The BBasketteers team Amelia Tuzzolino, Marianna Angelina Delfaus, Giuseppe Sylvester, and Massimo Edwards, the four NYC based Italian-American players, just returned from Sicily with a wealth of emotions and memories. From October 3rd to 6th, they participated in the Trofeo Coni Estate/Coni Trophy Summer edition, the youth Olympic styled games organized by CONI, the Italian National Olympic Committee.

The Trofeo includes participation of players from the twenty Italian Regions, and it featured delegations from Italian Communities Abroad (CIE) from Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Venezuela and the USA.

They returned from Sicily after spending a week among thousands of Italian kids and touring the towns where some of their ancestors came from, this the part of the program organised by MAECI, the Italian Ministry of foreign Affairs and International cooperation. The USA Delegation included their coach, Philip Sylvester, chaperone Ursula Annio and the Head of Delegation and representative of CONI in USA, Cav. Uff. Mico Delianova Licastro. 

The basketball tournament followed a 4 vs. 4 full-court format, with two boys and two girls per team. After a full team game each regional team was paired with players from another region. The two male players from each region competed in the second and fourth quarters, while the four girls took the court in the first and third quarters. The CONI USA players teamed up with peers from Trentino, Piemonte, and Basilicata. Due to the overall rules of the Trofeo Coni, teams earned points for winning each quarter rather than the entire game, and athletes and teams from every sport contributed to the final score of the competition.  The winner of the Trofeo Coni Estate in Sicily was the region of Emilia Romagna, followed by Sicily and Friuli Venezia Giulia.

“After the games, they would eat and then hang out together at the courts until after dark. There were no barriers between the athletes when the tournament ended,” summarised Philip Sylvester, coach of the team and father of Giuseppe. “I was pleased with the high level of play and sportsmanship shown by athletes and coaches. We were all sad it ended so quickly.”

The twenty basketball teams were hosted in a tourist village in Terrasini, near Palermo, where the competitions also took place. The concentration of all the teams in one location was the highlight of their experience. Amelia recalls: “When we arrived in Sicily, I couldn’t believe my eyes. The hotel was beautiful, the weather was warm, and there were kids my age from all over the world, everywhere. We were interviewed by a TV crew, I felt like a celebrity!” 

”The level of competition was higher than we expected” Massimo remembers. “The players knew how to pass and run the court, opening my eyes to how people play basketball in Italy.”

A significant experience for the players was refereeing other games, which helped them realise the challenge of interpreting and enforcing the game rules. As Marianna points out, “We got to participate not only in playing in the tournament but also in refereeing and scorekeeping. I enjoyed that. We won a gold medal, and I felt so extremely proud, especially because it says ‘Sicilia’ on it, since both my mom and dad have roots in Sicily.”

After the basket tournament MAECI and CONI organised a ”discover your roots” program for the foreign players, giving them an opportunity to visit the towns where their ancestors had emigrated from. The BBasketteers visited Palermo, Valguarnera (Enna), where they were greeted by local authorities and students from local public schools, Villafranca (Messina) and Catania.

In their journals, the BBasketteers wrote also about the thrill of dining together, exploring the winding streets of centuries-old towns, eating ”real italian pizza”, going to the beach, exchanging words in Italian with their Italian peers, and the fascinating landscape, including the smoking Etna volcano.

“Coni and MAECI with this program wish to encourage participation in sports, to explore family roots and to return to Italy and immerse themselves in exploring their origins more deeply,” explains the representative of CONI in USA, Cav. Uff. Mico Delianova Licastro.

The cost of the air travel for the team was covered thanks to the generous support of Mrs. Veronica Miele Beard of Manhattan, the Federation of Italian American Organisations of Brooklyn, the Italian Heritage and Culture Committee of NY, of Mr. Settimo Guttilla of New Jersey, od the Italian American Families and Sports Together, and warm encouragement from the Consul General of Italy in New York Fabrizio Di Michele, with the CONI, MAECI the Region of Sicily and other pubic and private supporters covering costs for the sports event in Sicily and the explorations of the players’ families roots.