FIBA Basketball
Local wheelchair basketball star at top of his sport
Steve Serio converts fast-break layups, throws flashy behind-the-back passes and drains three-pointers. He led his youth team to a national championship and has played overseas on U.S. national teams. He received a
From: www.newsday.com
View source article here.
BY JOSEPH MANNIELLO
Steve Serio converts fast-break layups, throws flashy behind-the-back passes and drains three-pointers. He led his youth team to a national championship and has played overseas on U.S. national teams. He received a scholarship to play ball at the University of Illinois, where he is a starting freshman shooting guard.
He is a typical star basketball player in every respect, except one: Serio plays in a wheelchair.
Serio, a Carle Place resident, has been paraplegic since he was 11 months old and didn't start playing basketball until his sophomore year in high school. Now 18, he is a guard at one of only 10 programs nationwide that have wheelchair basketball teams. He says he never can repay the sport for what it's given him.
"I've gone to England and Australia and that's something I would have never done," Serio said. "I've met so many cool people. Disabled people can sometimes be down and reserved and this game has shown me not to be like that. It's given me so much confidence."
Serio was an infant when an infected tumor on his spine compressed his spinal cord. The tumor was removed, but Serio was paralyzed below the waist. He used a walker until he was about 7, then switched to hand braces and crutches. But he always sought outlets for his energy and athleticism and never was excluded from family games of touch football.
"He would run patterns, and as long as he hit the ball with the crutch we'd count it as a catch," said his father, Ed Serio.
As a youngster, the younger Serio played baseball and soccer against kids who were challenged either physically or mentally. When he got to Carle Place High School in September 2001, he kept stats for the junior varsity football team and was manager of the track team. But none of that satisfied his competitive drive.
During his sophomore year he wanted to try wheelchair racing, and went shopping with his father for a special racing chair. Mike Zengary, the salesman at Homecare Supplies in Bethpage, suggested a different sport.
"Why don't you try basketball?" Steve Serio remembers Zengary saying.
Zengary sold Serio a basketball chair and made him pick it up at a gym where the Long Island Lightning, the only competitive junior wheelchair basketball team in the state, was practicing.
"Once saw the wheelchair basketball, he was hook, line and sinker," his father said.
Three weeks later, Serio was in North Carolina, where he helped the Lightning to its first tournament win in its then six-year history.
"Steve played an important role in getting us that win," Lightning coach Mark Drummer said. "He was an outstanding athlete from the moment he walked into the gym."
His game developed quickly. The more he practiced, the easier it seemed. More importantly, he was having fun. "I used to play all the time," he said. "I used to be in the gym, like, three hours a day or I would just push outside."
Jim Colligan, athletic director and boys basketball coach at Carle Place, often passed the Serio house while jogging. "He'd always be in the driveway with a ball in his hand," said Colligan.
Knowing his limitations also helped Serio develop quickly.
"I don't have really big pride issues," he said. "If someone tells me that I'm doing something wrong then I'll fix it. I won't be like, 'Well, no, this is the way I'm going to do it.' "
His mother, Hilary, said basketball had an immediate impact on her son. "It was something where Steve really excelled, sort of set himself apart in a way that had never existed."
Serio started playing for a men's division team in his third year of high school, but his senior year was truly memorable.
In March 2005, he was named tournament MVP, scoring 74 points in four games while leading the Lightning to the junior national championship in San Jose. In April, he was one of 12 players nationwide to represent the United States in the Australian Junior National Games for the Disabled in Sydney. In August, he played for the U.S. under-23 team in the World Championships in England. And he's among several being considered for the U.S. team that will compete in the 2008 Paralympic Games in Beijing.
In the midst of all that, Serio agreed to play at Illinois, birthplace of wheelchair basketball and its most prestigious program. The men's and women's teams have combined to win 24 national championships.
"I loved how intuitive he was about the game," said Illinois coach Mike Frogley, who coached Canada's team to the gold medal at the 2004 Paralympics in Athens. "He really understood the flow of the game."
Serio, a National Honor Society member who graduated seventh in a class of 128, rejected advice from his parents and guidance counselors to apply to Ivy League schools. His reason was simple: Those schools don't offer wheelchair basketball.
"We had no clue that these opportunities existed," Ed Serio said.
Serio's arrival to Illinois was delayed until early January because of an injury he suffered while playing in England over the summer. Like most parents, Ed and Hilary worry about their child living on his own in a dorm. But not too much. "We call him so able-bodied in his disabilities that he could conquer any obstacle he faced," Ed Serio said.
Making friends shouldn't be a problem either. "He was easy to like," Carle Place principal Neil Connolly said. "He wanted to be treated like everyone else."
Serio plans to go into athletic training as a career ... eventually. First, he'd like to play professionally for a club team in Europe. "That would be cool to do," Serio said.
Colligan has nominated Serio to the Carle Place Athletic Hall of Fame. During the school's 50-year history, there never has been an inductee who did not compete for one of Carle Place's teams.
"I honestly think he belongs," Colligan said. "I think he'll get in."
View source article here.
BY JOSEPH MANNIELLO
Steve Serio converts fast-break layups, throws flashy behind-the-back passes and drains three-pointers. He led his youth team to a national championship and has played overseas on U.S. national teams. He received a scholarship to play ball at the University of Illinois, where he is a starting freshman shooting guard.
He is a typical star basketball player in every respect, except one: Serio plays in a wheelchair.
Serio, a Carle Place resident, has been paraplegic since he was 11 months old and didn't start playing basketball until his sophomore year in high school. Now 18, he is a guard at one of only 10 programs nationwide that have wheelchair basketball teams. He says he never can repay the sport for what it's given him.
"I've gone to England and Australia and that's something I would have never done," Serio said. "I've met so many cool people. Disabled people can sometimes be down and reserved and this game has shown me not to be like that. It's given me so much confidence."
Serio was an infant when an infected tumor on his spine compressed his spinal cord. The tumor was removed, but Serio was paralyzed below the waist. He used a walker until he was about 7, then switched to hand braces and crutches. But he always sought outlets for his energy and athleticism and never was excluded from family games of touch football.
"He would run patterns, and as long as he hit the ball with the crutch we'd count it as a catch," said his father, Ed Serio.
As a youngster, the younger Serio played baseball and soccer against kids who were challenged either physically or mentally. When he got to Carle Place High School in September 2001, he kept stats for the junior varsity football team and was manager of the track team. But none of that satisfied his competitive drive.
During his sophomore year he wanted to try wheelchair racing, and went shopping with his father for a special racing chair. Mike Zengary, the salesman at Homecare Supplies in Bethpage, suggested a different sport.
"Why don't you try basketball?" Steve Serio remembers Zengary saying.
Zengary sold Serio a basketball chair and made him pick it up at a gym where the Long Island Lightning, the only competitive junior wheelchair basketball team in the state, was practicing.
"Once saw the wheelchair basketball, he was hook, line and sinker," his father said.
Three weeks later, Serio was in North Carolina, where he helped the Lightning to its first tournament win in its then six-year history.
"Steve played an important role in getting us that win," Lightning coach Mark Drummer said. "He was an outstanding athlete from the moment he walked into the gym."
His game developed quickly. The more he practiced, the easier it seemed. More importantly, he was having fun. "I used to play all the time," he said. "I used to be in the gym, like, three hours a day or I would just push outside."
Jim Colligan, athletic director and boys basketball coach at Carle Place, often passed the Serio house while jogging. "He'd always be in the driveway with a ball in his hand," said Colligan.
Knowing his limitations also helped Serio develop quickly.
"I don't have really big pride issues," he said. "If someone tells me that I'm doing something wrong then I'll fix it. I won't be like, 'Well, no, this is the way I'm going to do it.' "
His mother, Hilary, said basketball had an immediate impact on her son. "It was something where Steve really excelled, sort of set himself apart in a way that had never existed."
Serio started playing for a men's division team in his third year of high school, but his senior year was truly memorable.
In March 2005, he was named tournament MVP, scoring 74 points in four games while leading the Lightning to the junior national championship in San Jose. In April, he was one of 12 players nationwide to represent the United States in the Australian Junior National Games for the Disabled in Sydney. In August, he played for the U.S. under-23 team in the World Championships in England. And he's among several being considered for the U.S. team that will compete in the 2008 Paralympic Games in Beijing.
In the midst of all that, Serio agreed to play at Illinois, birthplace of wheelchair basketball and its most prestigious program. The men's and women's teams have combined to win 24 national championships.
"I loved how intuitive he was about the game," said Illinois coach Mike Frogley, who coached Canada's team to the gold medal at the 2004 Paralympics in Athens. "He really understood the flow of the game."
Serio, a National Honor Society member who graduated seventh in a class of 128, rejected advice from his parents and guidance counselors to apply to Ivy League schools. His reason was simple: Those schools don't offer wheelchair basketball.
"We had no clue that these opportunities existed," Ed Serio said.
Serio's arrival to Illinois was delayed until early January because of an injury he suffered while playing in England over the summer. Like most parents, Ed and Hilary worry about their child living on his own in a dorm. But not too much. "We call him so able-bodied in his disabilities that he could conquer any obstacle he faced," Ed Serio said.
Making friends shouldn't be a problem either. "He was easy to like," Carle Place principal Neil Connolly said. "He wanted to be treated like everyone else."
Serio plans to go into athletic training as a career ... eventually. First, he'd like to play professionally for a club team in Europe. "That would be cool to do," Serio said.
Colligan has nominated Serio to the Carle Place Athletic Hall of Fame. During the school's 50-year history, there never has been an inductee who did not compete for one of Carle Place's teams.
"I honestly think he belongs," Colligan said. "I think he'll get in."