Jay McAree
Equinox Staff
Nicco DeMasco is back on the KSC campus, but something about him is different this year. For the first time in his life, DeMasco is not playing basketball.
A three-year player for the KSC Owls Men’s Basketball team, DeMasco is trading his sneakers and the hardwood for a pair of cleats and the outdoors as he tries his luck at rugby this year.
DeMasco is a 22-year-old senior from Richmond, N.H. He was a four-year starter for Monadnock Regional High School and helped that team win a state championship his junior year.
On winning that title DeMasco said, , “We won it for the first time in the school’s history, that was unreal, I’ll never forget that.”
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He said he played basketball all through grade school, high school, and three years here at KSC before calling it quits after last season.
“A lot of it had to do with time commitment. I wasn’t really having fun with it anymore and I had a lot of stuff going on in my life.” DeMasco added, “If I worked on my basketball too much, my school work would suffer; if I worked on my school too much, my basketball would suffer. I couldn’t find that medium.”
Men’s Basketball Coach Rob Colbert said what happened with DeMasco is not as common as some might think.
“We lose players a lot of times for different reasons. We lose players who may have lost the love of the game, lose players for academic reasons, but you are talking about a guy who played a lot of minutes for us last year versus a kid who didn’t. A kid who played that many minutes, to lose him after his junior season is very rare.”
DeMasco said towards the end of last season he began to know he was done with basketball. The looming conversation he had to have with Colbert was not something he looked forward too.
He said, “We used to do workouts together. It was one of the hardest conversations i’ve had in my life. He had no idea, I just kind of kept it to myself so to have to tell him face to face was really hard.” DeMasco continued, “This whole things been one of the hardest decisions I’ve ever had to make because basketball has literally been my life. I know that Coach Colbert has my best interest and he wants me to be happy.”
Another conversation needed to be had was with his teammates. Colbert’s expressed his take on how the team reacted to DeMasco’s decision, “I think guys feel very disappointed. I think some guys feel probably a little bit stronger that heres a guy who they trusted that made a decision to kind of head in a different direction at a critical time, a time where he is going to be a Senior and we are starting to rely on him and use him, he was an important part.”
Eric Fazio is a former teammate of DeMasco and is a member of this year’s core senior group for the basketball team. About DeMasco’s choice, he said, “We respect it, obviously, but we were a little upset by it. He is a good player and we would love to have him.”
DeMasco said the team was better off without him. “The guys that are there now are the guys who really want to play. It is not fair for me to be on the team if I am not going to give 100 percent to them.”
With the basketball chapter of his life coming to an end, DeMasco sought out a new opportunity to do something different, choosing to join the men’s rugby club team.
Rugby here at KSC is considered a club sport and not an official team, but don’t let that fool you.
Rugby Club President Teddy Bell said, “The biggest thing is that nowhere in the United States is it NCAA affiliated, but we are just as legitimate as a club as any Division III rugby program around the country is.”
DeMasco said about his new sport, “I always wanted to play football in high school and never did because of basketball. It’s pretty close to football and I became good friends with a lot of the rugby players last year. I went to all the games and it seemed like such a fun sport to play.”
He continued, “Because it was so different, I wanted to test myself and see if I could do it and I love it so far, it is a blast.”
There really isn’t too much similarity between the sports but he said that some of the foot speed and boxing out required in basketball are transferring over and helping him out on the rugby field.
Men’s Rugby Coach John Johannesen said it is likely DeMasco will eventually contribute. “He will probably play second row or eight man depending on what his conditioning is, but he is going to start off on B-side just like the rest of them.”
DeMasco knows not to expect to start or be thrown into the fire right away.
“It is cool because I kind of have to prove myself again. They are not going to just let me on the field because I played basketball or I am an athlete. I have to prove that I can pick up the sport. Just because it is not a collegiate sport and it’s a club, doesn’t mean they don’t take it seriously, they live for this.”
Now that it is all said and done, does DeMasco have any regrets about the whole situation?
“No regrets, it’s not like I just made an overnight decision on this. Even watching all my former teammates going through their workouts that I have done the last three years, I thought I would want to be back into it and get ready, but I just don’t have that drive anymore. I am very happy with the decision.”
The men’s basketball team opens up their season Nov. 15 at Husson. You can look for DeMasco on the rugby field when the men’s rugby team travels to Eastern Connecticut State University on Oct. 27 for their season finale.
Jay McAree can be contacted
at jmcaree@keene-equinox.com