Any idea which is the second most popular team sport in Italy? Well, after football, it’s volleyball!
With this in mind we took the opportunity to speak to Marco Neviani, president of the Anderlini School of Volleyball, a club based in Modena in north-central Italy, and which is renowned both in Italy and internationally for its development of young volleyball players.
Marco, can you tell us about the history of your Volleyball club and about your role within it?
The Scuola Anderlini was founded in 1985. Amongst its founders were top coaches from Serie A including Rodolfo “Giobbe” Giovenzana and Andrea Nannini. These top-level coaches developed competitive youth teams over the years and the Scuola Anderlini started to expand its activity by offering multi-faceted programmes to athletes and families with various projects and initiatives for them.
My involvement in the club has grown through the years, first as a player, then as a coach, and now I hold the role of president with direct responsibility over sports and event organization. The Scuola Anderlini is part of a network of clubs that covers a few nearby regions including volleyball clubs in Modena, Sassuolo and Serramazzoni, and includes 1,100 players aged 3 to 18 and 120 staff. We have numerous projects, all aimed at young people, that the network promotes: there are educational activities in schools involving 4,000 children, volleyball camps, summer sports as well as international tournaments organized throughout the year.
The success we have acquired at the Scuola Anderlini over the years in training and youth volleyball activities has led the club to become the spearhead of an even larger network of 80 volleyball clubs throughout Italy and also abroad where we work, for example, in France, the United States, Serbia, Mexico and Malta. We organize workshops at our headquarters in Modena, as well as visits by our coaches to member clubs and now we use online tutorials to help organize both the technical and managerial elements at these member clubs. This growth is all thanks to the experience we’ve gained since 1985 and the know-how of our coaches and staff.
Scuola Anderlini organizes numerous international youth tournaments known throughout Europe, in particular would you like to tell us about the Moma Winter Cup?
The first edition was in 2009, girl’s teams at U14, U16 and U18 levels took part as well as boys’ teams at U15, U17 and U19 level. On average we have had 200 teams take part each time. The event is a real volleyball festival, the spirit of bringing teams together to play and enjoy Volleyball is something that is key to the event and something we are really keen to promote
From the first day of the tournament to the last, with the finals and the awards ceremony at the "Pala Panini" stadium in Modena we really believe that fun and celebration to be fundamental part of the week. Combine this with top level competition of the teams from Italy and overseas and it makes for a fantastic event.
Each team plays matches over three consecutive days, across the region of Modena, which is one of the main areas in Italy for volleyball. They then gather at the Pala Panini stadium packed with thousands of young people and their families on the final day. After so much hard work, our reward is to see the happy smiling faces of the players when they come to Pala Panini on that final day. Some are simply happy to have been part of such a large tournament, others to be visiting the Pala Panini Stadium and then the luckiest ones are those who get to play in the tournament finals. We have had many foreign teams enter over the years from Germany, France, Spain, Switzerland, Slovenia, Serbia, Croatia, Poland, and others. As well as the Moma Winter Cup, we also have an Easter tournament, the Bussinello Cup, which attracts teams from across Europe and at other times of the year we have the Serra Cup and the Spring Cup.
Can you now tell us more about Italian volleyball and how the men’s and women’s national teams developed over the last few decades to become international forces?
Volleyball has a very strong tradition throughout the Italian peninsula, with well-funded clubs and high calibre coaches with the ability to learn and to adopt and implement the best training exercises from the various volleyball federations around the world. They have created a constantly evolving system that combines the best possible technical elements, as well as adding important performance aspects such as mental exercises and modules on nutrition and conditioning, etc.
The main turning point for Italian volleyball took place in the 1990s with our success in the World Cup. Volleyball became known more widely at that point and started to be played outside the traditional heartland areas. It gained consistent television coverage, players become sport stars and were widely seen on TV and in advertisements. Today and over recent years many Italian coaches have been and continue to be at the helm of foreign national teams and clubs.
Finally, in addition to the tournaments that you organize during the year, what can you offer a school or club planning to come on tour to Italy?
Well, a visit to the Pala Panini stadium is already a must for every volleyball fan. Of course, the chance to watch live matches is certainly an unforgettable experience. Scuola Anderlini has always been open to exchange ideas with its guests, for coaches to discuss all aspects of the game, and for teams on tour to experience how we work and train. All forms of interaction are welcome: friendly matches, training sessions together, as well as pro coaching opportunities. Finally Modena itself is a fantastic city, famous for its food and ideally located to explore other nearby cities such as Verona, Bologna, Rimini, Florence and Venice.
