Jakub Janda did an interview with the manager of the Italian National Team Cadets, Dimes Gamberini.
Jakub Janda: Please, tell us how you have been preparing for the 2010 ECH.
Dimes Gamberini: We will have open try outs organized by the local offices of the Federation in Sicily and Sardinia. I am working on 3 different lists of players based on the three selections we made in the past years for the ‘Green and Blue’ project in Northern, Central and Southern Italy. We will see over 100 players in the next couple of weeks and we will have a 40 men roster by June 18th.
JJ: What are your country’s goals for the ECH? What would you consider a success?
DG: Since we are the defending Champions, we hope we can claim another gold medal. But actually I am used to playing one game at a time.
JJ: Do you scout your opponents? What do you expect of them?
DG: As for scouting, we expect to do something when we are in the tournament. At this age, it is not easy to have information on players, also because kids may make a lot of changes in a matter of months.
JJ: How does your roster look like?
DG: Since we are working on kids born in 1995 and 1996, we won’t have IBL players. Our best players may be Gradali and Anselmi, who were on the team that won the 2009 European Championship.
JJ: Do you know anything about Czech national team? Do you have any experience with them?
DG: The Czech National team will definitely be a contender, together with The Netherlands and Russia I believe they may be the strongest opponent for us.
JJ: Thank you.
Mister-Baseball thanks Dimes Gamberini and Jakub Janda for the Q&A.