Bertram Derthona officially signs Walter De Raffaele as new head coach

Bertram Derthona announces that it has reached an agreement with Walter De Raffaele who, as of today, is the new coach of the first team.

HIS CAREER – Born in Livorno on 31 October 1968, after a career as a player that saw him wear the shirts of Enichem Livorno, Marsala (with whom he won the B2 and B1), Desio, Olimpia Pistoia and Petrarca between the 1980s and 1990s, De Raffaele began his coaching career as a deputy at Montecatini.

From 2000 to 2005 he was part of the Basket Livorno staff, first as an assistant and then, from January 2004 as head coach replacing Luca Banchi. He remained at the helm of the Tuscan team until the end of the 2004/05 season.

After a brief experience in Reggio Calabria, from 2006 to 2008, De Raffaele coaches Assigeco Casalpusterlengo, militant in the Serie B Eccellenza championship, winning the Italian Cup in their category in 2007.

In the 2008/09 season, Bertram Derthona’s new coach replaces Stefano Salieri at the helm of Pavia, a team playing in Serie A2. With the Lombardi, in his first season, he qualified for the playoffs, where he was eliminated 3-1 by Soresina, later promoted to Serie A. He stayed in Pavia the following season as well, achieving salvation.

In the summer of 2010 he began his adventure at the helm of the glorious Scaligera Verona, ending his experience in October of the same year. In 2011, he joined the coaching staff of Umana Reyer Venezia, a team he spent most of his coaching career with.

From 2011 to 2016 he serves as an assistant coach: in the first three years he’s alongside Andrea Mazzon and Zare Markovski (in the final months of 2013/14), then he’s confirmed on Carlo Recalcati’s staff. 2014/15 is a great year for Reyer, which ends the Serie A regular season in second place and qualifies for the Scudetto semifinals, losing only in the seventh and decisive game against Reggio Emilia, then a finalist.

The following year, De Raffaele replaced Carlo Recalcati in February and began his great cycle as head coach of Umana Reyer Venezia. From that moment on, the new Bertram coach remains in charge until February 2023.

In his seven calendar years as head coach, De Raffaele sits on the bench of the Venetian team on more than 400 occasions, leading the team to reach top-level goals. Two Scudetti (2016/17 and 2018/19), one FIBA Europe Cup (2017/18) won at the end of the final won against Avellino and one Coppa Italia (2020). During his years in Laguna he also reached the Supercoppa final on two occasions (in 2017 against Milan and in 2019 against Sassari). Now he arrives at Bertram Derthona to start a new chapter in his career.