Saturday 9 November at 3:30 pm the Serie A wheelchair basketball league will be back on court at the Palavalenti in Florence

The next home game for the Volpi Rosse Menarini is just around the corner. Tomorrow, on Saturday 9 November, at 3:30 pm, Florence’s wheelchair basketball team will be back on court at the Palavalenti to take on the Crich Pdm Treviso side. This will be the second game, in the first half of the season, that the wheelchair basketball team, with Menarini as its title sponsor for thirteen years, will play in the city’s sports hall.

The backdrop: the 2024/2025 FIPC Serie A championship – organised by the Italian Wheelchair Federation – in which ten Italian squads compete for the top spot. Since mid-October to today, the Volpi Rosse Menarini team has racked up two victories. The last one, against Dinamo Lab Sassari, ended in a triumphant 63-71 win for the players coached by Antonino Savio Favano, over a tough opponent.

"In Sardinia, we demonstrated our ability to overcome any difficulty as a group – says the President of the Volpi Rosse Menarini team, Ivano Nuti – It is this team spirit that is fast becoming the hallmark of this year's Volpi Rosse Menarini side. An element that will give strength to the team and help us achieve our goals".

Founded in 2005, the Volpi Rosse Menarini was the first wheelchair basketball team in Tuscany. In 2011, they crossed paths with the Pharmaceutical Group which immediately embraced their values of sport and inclusion.

Not just matches around Italy. Over the last few months, the Volpi Rosse Menarini have also been the driving force behind the Movimento in allegria (Movement in Joy) initiative. A project designed to encourage the social inclusion of children with physical and mental disabilities. Led by sector-based professionals and the Volpi Rosse Menarini team, these children participate in sports together with high school students as part of the students’ school-work experience. From handball to archery and "bocce", including wheelchair basketball, of course.

Sport then as the cornerstone of inclusion in schools as well as on the playing field. And so, on to the next round of the championship, where the Florentine public is invited to pack the stands in anticipation of the starting whistle for another emotion-filled clash.