Italian Olympic Committee to Hold Kids Basketball Tryouts on Sept. 8

The Italian National Olympic Committee (CONI) is holding tryouts on Sunday, Sept. 8, to select two girls and two boys under 12 to assemble a basketball team that will compete in the Trofeo Coni Estate 2024 tournament in Palermo, Italy.

Tryouts will take place at 9:30am in the gymnasium of the Federation of Italian-American Organizations of Brooklyn, at 8711 18th Ave. in Bath Beach, according to a press release.

Players who wish to participate in the tryout must:  

• Be no older than 12 years of age as of October 4, 2024;
• Be Italian citizens permanently residing in the USA; or
• Have certified Italian descent, even if through only one parent.  

Children must be accompanied by a parent or an adult guardian, show an identification document, and provide a recent medical form attesting their fitness to play sport competition, the press release said.

The four players will be chosen by CONI USA technical staff.

The tournament is scheduled to take place in Palermo between October 3-6. Players from the U.S. will then remain and experience a tourist and cultural explorations of Sicily until October 9, the press release said.

The basketball games will be played in a 4 vs. 4 full-court format, with four periods of six minutes each. The competitions will take place in over 50 facilities, including gyms, fields and town squares. 

The round-trip airfare to Sicily for the team is fully covered by CONI USA. In Sicily, lodging, transportation expenses and participation in the three days of competitions are covered by CONI. After the competitions, the Coni USA will take part in three days of tourist and cultural explorations until October 9, the day of return to the USA. The costs of this part of the program are covered by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation (MAECI) through the Turismo delle Radici project.

For more information, contact the CONI Delegate for the USA at +1 (631) 566-0257, or email: [email protected].