Basketball programs experience international flavor: Giacomo Fulvi

At the start of the school year, Samo welcomed exchange student Giacomo Fulvi (’17). Visiting from Pesaro-Urbino, Italy, he is currently staying with the Kean family through an exchange program he joined in order to explore American culture.“I’ve never been here before. I wanted to travel abroad to try something new,” Fulvi said. ‘My life in Italy is really perfect, but I wanted to get out of my comfort zone and live a new adventure, different from my usual life.”During his stay, Fulvi has gotten the opportunity to immerse himself in American culture and was even here to experience a presidential election. Despite the excitement revolving around American politics, during his time at Samo he has continued to take an interest in basketball. Going as far as practicing with the Samo varsity basketball team. Through this experience, Fulvi has taken note of the differences in style of play from both countries. Fulvi’s primary position is point guard and is responsible for facilitating scoring opportunities for his team. This is done through controlling the ball and passing to his teammates accordingly. Fulvi believes that the play style of American and European basketball is very diverse.“I play point guard in Italy. I like [basketball] because it’s simply the best sport and gives me a special emotion,” Fulvi said. “Europe basketball and US basketball are very different, like style of play but also the rules such as traveling, etc.” In addition, Fulvi commented on the work ethic of American student athletes at Samo compared to Italian student athletes back home. “I think the differences is that here, people are more focused to be an athlete then in Italy,” Fulvi said. “We don’t use to go so frequently like here in the weight room!”While at Samo, Fulvi has grown to have interest in physiology and is intrigued by how classes in the United States are run, compared to his school back in Italy. “I like understanding how my body works,” Fulvi said. “I like that you have to move to go to each class period. It sounds weird but in Italy we used to stay always in the same class. So I find this funnier. There are a lot of things that I want to do, I’d like to go to Coachella and I’d also like to watch another Lakers game.” All in all, Fulvi looks forward to enjoying the many amenities and new lifestyle California has to offer before he returns home.