From May 28 to 30, 2026, in Ancona and Osimo, the team led by head coach Fabio Costabile and assistant coach Bruno Zuppetta will represent Puglia at the Jr. NBA WNBA FIP U13 Championship Final Event
FBF Fortitudo Basket Francavilla has reached the U13 National Finals, bringing Francavilla Fontana, the Province of Brindisi and the entire Puglia basketball movement among the best youth teams in Italy.
The U13 team, led on the bench by head coach Fabio Costabile and assistant coach Bruno Zuppetta, overcame the final obstacle of an intense and demanding journey by defeating the Sicilian side Giarre in the decisive playoff game, with a final score of 71-55.
It was a strong, clear and well-deserved victory, built with maturity, energy and focus. Most importantly, it earned FBF a place at the National Final Event of the Jr. NBA WNBA FIP U13 Championship, scheduled from May 28 to 30, 2026, in Ancona and Osimo.
This is not an ordinary achievement. It is not simply another qualification. It means entering the final stage of the Italian U13 youth basketball season, among the top eight male U13 teams in the country, after a competition that started with more than 1,500 clubs across Italy.
Those numbers explain the true value of this result. To start from such a wide national field and reach the final eight means that something serious, deep and recognizable has been built.
For FBF, a club that has invested heavily in youth development, technical organization, player growth and the creation of an increasingly structured sporting environment, this qualification is a powerful confirmation. The U13 result did not happen by chance and it was not born from a single game. It is the consequence of daily work, often silent and invisible, made of planning, training, attention to detail, group management, staff development and methodological continuity.
A Path Built Game After Game
The road to the National Finals was long and highly selective.
FBF first came through the regional phase, earning the right to represent Puglia in the interregional path. From that moment on, every game carried a different weight. It was no longer just a championship match, but a step inside a national journey where every mistake could be decisive and every win could bring the team closer to a huge goal.
In the interregional phase, the Francavilla team faced Matera, the champion team of Basilicata. This was not just any opponent. Matera had won its regional title and had already beaten the top team from Abruzzo. It was a team used to winning, full of energy, physicality and confidence.
FBF responded with authority.
In the first game, the team imposed its rhythm and won clearly, 87-45, sending a strong message about the quality and strength of the group. In the second game, played away in Matera, the boys completed the job with another important win, 74-57, closing the series 2-0 and securing access to the next playoff stage.
Winning an interregional series with two victories is never a small thing, especially at this age. It means having technical quality, but also emotional strength. It means being able to play well at home and away, to handle pressure, to confirm the first result and not to settle for what had already been achieved.
The Decisive Playoff Against Giarre
The final step before the National Finals was the playoff game against Giarre, the Sicilian regional champion and a team that had recently beaten the champion team from Campania.
Again, the level of the opponent was high. Giarre arrived at this stage after an important path, with the strength and mentality of a team that had already overcome major challenges.
For FBF, this was a do-or-die game: one match, one opportunity, one chance to reach the national stage.
The Francavilla group was ready.
The 71-55 final score tells the story of a clear win, but behind the numbers there is much more. There is the ability of a very young team to stay faithful to its work, to trust the coaching staff, to support each other in difficult moments and to turn months of training into a real performance on the most important day.
Games like this reveal the true substance of a project. Talent alone is not enough. Preparation, discipline, identity, work ethic and team spirit are needed. FBF showed all of this.
The Value of the Final Event: Not a Showcase, but the National Peak of the Category
The U13 National Finals of the Jr. NBA WNBA FIP Championship are one of the most important events in Italian youth basketball.
The 2026 Final Event will be held in the Marche region, between Ancona and Osimo, and will bring together the best eight male teams and the best eight female teams of the Italian U13 Championship.
The event has both sporting and symbolic value. The Jr. NBA WNBA FIP format brings the identity and imagery of NBA and WNBA basketball into the Italian youth system, but its core remains deeply connected to the federation: clubs, territories, youth academies, coaches and young athletes competing in a national technical pathway.
Reaching this event means having gone through regional phases, interregional rounds and playoff games. It means surviving a highly competitive path that starts with a huge number of teams and ends with a very small elite selection.
Being one of the eight male teams at the Final Event means, without exaggeration, being one of the best U13 teams in Italy this season.
For FBF, this is an extraordinary sporting opportunity, but also a moment of visibility and responsibility. The team will not only represent itself. It will represent Francavilla Fontana, Puglia basketball and a way of working that, over the years, has allowed the club to become one of the most recognizable youth basketball organizations in Southern Italy.
A Qualification That Speaks About the Team, but Above All About the Club
The players deserve enormous credit. They are the ones who step on the court, run, defend, make mistakes, react, score, suffer and win.
Head coach Fabio Costabile also deserves great recognition. He guided the group with competence, balance and continuity. In a category like U13, coaching does not simply mean preparing a game. It means building habits, developing fundamentals, educating players to responsibility, teaching them how to be part of a group, how to accept roles, corrections, difficulties and pressure.
Costabile’s work can be seen in the team’s growth, in the group’s ability to face increasingly important games and in the solidity shown in the decisive moments of the season.
Alongside him, assistant coach Bruno Zuppetta played an important role as an integral part of the daily work of the group. In such a long season, the staff’s role does not end on the bench during games. It includes training management, attention to the players, support in difficult moments, connection with the club environment and the ability to keep the group focused on its goals.
But this qualification also tells the story of FBF as a club.
Over the last few years, Fortitudo Basket Francavilla has built a clear path: investing in the youth sector, giving continuity to coaching staffs, creating a competitive but educational environment, raising the level of its teams and helping its players compete in increasingly qualified contexts.
A U13 National Final is not reached through improvisation. Behind it there is planning, internal scouting, minibasket development, a correct transition from younger age groups into the youth sector, management of different generations, facilities, travel organization, club presence, communication with families and a clear vision of what the club wants to become.
FBF was not created to collect titles. It was created to build a clear pathway for young athletes. Results like this prove that when the pathway is serious, results can also arrive in the youngest categories.
The Third National Final in Eight Years: A Meaningful Figure
The U13 qualification represents the third National Final reached by FBF in eight years of activity, after the achievements obtained with the U19 Eccellenza and U17 Eccellenza groups.
This figure matters.
In only eight years, a club from Southern Italy, not based in a major metropolitan area and not belonging to a top professional system, has managed to bring different youth groups to the national level. This means that FBF has not built a single isolated success, but a competitive identity.
The U13 qualification has a special meaning. Reaching the National Finals with such a young group means that the foundation of the project is working. It means that the club’s work is not limited to older categories, where recruitment and physical maturity can sometimes have a stronger influence. It starts earlier: with technical education, sporting culture, training habits, the ability to compete and the desire to grow.
This is probably the most important aspect. FBF is bringing its method into the most delicate ages, the years when habits, enthusiasm, belonging and fundamentals are truly formed.
Coach Olive’s Words and the Wider End-of-Season Picture
The U13 qualification comes during a very intense final part of the season for the whole club.
Coach Olive expressed satisfaction for the path followed by the boys, highlighting their constant growth and the value of reaching FBF’s third National Final.
His words also carried the regret of the U17 Eccellenza team, which fell just four points short of the decisive game that would have opened the door to the National Finals in Agropoli. This detail says a lot about the overall level of the season: FBF is not competitive in just one category, but is present with ambition across several groups.
The final part of the season will see other FBF teams involved in major events: the Final Eight for U17 Gold, U14 Gold and U14 Regional Gold Phase, as well as the U19 Gold final against Bernalda, which, in case of victory, could open the door to another national phase among Italy’s top eight teams.
This context makes the U13 achievement even more meaningful. It is not an isolated result, but part of a season in which the club is showing depth, structure and competitiveness across different age groups.
The Group: Young Players, Already Living a Major Experience
For the U13 players, this qualification is something they will remember.
At thirteen years old, playing a National Final means entering a different dimension. It means travelling, representing a club, facing teams of the highest level, managing new emotions and understanding what it means to compete when every possession has greater weight.
Captain Michele Darimateo symbolically represents this group: a team that has worked, grown, learned to stay together and is now preparing to live one of the most important experiences of its young sporting journey.
The National Finals should not be seen only as a destination, but as a step in a much bigger growth process. The achievement is already huge, but the greatest value will be the experience itself: facing the best teams in Italy, understanding the level, measuring themselves, and returning home more aware, more mature and even more hungry to work.
The Invisible Work Behind the Result
When a youth team reaches a National Final, people often look only at the results: wins, scores, standings and qualifications. But behind those numbers there is a much wider body of work.
There are the training sessions throughout the year, the care of fundamentals, the construction of the game, the management of physical and emotional loads, the dialogue with families, the organization of away trips, the availability of facilities, the work of the managers, the daily presence of the staff and the support of the entire club.
There are also difficult moments: complicated games, players to motivate, mistakes to correct, balances to manage, and weeks in which school, training, family, tiredness and ambition all need to be held together.
The U13 qualification is the final picture of all this. It is the visible result of a structure that works behind the scenes and tries, season after season, to raise the level.
For this reason, the credit must be shared: with the players, the coaching staff, the managers, the families and the whole FBF community.
Francavilla and Puglia on the National Stage
From May 28 to 30, 2026, in Ancona and Osimo, FBF will bring the name of Francavilla Fontana to one of the highest stages of Italian youth basketball.
For the local community, this is a source of real pride. A youth sports club does not represent only itself. It represents a city, a way of educating through sport, a community of families, coaches, managers and young athletes.
In an increasingly competitive national basketball movement, bringing a U13 team among Italy’s top eight means proving that even from the South, even from a territorial club, it is possible to build a credible and ambitious project.
This is the strongest message of the qualification: FBF belongs at this level. Not by chance, not by luck, but because over the years it has built the conditions to get there.
Now Comes the Best Part
The National Finals will be a real challenge. FBF will face strong, organized teams, used to competing at a high level. It will not be easy, and nobody should pretend otherwise.
But the team arrives at this event with full merit. It won when it had to win. It overcame regional champions. It closed an interregional series against Matera. It defeated Giarre in the decisive playoff game. It showed quality, character and growth.
Now the team will need enthusiasm, courage, humility and the same hunger that brought it this far.
The FBF U13 team is among the best eight teams in Italy.
It is a huge achievement for the boys. It is a great satisfaction for head coach Fabio Costabile and assistant coach Bruno Zuppetta. It is a powerful confirmation for the whole club.
From May 28 to 30, in Ancona and Osimo, Fortitudo Basket Francavilla will represent Puglia at the U13 National Finals.
And it will do so with pride, identity and the awareness of having already written an important page in its history.
Now it is time for focus, heart and work: the National Finals are waiting for FBF.
