Wednesday, October 05, 2022

Volleyball and Pizza, More Alike Than Different

Keep it simple. Build your team like you make pizza. 

The Chef's Table: Pizza series profiles the best pizza makers in the world. "The best pizza in the world is in Phoenix Arizona." 

Chris Bianco moved from New York City to the desert as a teen, partly because of severe asthma. 

He's adamant about the ingredients. As a New Yorker, he said, "the Yankees are the best or Mom's meatballs are the best, but what makes it the best anyway?" What makes great, great

When he dropped out of high school, he knew two things, "I could be kind, and I could work as hard as any person I ever met.

Champions have championship ingredients. Pizza starts with great crust. Volleyball starts with excellent defense, integrating blocking and back row play, keeping balls alive. 

Great pizza has great cheese, often mozzarella. Bianco learned to make his own mozzarella. Passing and setting are the mozzarella of volleyball. 

Toppings seal the deal. My combination of spinach, halved baby plum tomatoes, and feta rock. Diverse and dominating offense are the pizza toppings. 

Great chefs blend Samin Nosrat's "Salt, Fat, Acid, and Heat." There's salt in the crust and spice, fat in the cheese and oil, and acid in the tomato.

And of course, you have the chef, the coach who assembles the great ingredients. Coach Celli has a proven track record. 

So where do you go from here? 

"What's your signature pizza?" Excellent teams forge signature wins. 

"What's your legacy pie?" Will minstrels praise the season of 2022?

Bottom line? What makes great, great? Better ingredients, better volleyball...

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