Italian-born Capriotti building a system for women’s Volleyball in Latvia
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Italian-born head coach Daniele Mario Capriotti, who is currently at the helm of Latvia’s senior, U22 and U17 national teams, recently met with each region’s top players from four different cities of Latvia as he is assembling the U15 national team by assessing players, sharing his advice, and meeting with local coaches.
Capriotti, who became head coach of the Latvian senior national team through the FIVB National Team Development Programme in May 2022, will be in Latvia until at least the end of 2024 when the project ends. Meanwhile, he has been leading and overseeing the Latvian U17 and U22 teams as well, or as he says, he has become the Technical Director. Over the past few weeks, he also observed many of the youngest players from across the Baltic country.
Daniele Mario Capriotti“The youth programme has two goals. The first is monitoring, which means seeing as many players as you can. This season, the focus is on girls born between 2007 and 2010. The main objective is to understand the situation in Latvia’s regions. It also involves assessing fitness and trying to understand how these girls work. We cannot say who can and cannot become a star player, but we can definitely predict something,”
“It is essential to cover the widest possible audience - players, coaches, and schools - everyone involved in the volleyball system. Therefore, it cannot really be called a selection for the U15 team only, but a monitoring programme and regional event, whereby we have met players and coaches in Kuldiga, Liepāja, Rīga, Gulbene, and Daugavpils,” explains the coach. “It’s also important to understand the views of the local coaches and their training programmes. We have some ideas on how to improve that process, which may even include changing the rules of competitions for the younger players a little bit.”
“In Latvia, where there are about 1.9 million inhabitants, the overall work in Volleyball is excellent. Women here are among the tallest in Europe, and Latvians are a working nation. However, it has a population of less than two million inhabitants, therefore not even one player should be lost. According to the Latvian Volleyball Federation, such a programme should be permanent. From the youngest to the senior team, all selections should be related, which means they shall follow the same type of game and programme,” says Capriotti, adding that there is also a desire to create a database of young players so that the next coach does not have to start again from scratch in 2025.
One of the coaches at the event in Kuldīga was Rudīte Kronlaka, the coach of the Kuldīga County Sports School, who works daily in Skrunda with children. “I went from Skrunda to Kuldīga with four girls. With Anija Jurdža, a senior national team player from Skrunda, we had driven to support the Latvian national team, and this time the girls wanted to test themselves,” says Kronlaka. “I loved it so much. First, there was a friendly atmosphere, and the coach himself is a gift - open and communicable. He loves working with kids who open up and stick together in one collective until the end of the class, oblivious to where the player comes from. In addition, he had prepared bracelets of different colours for the girls for each group of players.”
“Physical performance control norms were slightly different than usual, and Capriotti also worked with girls individually. He then briefly passed on his experience to coaches, telling them about how he coaches. It was interesting, and after about three hours, he wanted more. There is the idea that Capriotti could visit us again and share knowledge about school sports workouts as well,” the coach says of the interesting experience.
Sabīne Farnaste“We wanted to prove and try ourselves, compare ourselves to other players, and learn something new. “I loved it. There was a different atmosphere. The coach was very open and understanding, showing how to best execute different skills. We were also able to express our thoughts, which were heard. I came back from Kuldīga with the realisation that everything had to be done with even more passion for Volleyball.”
14-year-old player from Skrunda
For Latvia’s U15 team, the first official competition will be the EEVZA European Championship qualifier at the end of 2024.
