Geas Basket presented in Allianz Tower

Geas Basketball presented in Allianz Tower

Allianz and GEAS Basket presented Thursday morning in Torre Allianz the First Team that will face the Techfind 2023/2024 Women’s A1 Series championship. The insurance-financial Group has been supporting the Rossoneri Club since the 2018/2019 season. 

Effervescence, passion and emotions: Geas has been building its challenges on these notes for 68 years, and the event, hosted by TV journalist Mario Castelli and held on the 47th floor of the Allianz Tower, was held in an atmosphere full of emotions. Crowded representation of media, partners, sponsors and institutions, to learn about the new roster and season goals. And soì once again tradition is linked to’enthusiasm for the youth sector and rests on a heritage of values, sporting and moral, that make this club unique in the panorama of women’s basketball. Woe to neglect the results, of course: we start from the prestigious semifinal championship reached last season, the crowning achievement of a beautiful challenge. As for the institutions, Lara Magoni, Undersecretary with Sport and Youth delegation of the Lombardy Region and Roberto Di Stefano, Mayor of Sesto San Giovanni, wished with great passion a "good championship" to Geas, while Maurizio Devescovi, General Manager of Allianz S.p.A., and Carlo Vignati, President of the Sesto society, did the honors. Then the stage and the floor were passed to the protagonists, starting with the players.

Together with President Carlo Vignati, General Manager Francesco Vescovi, a former player of Varese Basketball and the National Team, was also present, who illustrated the value bases in common between Allianz and Geas: "Geas and Allianz represent a strong and meaningful pair, aimed at exalting the highest values that sport canò express. Work, sacrifice, teamwork, sharing, clear goals. Few words and many deeds, this è in our DNA and with Allianz at our side we feel even moreù strong and convinced to continue on this road".

Maurizio Devescovi, General Manager of Allianz S.p.A. commented: "We are pleased to host again this year in Torre Allianz the presentation of’Allianz Geas Basket. È a club that has a strongly identity DNA, with athletes linked to the values of the jersey, and that carries out with great commitment and method many activities in the youth sector, a great breeding ground for talent. I hope that this new sports season can also be a harbinger of important results for the team and for all fans".

Cinzia Zanotti, true Ferguson in skirts of the basketball world, è to her tenth consecutive season as coach of the first team, an unbeatable record. Her staff, confirmed in full, includes assistants Stefano Vanoncini and Martina Gargantini and physical trainer Diego Rucco. The 2023/24 rosterè under the banner of continuity: resumes her place on the team the strong Puerto Rican Jazmon Gwathmey, who returns from the’injury that caused her to miss all of last season. Confirmed as captain Giulia Arturi, in her 20th season on the first team (another unsurpassed record), a charismatic reference on and off the court. She is set to follow in her footsteps Ilaria Panzera, young sì (she is only 21 years old), but on her eighth consecutive championship with the club in which è she was born. Ilaria è national A team, like Valeria Trucco, another important renewal, like those of directors Caterina Dotto and Elena Bestagno, but also of AmericanTinara Moore, an indispensable pivot of the inside game, and Croatian Ana Begic, herself a welcome return after last season’s convincing season. Second year in the Rossoneri also for Alessandra Tava, who has è dropped to perfection in the spirit of Geas. The only real newcomer of the season, the Italian-born American Gina Conti, who comes from the prestigious Ucla, one of the cradles of U.S. college basketball, and has already begun a full immersion in the role and in the new reality, will appear as director. All were called upon by the host to make a personal commentary on the season: out came a flurry of entertaining, but also profound insights. Completing the line-up from time to time will be the very young Serena De Lise and Greta Ramon.

The presentation of the Allianz Geas roster of the A1 Series è was also an opportunity to present the new first team jersey signed Acerbis, technical sponsor of Geas from the 2018/2019 season.

The championship will begin on Oct. 1, 8:45 p.m., in Schio, where at the close of the usual Opening Day, the’Allianz Geas will challenge’the reigning champions of Famila Schio.

Here is the roster of the’Allianz Geas 2023/2024

• Giulia Arturi (Capitana)
• Caterina Dotto
• Gina Conti
• Jazmon Gwathmey
• Ilaria Panzera
• Valeria Trucco 
• Tinara Moore 
• Ana-Marija Begic 
• Elena Bestagno
• Alessandra Tava
• Serena De Lise
• Greta Ramon

Staff:

• Coach: Cinzia Zanotti
• First assistant: Stefano Vanoncini
• Second Assistant: Martina Gargantini
• Team Manager: Sandra Palombarini
• Physical trainer: Diego Rucco
• Physiotherapists: Federico Lietti, Simona Modena
• Social physician: Enrico Rosagrata
• General manager: Francesco Vescovi
• Sports director: Edvige Cavallini

The Geas Basket of Sesto San Giovanni è one of the most important Italian women’s basketball teams, with a long and glorious history that began in 1955. In 1966 came the first promotion to Serie A and, to follow, the conquest of a palmarès that has made the history of women’s basketball: 2 Italian Cups (one of A1 and one of A2), 8 scudetti between 1970 and 1978 and the first Champions Cup by an Italian team, won on March 30, 1978 against Sparta Praga. 

2018 marked the 40th anniversary of the historic victory won by Mabel Bocchi, Rosi Bozzolo, playmaker and mother of Giulia Arturi, and the other champions (full lineup of Geas European Champions 1978: Mabel Bocchi, Rosi Bozzolo, Wanda Sandon, Lella Battistella, Cristina Tonelli, Dora Ciaccia, Marina Re, Giusy Fogliani, Daniela Cesati, Maria Baldini) who met again after many years to recall a historic moment in their careers.

The Geas Basket, in addition to the first team, boasts a youth sector of great tradition, having won over the years as many as 18 scudettidi categoria (Italian record), and having established itself as “best supplier” of the blue teams. There are numerous athletes who grew up at Geas included in the rosters of A1 and A2 series teams. Currently there are about 80 girls participating in the youth leagues and 50 girls enrolled in the minibasket: numbers are always growing. An’excellence represented today by three young Geas athletes: Giulia Minora, Emma Volpato, Olivia Ostoni and Martina Gargantini, coach, who were honored today for their recent bronze medal victory at the under16 European Championships in Izmir, Turkey.

The Polisportiva Geas has about 7,000 members and aggregates athletes in as many as eleven disciplines: in addition to basketball, volleyball, unihockey, athletics, martial arts, artistic and rhythmic gymnastics, rugby, fitness and leisure, ice skating, lake sailing and sea sailing, with a marked prevalence of women.