The tour of the Grottese volleyball team continues in the area, special guest in Ponzano di Fermo on the evening of the Storie Festival dedicated to Gigi Riva
PONZANO DI FERMO – The territorial tour of the Yuasa Battery Grottazzolina does not stop, which continues its march towards the Super League at the pace of double training sessions, without however ever leaving behind the desire to tour the villages and municipalities of the Fermo area with the hope to bring together more and more fans and enthusiasts.
After the wonderful Marche Pride Night experienced as protagonists in Francavilla D’Ete on Monday 19 August, a representative of the club wanted to visit Ponzano di Fermo on Tuesday evening to embrace two figures who can now be defined as “friends”: the mayor of the small village of Fermo Diego Mandolesi, who in the past also trod the Taraflex Grotese at a youth level, and the storyteller par excellence Federico Buffa.
In fact, as part of the second seasonal event of the Storie Festival, thanks to Buffa’s inimitable dialectic it was possible to relive the football legend Gigi Riva.
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With the adverse weather which forced a rapid but highly organized last-minute change of location, the 200 people present were able to relive from the journalist’s words the whole myth of Thunderclap, which also happened in Ponzano way back in 1976, as Mayor Mandolesi himself had the opportunity to recall at the beginning in an unpublished anecdote. A lounge with two armchairs, and the Marche journalist Maurizio Socci talking with Federico Buffa in memory of a legend of Italian football and sport, recalling his sporting and non-sporting life, halfway between Cagliari, the Italian national team and private memories and anecdotes. Alongside the protagonists of the evening, Riva’s original and autographed shirt, preciously kept in a glass case as a relic.
And in the audience, among the many mayors of the municipalities participating in the Storie Festival (12 from Fermo and Macerata) and the Regional Councilor Andrea Putzu, the Yuasa Battery Grottazzolina was not missing, with three athletes and as many managers. Michele Fedrizzi, Marco Cubito and captain Riccardo Vecchi, not surprisingly all three already protagonists of last season’s triumphal ride, accompanied by president Rossano Romiti, vice president Claudio Laconi and manager Valerio Finucci.
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Federico Buffa, already a guest of the Yuasa Battery last October at the inaugural match of the championship which then sanctioned the promotion of the Fermo team to the Super League, was prophetic: the famous journalist was impressed by the M&G Volleyball School model, hoping that that climate of passion combined with a a more familiar environment than ever could be a harbinger of a historic result. No sooner said than done. And therefore, at the first useful opportunity, a delegation from the club could not be missing to embrace and ideally thank an extraordinary narrator, who speaks and enchants with the stories of the greatest in sport, but has shown that he also has at heart those who, very small, among the greats he is trying to emerge.