Gaetano Gebbia has died, basketball in mourning

The death of Gaetano Gebbia

È Gaetano Gebbia, coach of the youth national basketball teams for more than a decade, and then trainer of trainers and instructor, died at age 66 after a long illness. Stricken and moved by the feral news, FIP President Giovanni Petrucci, interpreting the thoughts of FIP staff and on behalf of Italian basketball, expressed his closeness to his wife Mattia, daughters Ida and Francesca, brothers Giovanni and Francesco and the entire Gebbia family.

Gaetano è was a good player, with Virtus Ragusa, before he began coaching in 1979 in the youth sector of Stella Azzurra Roma. He always worked for the training of coaches and for the training of boys as athletes and as people. In 1983 he moved on to Viola Reggio Calabria working for ten years as assistant coach to Gianfranco Benvenuti, Santi Puglisi, Tonino Zorzi, Carlo Recalcati and serving for thirteen years as head of the youth sector. Then from 1996 to 2000 è he was head coach of the Viola. During that time important players such as Manuel Ginobili, Ugo Sconochini and Carlos Delfino, among others, were discovered and played with him before establishing themselves at the world level.

In 1995 he won the Cadet national title and è Assistant to the Junior National Team at the World Championships in Greece. In 1997 è assistant of the National Team at the European Championships in Spain (silver medal). In 2001 è assistant of the National Team at the Mediterranean Games in Tunisia (bronze medal). From 2001 to 2006 è Technical Manager of the National Youth Team Sector and coached the Under 20, Under 18 and Under 16 teams.

Creator of the National Qualification Project aimed at recruiting and training the best young people throughout the country. For years he has collaborated with the Youth Sector and CNA on programs for coaches’ training courses. È he has also been a lecturer in Theory, Technique and Didactics of Basketball in the undergraduate course in Sports Science at the University of Catanzaro and other collaborations with other sports training and methodology institutes. He has served as technical manager of several società including the’Orlandina Basket.