Christmas with your family and… the rest of the year on the other side of the ocean. In Phoenix, Arizona, United States. Filippo Sacripanti – not a namesake of coach Pino, but his nephew (son of his older brother, Sergio) – born in 2003, has in fact spent the holidays in his Cantù and tomorrow he will return to the States where from summer 2022 he will study and work at Grand Canyon University . But let’s let him tell us about the experience himself.
«The idea came in the third year of high school – he explains -, when I was playing with the PGC in C and with the Under 18s. It’s the year of Covid, everything stops, I stay home even from school and one day on TV I come across in a documentary on Riccardo Fois (assistant of Arizona University as well as of the Italian national team, ed.) which recounts his experience. My uncle (Pino, ed.) gives me his telephone number, I talk to him and I also want to try to do what he did. From there I started to focus 100% on school also because without good vouchers I wouldn’t have been able to go to college in the USA. The fifth grade arrives, I take my final exams, I do well, I pass the various exams which give me the physical opportunity to be able to undertake the adventure.”
«In the meantime, during the 2021-22 year – he recalls -, I had had the opportunity to be as an intern in the Cantù coaching staff (with Sodini, Frates, Oldoini and Sorci) which gave me a lot in terms of knowledge of the game and experience on an increasingly professional level. In the summer of 2022 I am going to America to attend university both academically and to help the basketball team. I choose Phoenix, specifically Grand Canyon University, because on the staff there is Casey Shaw who played in Cantù and was coached by my uncle”
And what does he do? «They range from menial tasks, such as cleaning the pitch, up to being able to carry out individual work with the players. A role that they define as “student manager”. In the American model everyone counts within a group and therefore what I do also has its relevance. There are ten of us who share the same type of commitment as me. The hierarchical scale? Above us four professional figures, then three assistant coaches and the head coach: 18 in total… The level of intensity is very high, similar to that of the Euroleague. Sport management is my course of study, i.e. Economics combined with some Sport courses which I have to reconcile with the hours in the gym: individual work with the players can in fact go from 7 in the morning to midnight, depending on their choices and therefore you have to always be available. Except from 1pm to 5pm, class times.”
2024-01-05 05:45:30
#Sacripanti #Pinos #nephew #America
