San Giovani Marignano, located in a small town of the same name that houses only 9300 inhabitants, fought through all of its competition to win a berth on the Italian A2 Cup finals. Led by coach Stefano Saia, of only 41 years of age and a former assistant at Bergamo and Piacenza, the team has unexpectedly risen above all expectations in its few years of existence. The club, which started in Serie C in 2013, quickly rose up the ranks of Italian volleyball, being promoted to Serie B1 and then A2, and now has a real chance in April to gain promotion into Italy’s A1 league.
Coach Saia, which already has helped Soverato get a promotion from A2, says that although they very inexperienced and surprised by their performance, his girls do not fear the pressure of being promoted to A1. Also, Stefano Marconi, the team’s president, says that despite acknowledging that the leap from A2 to A1 is dangerous due to financial reasons, that the team feels optimistic, and that in no way it would step away from the challenge (Source 1, Source 2):
“It is Impossible to play for losing. We will try to win. We’ll see. The team is being structured for wider possibilities. Although in Romagna it is hard to get money out of volleyball, and to make a decent A1 team, one million euros is the minimum investment, the starting point. Serie A2 is long, there are still a dozen matches left. We are leading from the beginning, the girls play excellent volleyball, we are having fun. But it is a long exhausting championship with perhaps too many games. Let’s see how we will arrive in April. Last year we arrived at the playoffs, lost to Trento. This year, the ambitions, given the progress of the tournament so far disputed, are greater. We play volleyball similar at an A1 level, the girls have fun, the audience, indeed, the whole city follows us with passion.”
The finals between Marignano and Mondovi will be played on 02/18.
Leave a Reply