DeMasco Earns Scholarship
In New Hampshire, the name Nicco DeMasco is very well known to those who follow high school basketball. Last year as a junior, the big man led his Monadnock Regional team to the class I state championship, and this year many expect them to repeat.
But beyond New Hampshire’s borders, DeMasco was someone who was flying fairly below the radar.
That’s because he isn’t a player who is necessarily going to stand out by scoring a lot of points. But what he does do are many of the “little things” that help his team win ball games: he plays exceedingly hard; he’s a tremendous rebounder; he’s an excellent defender; and he finds ways to score without having to have plays called for him.
Those attributes appealed to the coaches from Franklin Pierce…especially after they were pointed out by a familiar face.
Ken Ervin is in his second year as the head coach at Monadnock Regional High School. But he has deep ties to the Franklin Pierce program, having both graduated from the school and then worked as an assistant coach under Raven’s head coach David Chadbourne.
“Coach [Ervin] was new last year and had been telling them [FP] about me since he got here,” explained DeMasco. “They started to seriously recruit me this year and then they offered me a full ride right after Christmas. I accepted right away because it’s a great school in a good conference and I really liked the coaching.”
In addition to Franklin Pierce, DeMasco had other division II interest from programs like Southern New Hampshire and Pfeiffer University in North Carolina. Additionally, a multitude of division III programs were in hot pursuit, most notably Brandeis and Keene State.
“My main goal was to get a scholarship and that’s why I played with the Boston Warriors [AAU team] this year, because I was hoping to expand my game and get an opportunity to play against a high level of competition.”
DeMasco also believes he’ll be able to make an immediate contribution at Franklin Pierce, citing his “hard work, rebounding, and love for the game” as his biggest strengths.
But before that happens, DeMasco, Coach Ervin, and the rest of the Monadnock team will tend to the unfinished business of defending their state title.
“We won it last year,” DeMasco said, “we can do it again, and that’s ultimately the main goal.”
Nicco DeMasco