JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – The crowd in the stands at Middleburg High School emptied on the basketball court and stormed toward Robert Piccirillo.
It was a moment that his coach called a fairytale and brought more than one person in the crowd to tears.
Piccirillo, who had been the team manager for the Broncos all four years in high school, was put in the lineup on senior night. He delivered 12 points on four 3-pointers, including a buzzer-beater that touched off a celebration that felt like a state championship. Piccirillo waited four years for a moment like this that he had no idea he’d ever get a chance at.
“When everybody rushed to the court, I was like, ‘What’s going on?’ I’m turning around to get back on defense, and I’m just guessing at that point, that I must have hit the buzzer beater,” Piccirillo said.
Middleburg coach Sean Sweeney said the night was difficult to put into words. While the game was never in question — Middleburg won 66-32 — it was an emotional evening that Sweeney said would stick with him forever.
“Like I kind of told the guys afterward, it doesn’t always work this way,” Sweeney said. “Like, this was a fairytale, storybook ending for him. The nice guy doesn’t always finish first. And I felt like that happened. Friday night, the nice guy finished first.”
Piccirillo has been a basketball junkie for as long as he can remember. He had dreams of being a star in high school, but life had other plans. Piccirillo was born with a congenital heart defect called Tetralogy of Fallot, a condition that affects the structure of the heart and causes altered blood flow through the heart and the rest of the body, according to the Mayo Clinic.
Piccirillo played basketball recreationally and at the YMCA when he was younger and still loves to play when he can. But his dream was to play high school basketball, something he wasn’t able to do. When Piccirillo enrolled at Middleburg and making the team was out, he didn’t let that deter him from being involved.
“I was kind of sad because I’ve always wanted to be a basketball player, always in my life, since I was a little kid, I always wanted to be a basketball player and play for a team,” he said. “But because of my heart, I can’t. So, I just tried to find ways to be able to participate and do what I love, which is participating in basketball.”
Piccirillo bridged the gap between playing basketball and staying connected to the sport at Middleburg when he volunteered to be the team’s manager. He’d been a common sight at Broncos games for years. Sweeney said that Piccirillo has been as involved with the program as anyone.
“You know, 7:10 every morning, whether I’m dragging or not, he comes in my classroom … he’s not in my class first period, ‘What’s up, Coach? How are we doing,” Sweeney said. “He just has a great relationship with every guy on the team. When we call the starters, he’s out there. He’s got handshakes for all the starters. And you know, when he misses a game, it feels like part of our part of our team is missing.”
For road games, Piccirillo hands out chewing gum to players and doles out Gatorade at home games. He’s never too far from Sweeney on the bench and is in every team huddle. But Sweeney had an idea. Before Middleburg’s senior night game against St. Johns Classical on Jan. 26, Sweeney got permission to include Piccirillo in the lineup. He made the announcement in the locker room before the game and Broncos players swarmed Piccirillo to celebrate his varsity debut.
What happened next felt like it was pulled from a syrupy Disney movie. Piccirillo entered the game and drilled a 3-pointer from 2 feet behind the arc.
“I couldn’t stop sobbing on the sidelines. I was just so happy for him. The amount of joy that I had for him in that moment,” Sweeney said.
Piccirillo wasn’t done yet. Then, he got a look from the corner spot near the Middleburg bench and drained it.
Next, Piccirillo spotted up for a 3 again and banked it off the glass. On the Broncos’ final possession of the game, Piccirillo got the pass, took aim and drilled his fourth trey of the game right as the buzzer fired.
“It’s completely different than sitting on the bench. I wish I had more time. I wish I had more games,” he said. “I’m not going to lie, it was amazing. I wish I could just play more.”