Nick Sparacio Wins Gold with USA Basketball

STATESBORO – As the confetti fell on the USA U-16 men’s basketball junior national team celebrating its FIBA Americas Championship, Georgia Southern athletic trainer Nick Sparacio tried to pause and take it all in.

True, the Americans had entered the tournament as heavy favorites, but the road to this moment in time had been arduous, and three weeks had passed in the blink of an eye. Each member of the team had their own story on how they had gotten to a gold medal game in Xalapa, Mexico, and just like Sparacio, the most common themes in those stories were hard work and a little luck.

As Sparacio celebrated with the group of young men he had spent countless hours with over the preceding month, two things were certain – 1) this was an experience unlike any he had ever been a part of and 2) he needed to figure out a way to repeat it.

After graduating from Iowa State with a degree in kinesiology with an emphasis in athletic training, Sparacio started his career as a graduate assistant at Wisconsin in 2012. He spent two years with the Badgers while earning a master’s in kinesiology and after one more working at Vanderbilt, Sparacio arrived in Statesboro in 2015 and has served as the men’s basketball athletic trainer for the last seven seasons. 

It was a Georgia Southern connection that helped him secure the position of a lifetime with USA Basketball. Dr. Chad Asplund was the Medical Director of Athletics Sports Medicine with Georgia Southern from 2015-2019. He moved on to the Mayo Clinic, which is contracted with USA Basketball. Asplund thought so highly of Sparacio, he told him he would try to get him involved with USA basketball if a position opened.

“Once he went up there a couple years ago, we had kind of been talking about me getting involved in some capacity,” Sparacio says. “This year, a spot opened up, and I was able to take that opportunity. For the most part, you definitely have to know someone, so fortunately, I had that relationship with Dr. Asplund.”

Once Sparacio joined the staff, things moved pretty fast. With the tournament set to begin Aug. 23, the coaches, support staff, and prospective players all gathered in Houston, Texas, Aug. 10. They had a little over a week to gauge all the players’ abilities, make the cuts, conduct a handful of team practices and fly to Mexico for the tournament.

Establishing trust with the coaching staff and athletes is a huge key to for any athletic trainer’s success, and that’s where another Georgia Southern connection came in handy. The coach of the U-16 team, Sharman White, is a 1995 graduate of Georgia Southern.

“That was a connection we had going forward and helped us build a relationship quickly, and I think that's one of the biggest things in a situation like that where you only have like three weeks to try and go win a gold medal,” said Sparacio. “You’re trying to build those bonds and relationships with the coaching staff as well as the athletes.”

There was a different dynamic at play with the athletes themselves, many of whom are already five-star recruits who will become household names as future collegiate and NBA stars. With 30 or so invited to training camp but only 12 roster spots available, they stayed to themselves until final cuts were made.

“They are all kind of fending for themselves trying to make the team, but once the final roster is set, they are a little bit more open talking with each other and talking with the coaches and opening up with the support staff,” said Sparacio. “You start to form that team, family bond.”

After Sparacio began to connect with the players, they began trusting in his expertise and leaning on him for advice, not only for the tournament but for their future basketball careers as well. Rest, recovery and nutrition are not often on the minds of 15 and 16-year old young men.

“They are all looking for an edge to make it to the next level, and I think they are receptive to someone who has been working at the college level to be able to impart some advice and wisdom on what it's going to be like when they get to college,” says Sparacio.

Small adversities popped up throughout the duration of the trip, but Sparacio’s previous trips to Costa Rica and Spain with the Georgia Southern men’s basketball program helped prepare him for travelling internationally.

“That was another big thing, being able to draw on some of those experiences, having played international teams before with the Costa Rica trip and the Spain trip with Georgia Southern, kind of knowing everything that needs to be brought and traveling internationally, just some of the nuances that come with something like that,” Sparacio says. “For instance, a lot of other countries don't have ice readily available like they do in the States, so trying to coordinate stuff like that.”

Once in Mexico, the schedule was intense, with three straight games of pool play, and then a day off, followed by three straight games in the medal round. No matter what country they were playing, the crowd was decidedly in favor of Team USA’s opponent. The Americans dominated Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic and Chile to win their pool. Wins over host Mexico in the quarterfinals and Canada in the semifinals set up a showdown with Argentina in the finals. Team USA trailed 26-13 in the second quarter and 31-30 at halftime but closed the third quarter with a 12-3 run en route to the 90-75 victory. It was a win Sparacio will cherish.

“In the final game against Argentina, there was a pretty good amount of fans there, and everybody was rooting against us,” says Sparacio. “It was USA versus the world, so every time Argentina would score, the crowd would be going crazy. I think it was all Mexico fans, which was kind of the funny part, but that's how we expected it to be, and they kind of fed on that. They were able to turn it up in the second half and come up with the win.”

Next up for this group is the FIBA U17 World Cup in 2022, where 16 national teams will compete in Spain next July. More teams from around the world means a better level of competition, and the 2020 World Cup was canceled because of the pandemic, adding to the level of excitement for next summer. Sparacio just hopes to be a part of it.

“I don't want to assume anything, but I think everything went well this summer, so definitely want to be able to go and hope to be invited back," he says.