BENGALURU: The sensational Brazilian men’s volleyball team Itambé Minas slammed and sent balls soaring up high in the new court at the Padukone-Dravid Centre for Sports Excellence, Yelahanka. The new game space, a collaboration between The Bengaluru Torpedoes and Centre for Sports Excellence opened its doors recently ahead of the much-anticipated Men’s Club World Championship that will be played at Koramangala Indoor Stadium till December 10.
It will be India’s first time hosting the prestigious tournament where Brazil’s Itambé Minas and Sada Cruzeiro Vôlei, Italy’s Sir Sicoma Perugia, Turkey’s Halkbank Spor Kulübü, Japan’s Suntory Sunbirds and India’s Ahmedabad Defenders will compete. The preliminaries took place on December 6 with a game-defining battle between Itambé Minas and Ahmedabad Defenders.
As the team of 14 arrived at the court in their royal blue jerseys and began with their warm-up practice session in the newly-unveiled Torpedoes home ground, Austin Wilmot, 25, Middle Blocker told CE, “These are the kind of drills we do to start off our practice generally. It’s a good warm-up, it’s good to control your platform to get some good touch with your hands, and get accustomed to the gym, the lights, and everything.” The team practiced drills that enhanced their arm strength for receiving the opponent’s balls.
When the question arose of who the American Middle Blocker is excited to play against, he says, “If I had to pick one, I’d say Halkbank. My friend and fellow American Micah Ma’a (Setter), is playing on that team as well as Nimir Abdel-Aziz (Opposite), Earvin Ngapeth (Outside hitter.) There’s some crazy talent on that team, last year they went undefeated in the season so it’s going to be fun to play them hopefully.”The new head coach for the season, Guilherme Novaes Pinto Ferreira was particularly thrilled about the reigning volleyball champions, Italy’s Sir Sicoma Perugia. “Our pool has Ahmedabad Defenders, and Perugia, the best team in the world, so two difficult matches. I hope it will be a good championship and I hope we’ll pass to the next stage, to the semi-finals.”
Currently known as one of the best teams in the world, Itambé Minas holds titles such as silver in the Brazilian Superleague, 2022-23, and silver in the South American Club Championship, 2022-23. Wilmot who plays for the US national team as well, was all praises for his Brazilian club, including players such as Gustavo Orlando, 21 (Setter), Filipe Baioco, 20 (Libero), Samuel Neufeld,19 (Opposite), and more.
Remarking on their journey so far, he says, “I’m proud that in every tournament we got a silver medal, which obviously you want a gold medal but it’s cool that I have six silver medals from the last year. Hopefully, one of these days we’ll bring in a gold but it’s still pretty cool to know that you’re one of the best among the continent or in your country and you get to represent your country on a global scale like we’re doing here.”