Italy open

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Italy’s international teams have long been centered in the north around Bologna, Rimini and Milan. But as the main Italian players have aged, the national team has thought to look towards the future by sending a youth movement to Turku.

“This national team has been designed to let some young players live the experience of a European and World championship. Most of the players are under 25 and the oldest are 31,” says team representative Max Vitali of the world-famous Flying Bisch’.

“We had selections 2 years ago, and this year we completed the team with guys that didn't have the chance to go to Fontenay le Comte. This team is trying to give its players the experience needed to become better players and give them the chance to try to extinguish the gap between Italy and the strongest European teams.”

The Italians did not fare so well at European Championships and do not have a long tradition of competitive Ultimate except for their well-known success playing on the beach. There are not many clubs in Ultimate and the college scene seems only to be strong in Bologna. Nonetheless what they lack they make up for in hard play and typical Italian verve.

Club team(s) for which players normally compete

CUSB Bologna (6) Cotarica Rimini (5) Salutamintonio Milano (4) Flying Bisch' Prato (2)

Cani e Porci Imola (1) Zacapa Modena (1) Bradipi Cesena (1) Barbastreji Padova (1) Spaccamadoni Fano (1) Mucche Bergamo (1)

Past Worlds Experience

Only 3 or 4 out of 23 guys played the last Worlds.We finished 10th at Euro's.

Italy on Defense

“We're technically not as good as the best countries, so we try to cover the gap by running a lot and being very dynamic.” We like man on man challenges.

Players to Look Out For on Defense

Davide Morri #12 phisically is probably the strongest Italian Player, defending on hucks is his speciality.

Andrea dalFiume#5 he is very phisical too, laying out is what he can do very good.

Team’s Best Throwers

Samuele Unnei, #88: He's the captain and the man which gives timing to the team.

Valerio “Secco” Iani, #49: Best thrower in the wind because of his more than 3 years of ultimate experience in Tenerife (The Canary Islands).. 

Team’s Best Receivers

Davide Morri #12: after a "D" you can see him running deep quite often, and he usually grabs everything...

Simba #83: He jumps like hell, and phisically is amazing, he can really read the disc perfectly.

Speak Ultimate in Italian

The forehand is named "3 dita" that means "3 fingers" because of the technique to throw the disc.

The verb used for "Hucking" is the translation of "shooting" that's "SPARARE"...

There is a nice story about the backhand in Italy because it is actually named in two different ways: "rovescio" and "dritto" (that's the translation of both forehand and backhand!!!) because of an incorrect translation from an American ultimate book. But since this wrong translation was made, nowadays approximately 50% of Italian players call the backhand "dritto" (that's forehand), so it is not uncommon in hat tournaments to hear people forcing "dritto" in two different ways... we hope we will not have this problem.

Roster size
23

Team Colors
Blue & White

Captains
Offense: Samuele Unnei
Defense: Valerio Iani