CUSB 2022: No Greater Victory by Irene Scazzieri

Reflecting on 2021

After losing the EUCF final in 2021, for a moment I thought Shout’s big moment was over. I thought that after having been 2 times European Champions (2018 and 2019) and after COVID, for us the time was over.

And it wasn’t only me.

The defeat completely erased all the trainings and efforts we made during the year, all the victories achieved until that moment.
We lost the final of a tournament that we were dominating, the end of an overall positive season, but we experienced that moment like a black out, as if everything had been thwarted, as if everything was lost.

Personally, as captain of the team, I was disappointed in myself and in my performance. I left the field because of an injury (I found it out a couple of weeks later that I broke the ACL and LCL of the left knee) happened in the first half of the game, when the score was still close and the end uncertain, and I was so desperate not to be able to help my teammates, to support them in the field.

After YAKA scored the 15th point, we got together, we hugged each other hard as if to hold our bodies and hearts together which at that time were broken (in all senses 😊). We looked at each other and told ourselves to remember that feeling. To live that moment. And in that moment I understood that our time was not over, because that feeling would have been gasoline for us.

The road ahead

Personally, I knew what was waiting for me (I am a physiotherapist and I had already broken my right ACL in 2017-2018), I knew of the long path I had in front of me. After the surgery that I went immediately back to Bologna, I spent a lot of time doing rehabilitation and trying to return as soon as possible as best as I could. I had to leave the role of captain that I really cared about: I needed my head to be completely focused on recovery.

At the beginning it wasn’t easy for the team either: we didn’t have the right numbers for practice or a coach and we didn’t know if we could withstand the effort to participate in both WUCC and EUCF and all that they imply.

Fortunately, we received a big help both from other members of our club, including Davide Morri and Federico Caraceni, and from the outside, with Diego Signoretti and Barbara Bondi as coaches and Francesco Griggio as PT: Shout staff was completely renewed.

It was like starting from the beginning, from the bottom.

2022 season

However, we immediately had to jump into the season: Bologna Invite, Tom’s Tourney, London Invite, WUCC, EUCF and Italian Championship.

In previous years we have had a lot of trouble beating the junk zones that YAKA and other teams used to play against us, so in agreement with the new staff we set out technical-tactical focus on improved dynamism of players, on give and go moves, on maintaining possession and on enhancing our flow by improving the speed of our backhands. We also focused on 1v1 person defense and , but trying to train different types of defenses so that we could change tactics during a match as needed.

Some of the fast backhand movement that CUSB worked on during the off season

And we trained a lot also physically: a lot of athletic preparation (running for long distances at the beginning of the year, then more and more resistance to sprints and plyometrics) and gym sessions.

I followed everything from the outside, trying to be present at all the training sessions and meetings and tournaments during weekends. It was a great suffering being there to watch, but it was like a charge of energy that allowed me to push even more alone in the gym or during my solo workouts.

CUSB attacking the break side in their win over Yaka at EUCF

Bologna Invite and Tom’s Tourney did not go quite as we wanted, but at London Invite (my first tournament since surgery) we were able to play a good game in the final, showing the first signs of the improved aspects of our game on which we were working harder.

Then in July we left for WUCC: an incredible experience, even if it didn’t end in the best way. We were targeting the top 16, but we lost the game to achieve it in universe point. Despite the disappointment, I think that in the end this experience allowed us to react and do what we did at EUCF. Playing a World Championship always makes you better and it’s always an incredible experience, whatever the outcome.

EUCF

September has been hectic: many training sessions, the captains and staff have been fantastic preparing material to study our opponents (see CUSB 2019: Scouting was the difference ), so much anxiety and fear of not being at the level. Before we played the final we looked each other in the eyes: some of us were not there in 2021, but the majority was. We decided to have fun. We decided that during that game we had to celebrate ourselves and the wonderful group we are.

And then, as it was defined by some, the masterpiece. Everything went perfectly. We expressed the game that we had trained so much for.
Personally, I can say I was very satisfied with myself: I got injured in exactly the same game and one year later I was there to play it again, even in a good physical shape considering the injury I had had. I was proud of myself and of my teammates.

A huge layout block near the start of the EUCF final

We did a long circle at the end of the game, before going to celebrate, and this time we said: let’s remember how beautiful this feeling is! Let’s live this moment. Let’s taste it until the last second. And when we are about to give up, because we are tired, because the trainings are too many, because maybe it is too cold or too hot.. Let’s remember this moment and remember that to live it you must never give up and never get crushed negatively by a defeat or a tournament that does not end as you would. Losing is bad, getting injured even worst, but if you know how to react it gives you tools that allow you to reborn and return to win.

And Shout did it.

Thinking back to the beginning of the season, I realized that all my teammates made the effort to slightly change the way they used to play, sometimes by training that throw you’re afraid of, sometimes making a simpler choice to keep possession of the disc.

So many small fundamental things that allowed us to win the tournament as a team, without needing big plays or a superstar: we were all on the field, all involved, all participants of what we were doing.

And for me there is no greater victory.