AFP Giovinazzo, the only franchise from the South in hockey’s top series

Editorial Board Thursday 7 December 2023 at 10.48 pm

Great enthusiasm this year for AFP Giovinazzo for his return to the A1 Hockey Championship after many years of absence. The new team, led by award-winning Mr. Pino Marzella and new president Francesco Minervini, are working on a hugely ambitious project to relaunch Team Puglia to the highest peaks of the sport. The company has always considered the move to the A1 series to be very delicate and also complicated by the logistical and economic difficulties in a championship very lopsided towards the north which sees AFP Giovinazzo is the only team from southern Italy that has to play grueling away matches every week. However, the new institutional structure is working in this direction also thanks to the support of the Italian Hockey Federation in the person of its president Sabatino Aracco who is very interested in relaunching the sport in the south and several sponsors who are helping the team by supporting the project. In the last two matches of the tournament AFP Giovinazzo had an important success in Breganze and tied at home to Vercelli. Therefore, there is great anticipation for next Sunday’s match in Montebello to continue this positive trend of results and valuable points in the standings. The green and white club introduced itself in Serie A after last season rising from first place in the table with just one defeat and two draws in 30 days. In addition to the roster consisting of boys aged between 18 and 26, all from Giovinazzo (Paolo Colamaria, Ottavio D’Angelico, Luigi Turturro, Angelo De Bari, Fabio Camporeale, Nicola Cannato, Michele DeLillo, Luca Mezina, Tommaso Colamaria, Vincenzo Bavaro). ) Mr. Pino Marzella arrived on the field Antoine Lebery, 28 years old, the backbone of the French national team; Jaume Bartes, 24, from Spain, has a good reputation for defending and setting up the game; Renato Clavel, 19 years old from Argentina, a promising hockey player like Marzella He wants to bet on the future and bet on the explosion of talent and goals.

The first edition of the “Luciano Minervini Trophy”

The ceremony was held at PalaPansini in Giovinazzo The first edition of the “Luciano Minervini Trophy” dedicated to the historic AFP radio commentator Giovinazzo At the time of the Italian League in 1980, and the Cup Winners’ Cup in the same year, as well as the “voice” of the national team in the World Cup between the 1980s and 1990s. Thanks to the charismatic Mr. Pino Marzella, world champion in 1988 in La Coruña, Spain (but also winner of the Italian Cup, the Circe Cup, the Cup Winners’ Cup and 7 Italian Championships) in the beautiful city of Puglia, we have returned to the time of “Saturday fever serums”, the slogan that became famous in the 1980s. When the Puglia team met every weekend in the sports hall in… Giovinazzo The best Italian and European teams always emerge victorious. The European Champions Cup final against Barcelona in 1981 was epic, and is still etched in the annals of the Bernabéu. The club is also paying close attention to its vibrant youth sector which has already won the Serie A U-23 title this year, with captain Paolo Colamaria the only athlete from Giovinazzo to have been called up to the Italian U-19 squad. The only team from the South to participate in the highest category in hockey, It is also one of the only five police teams in the sporting panorama that plays in Serie A in all competitive sports along with Lecce (soccer), Castellana (volleyball), Brindisi (basketball), Conversano (handball)..