Pistoia, Dante Calabria sets goal

Dante Calabria è ready to lead Pistoia from the bench

Estra Pistoia presented, on Friday, the new coach Dante Calabria, who with the white and reds faces his first experience as head coach in Serie A after a long career first on the field, also wearing the national team jersey as a naturalized, and then on the bench, as a deputy, in Italy (where he had toè è è was also for a short time head coach at CUS Jonico Taranto) and in the United States, at the college level.

"Having gone through coaching experiences both in Europe and in the United States, I am trying to mix together these ways of working and going to insert new inputs into the game,” said the new coach of the Tuscans.”

At the level of team characteristics, our only goal è is to win games: there’è è a lot of balance between the outside and the longs, and so we will go to make the most of the characteristics of each element".

The season's goal is to confirm the competitiveness shown last year, with Estra able to reach the playoffs as a newly promoted team: "As far as the championship is concerned, there’s a lot of balance,” Calabria explained, “there are a couple of teams that are stronger than the others, and then the rest of the group starts more or less on the same level. I don’t want to think about the three-year contract but the fact that we are here to win and everything we will do è to find the right chemistry in offense and defense to bring as many wins as possible to the club".

The president of the red and white club, Ron Rowan, believes strongly in the qualities of the new coach: "I have known Coach Calabria for a few years now,” he said, “and we live in the same town in America. I have followed his path both as a player, with the’experience in Italy, and in his time as a coach: according to the ownership’he was the perfect coach to bring in at this time".