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Steve Serio

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Steve Serio
Personal information
Full nameSteven Serio
NicknameSteve
Nationality United States
Born (1987-09-08) September 8, 1987 (age 36)
Mineola, New York
Height5 ft 6 in (1.68 m) (2011)
Weight180 lb (82 kg) (2011)
Sport
Country United States
SportWheelchair Basketball
College teamUniversity of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
TeamNew York Rolling Knicks (NWBA)
Turned pro2010
Steve Serio
Medal record
Representing  United States
Men's wheelchair basketball
World Championship
Silver medal – second place 2006 Amsterdam Team
Bronze medal – third place 2010 Birmingham Team

Steve Serio (born September 8, 1987) is a wheelchair basketball player. As a co-captain of the USA Men's National Wheelchair Basketball Team, he led the American men to their first Paralympic gold medal since 1988 at the 2016 Rio Paralympic Games.[1] He currently plays for the New York Rolling Knicks in the NWBA Championship Division.[2]

He grew up in Westbury, New York and graduated from Carle Place High School in 2005. When Steve was 11 months old, he had surgery to remove a spinal tumor which resulted in the compression of his spinal cord. Consequently, he was left paralyzed and is classified as an incomplete paraplegic.[3]

Steve began his wheelchair basketball career as a sophomore in high school with the Long Island Lightning, the only competitive junior wheelchair basketball team in New York State.[4] He was a tremendous asset to this team, eventually leading them to the team's first National Championship in 2005 where was named the tournament MVP.[5] In that same year, he played on a USA U-23 Team played at the Australian Junior National Games for the Disabled in Sydney.[5]

He played point guard for the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Steve was named a 2nd Team All-American in both the 2005–2006 and 2006–2007 seasons at Illinois.[6] At the National Intercollegiate Wheelchair Basketball Tournament at Oklahoma State University on March 15, 2008, Steve led the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign to a NIWBA Championship over the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater.[7] Steve took home the Championship Game Player of the Game, NWBA Tournament MVP, and the NWBA 31st NIWBT Player of the Year in the process.[8]

Steve also plays on the U.S. Paralympics Men's Wheelchair Basketball Team, which came in second place at the World Championships in Amsterdam in the summer of 2006.[9] In the summer of 2007, the U.S. National Team won a gold medal at the Parapan American Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Steve made his Paralympic debut with the U.S. National Team in 2008 in Beijing, China.[10] The team finished in fourth place, just missing a medal. Since the disappointing Paralympics, the U.S. National Team took the gold medal at the 2009 America's Cup in Richmond, Canada[11] and finished third at the 2010 Wheelchair Basketball World Championship in Birmingham, England.[12]

He graduated from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in May 2010, where he studied Kinesiology.

He is currently living in Germany and playing for RSV Lahn-Dill. His contract was recently extended through the 2016 season.[13]

Major achievements

Juniors

  • 2005: First place - Junior National Wheelchair Basketball Championships
  • 2005: Tournament MVP - Junior National Wheelchair Basketball Championships
  • 2005: Gold medal - World Junior Basketball Championships

Intercollegiate

  • 2010: National Champion - U.S. Intercollegiate Wheelchair Basketball
  • 2010: MVP - NWBA College Division
  • 2008: National Champion - U.S. Intercollegiate Wheelchair Basketball
  • 2008: MVP - NWBA College Division

US National Team

Professional

  • 2011: German DRS Cup Champion
  • 2011: German Championship
  • 2011: IWBF Champions League Silver Medal
  • 2012: German DRS Cup Champion
  • 2012: German Championship

Notes

  1. ^ "Westbury's Serio helps USA to gold medal".
  2. ^ "Who will rule the Rollstuhl this year?". FIBA.basketball.
  3. ^ "U.S. Paralympic Athlete Biography".
  4. ^ "United States Olympic Committee Article 3/20/06".
  5. ^ a b "USOC Athlete Spotlight: Steve Serio".
  6. ^ "Past NIWBA All-American Teams". Archived from the original on 2007-09-29.
  7. ^ "Fighting Illini Men's Wheelchair Basketball Page". Archived from the original on 2007-02-21.
  8. ^ "Daily Illini Newspaper Article 3/24/08".[permanent dead link]
  9. ^ "2006 U.S. Paralympics Men's Wheelchair Basketball Team Defeated by Canada in IWBF Gold Cup Final".
  10. ^ "Newsfeed".
  11. ^ "USA Wins Gold". Archived from the original on 2011-07-19. Retrieved 2009-12-13.
  12. ^ "Day Ten - Finals - British Wheelchair Basketball". www.gbwba.org.uk.
  13. ^ die.interaktiven. "Details - RSV Lahn-Dill". www.rsvlahndill.de.
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