Recap of Wheelchair basketball Italian Finals

From Friday to Sunday the Final Phase of the amateur National Championship of Wheelchair Basketball took place in Cesenatico, in the Romagna area.

This tournament had 5 teams last year and this year we are already 10 with more probably adding up from the next one.
Teams were all Italians from: Milan, Rieti, Genova, Pistoia, Turin, Vicenza, Padua, Reggio Emilia, La Spezia and Rome.

Our weekend went not so well under a numerical results perspective as we lost all three games BUT the games that the guys showed has been amazing!

I am coaching the team of Reggio Emilia since April last year and the advancements are under the spotlight. Many players were sincerely happy of the game they could deploy and their parents were as happy as them (or even more).

How is possible that everybody was so happy even if we lost all the three games ending the competition on the 8th place?

One year ago the technical level was far lower and many yelling against one another happened while playing, making the concentration very low while stress and anger were high.

Now the guys play in a much relaxed and coordinated way making the game fluid and more efficient.

The first game we had was against Milan (Cantù). Here some pictures of the game. We are the white team here

We lost the first game (quarter Finals) 82-55. This may seem a bad results but at half game we were simply at 40-35. Just 5 point away from a team that made 4 A-Serie (and national team as well) players playing all the game. Aside that, they also had a couple of players with a wrong classification that made that team easily leading up the match in the latest game fractions.

I know: the winners win, the losers explain.

But we lost by 27 points and we took 43 points from the misclassification of these two players. You see the math.

Anyway, the game was really of a good quality as we resisted well for half game, suffering some full-field pressure, losing concentration in some crucial moments.

The second match was against Turin. We knew that this game was going to be much more balanced. BUT at the beginning of the second quarter we were already down by 10 points.

The match started at 10am, making it very hot and I had to take cover as well, and with the benched players turning under the big umbrella.

This time we were the red players and here is Matteo, shooting a free shot (he made 1/2 in this occasion).

Look at his right hand, how well he learnt to manage it and make a full shooting movement.

And here below a fraction of an attacking action for us

And a time-out, where you can see me with the Pen and the Coach-Board in the phase of "showing the plan"

After loosing the game against Turin by 8 points (69-61) we were headed to the last final against Vicenza. The only time we won against this Vicenza team is two years back, at my absolute first game with Reggio Emilia, when I was still playing and my actual vice-coach was the Head Coach. We won by two points.

After that, except for one game (the first one of this season, when I played as well) when we lost by 9 points, all the other times we lost with a gap of more than 20 points each time.

This time we started well but again we dropped down by 10 points at the end of the second quarter. I changed some schemes and movements on the field and we managed to fill the gap, rising by 6 on the opponents.

Unfortunately, this was our third game in two days and the shortness of the bench knocked on our door and the fatigue, tiredness and pain started appearing into my team.

In the end we lost by 7 points but I congratulated with all of them as they played a great game and neither 4 rounds of offered Beer (one from me, the vice-coach and other two players) helped the miracle to happen. But in the end, I was so proud of the guys that I was almost moved.

Here during a time-out where I was trying to address their attention on the importance of “cutting the field to block players”.

And here below a defensive action, where you can see the number 14 white, our captain, defending on the most dangerous player of the other team.

It has been such an amazing sportive weekend! Another article coming soon, with all the rest aside sport (friends, nice food and the seaside).

All pictures have been taken from me (and Mary), with no filters used.