TREVISO: FIRST NATIONAL VOLLEYBALL VICTORY

A family that has built an empire cannot stop there. So after bagging the first victory of the season, it has already set its sights on the future. We are talking about the Benetton group, which after winning the volleyball league title has already said it expects the same from basketball and rugby. This statement was made without any hesitation by Gilberto Benetton, president of the most victorious sports concern in Italian history. The first victory should nonetheless be celebrated as the family’s jewel in the crown. Even though the Sisley brand will be the one to remain impressed, the fifth wonder of the Treviso team is the result of an almost outright domination of Italian basketball over the past ten years. A poker of wins during the course of just eight years attest to the fact that the volleyball squad put together by the Veneto club is all set to go down in history as a cycle-tyranny in the blue movement. The only disappointment for fans and players is that, in true volleyball fashion, the coach will be changed. It happened last year with Rome who let the new national team coach, Montali go. It has occurred again this year with the almost certain divorce of Raul Lozano, the Argentinian coach who obtained his first Italian title in 12 years, and the Treviso club. While rumours are rife as to successors (Montali, the opponent in the final, seems the likely substitute) yet another victory remains to be celebrated of a team that some had fancied past its best half way through the season and which managed to find motivation and emotional energy. Vullo, Papi, Gravina, Bernardi, athletes that have been a part of the national squad group of players for years, winning all there was to win. And the best example of playing longevity is precisely the captain of the Sisley team. This outstanding 32-year-old professional, known as “Lollo”, has achieved his nineth national league victory and it was thanks to his magnificent smash shot that the title went to Treviso. That same smash we admired ten years ago in the European finals which practically opened the road to the famous Velasco cycle. An anecdote about Bernardi better explains the long-lasting secret of the Sisley heart. In 1993, curiously with Montali heading the team, which 7 years ago resulted in the squad’s first league title. Benetton took the Italian Cup, the first achievement of what was to be a winning cycle. The coach himself presented each of his players with a jersey carrying the inscription “class is not water”. The first to wear it was the team hammer, the decisive player then as well. Amid such a large number of historical achievements, there is a first time for everything. And this time, despite the repeated goals reached, it was the first home win of the Veneto squad in their own stadium, before their own fans. Apart from this, Sisley-Benetton has nearly always been an away team, obliged, so to speak, to make the grade away from the environment they best know. Now all that is left to complete this splendid story is to decide to whom to leave the military honours. And here again, attention once again centres on a city that appeared to have forgotten volleyball. Milan too was part of an ambitious multisports project when Mediolanum decided to invest in soccer, volleyball and rugby along the lines of the legendary Real Madrid. These were the years when Silvio Berlusconi bought Milan and the worldwide success of the red and blacks represented a driving force for the other family sports. Milan never won the league final but purchased prized players belonging to the national team of that period, and nearly took the title. The exorbitant wages paid to the various Lucchetta, Galli and Zorzi, together with the separation of the Fininvest group caused however a deep economic crisis within the Milanese volleyball movement, forced to play in the minor leagues until last year. This year’s final is the signal that, after the darker years, Milan has shown the strength to come up from the competitive nothingness into which it had been relegated. In game 1, at the Palalido (all sold out), the Lombardy squad was even ahead two sets to zero over Sisley, before the inexorable recovery of the invincible armada. The consolation remains for Montali’s boys of having fought it out for a large part of the match on an equal footing with the future Italian champions. Given these early season pointers, which saw the newly-promoted team start of from scratch, this could be a big step towards a definite renaissance.