Carmelo Pittera

Carmelo Pittera was an Italian volleyball coach, general manager and technical director of the men’s national team for ten years (1978-88). His 197 games as coach is second only in Italian volleyball to Julio Velasco.

A charismatic figure, Pittera was an innovator who began his coaching career at Catania in 1972, and he led them to the Italian title in 1978. On 5 June that same year he made his début on the national team bench in a 3-0 loss to the GDR in Sofia. Later that year, he obtained his best result with the national team when finishing second to the Soviet Union at the Roma World Championships. That followed a sensational 3-1 victory in the semi-final over Cuba.

Pittera returned to club volleyball in 1993 with Padova, and the following year they won the CEV Cup. He took charge of the Egyptian national team in 1995, and after winning the African Games it earned them qualification for the Atlanta Olympics. In 1997 Pittera coached a women’s volleyball team, Medinex Reggio Calabria, and in 2002 he became head coach of the Qatar national team. Pittera took on the role of coach to the newly formed national veterans team in 2007.