who have contributed to the achievement of this goal and to the Federation that has put us in a position to be able to work in the best way. One of the characteristics that made the difference was the mental aspect, in addition to the obviously technical one. Discussing all the competitiveness of these girls thanks to the work of Velasco and his staff. a utopia “.
A long path of growth – “There has not been a departure date, there has been a process that persists over time, of small changes from one year to the other both in the management of Mazzanti and in the current one of Velasco. There are small differences between the national team that made the Olympics and the one that the World Cup has made. These changes have accompanied the path a little and let’s say that a strong change I believe that it occurred in the passage already started by Marco Bonitta. Orro and Egonu as a diagonal, he believed a lot in these two girls and then Mazzanti has made other changes in his initial path above all. mix that obviously Julio has been able to pull out of the cylinder and put together with an extraordinarily effective congruence. our comparisons or in any case was more demerit than our merit in the supremacy shown. state merit of our girls and on this I think nothing can be questioned “
The success of the Under 21 – Here the discussion is strategically connected with Velasco already in the programming phase of the activities of the two senior teams A and B. The under 21 worked in concert with the senior activity for an extremely practical reasoning: within this group which is in the final phase of youth activity there should be spare parts in a 2027 and 2028 key for those two competitive seasons that are those of the closure of the Sailo mandate, but above all. They are those of the next World Cup and the next Olympics. If there are one, two, three players who could also enter the group also enlarged by the Senior national team and make a contribution in terms of preparation of the next two major events, surely it is in that age group. But the important meaning that the U21 World Cup is that a group that has also worked with the strategies that we use in Senior is a group that consolidated a level of competitiveness that to the main continental competitors really left an important sign because last year during the European championship beyond the fact that we lost the final against a decidedly competitive and strong Turkey, this year we opened a scissor that seems unbilling to the competitors. Last year Turkey and Poland, while this year these two national teams have abnounced them in a clear and decisive way and the fact of giving importance to an athlete’s competitive formation with many who played in their reference clubs, this created a gap, a truly important leap in quality “.
Future objectives – Planning for the next few years are defined. What we must certainly do is adapt the whole youth system to change the years of age in the various championships. This is one of the priorities in which I will try through operating strategies with my collaborators and the Federation. This will be a fundamental element, the programming of the youth national teams is already made and it will be a matter of carrying out the search for talent with the strategies implemented until today and which have given very confatting results. What will be done step by step will be a constant adaptation of the most innovative methodologies from the point of view proper to training because obviously the moment you are at the center of attention means stimulating others a lot to fight. The others will be much more operational to be competitive against us and we must do prevention operations by improving and looking for solutions that allow us not to interrupt this growth path.
Club Italia – We decided to give a push to that group of girls who have very important perspective indices and to give acceleration. As it was done at the time and benefited from Danesi, Orro, Egonu and several other athletes. Now under my technical and Velasco technical direction, above all, there is this input to accelerate the growth path of this group in which we glimpse several girls capable of giving an additional growth input to our national senior national team and consequently obviously the attempt to do it with a Serie A2 championship is truly a very important, but pursuable goal.
The problems in the South – There are two factors that in my opinion must be improved. Meanwhile, among the activities that take place in the central-southern regions compared to important schools and youth sectors there is a weekly pro-capita weekly training gap. Meanwhile, reference centers, development centers, qualifying centers, youth companies that take charge of training and that do it with important training volumes and that give themselves an organization that involves qualified technicians, health and nutritional protection, finalized physical preparation, entitled Forestry, organization and connection with schools, should be assumed. All aspects that the four to five important youth sectors are good. Then there is a second element on which the Federation is working, that is to say that of containing the outflow of athletes from the South to the important youth sectors and very often all this happens at a very young age. The Club Italia project of the South and the Center are born precisely to feed the number of players who can complete the rosters of the A2, B1 and B2 teams of the Center-South in such a way that in their respective contexts these championships become competitive and perhaps some of these clubs can deepen and develop youth training here. I think it is a persecutable goal, it will take time but every small drop that we are able to put in this chaos that distinguishes the heterogeneity of our volleyball has its own function. The important thing is to continue to create the culture of youth training because with this assumption here sooner or later the desire to create an important project that can make competitive societies and partnerships of the South even in the national youth finals could be the viaticum to start important planning. Obviously there is also the theme linked to sports plant engineering to be taken into account to improve and develop youth training.
THE CALLIPO TUN – The hope is that the Callipo tuna can work in this direction and make a big good luck to this company, to this project, to this attempt in the hope that it will become a reference pole for one of the regions of the South.
Calabrian volleyball – It is a region that must make a qualitative leap from the technical point of view, of the coaches. A very important first element that could launch the region strong is to recruit, stimulate identify young technical figures who make an important investment on this role and on this professional career. Today the sport law gives much more important guarantees to undertake this work even with a big use of time and therefore in a professional way. Obviously the conditions must be a strong desire for training and self -signery and self -determination because the sporting environment is an environment where those who car emerge.
A few days of relaxation in Calabria – My wife and I are lovers of the sea and Calabria is one of our destinations. We have a certain quantity of regions that guarantees us something fantastic and I am an Italian -speaking of nature and Italy is fine if I have to go to the beach. Abroad becomes important if he has to visit a certain destination, or culture. Calabria is a strong protagonist of my preferences and I often come back very willing to us.
The next stages in Calabria – We are planning the sequence of the internships of the South Club Italy and Calabria should be the first. We will soon see each other shortly in your beautiful land.