Sean St. Lucia ‘20 Looks Forward to Future at New Paltz

Sean St. Lucia has been playing basketball for as long as he can remember. Being a legitimate threat on both sides of the ball, St. Lucia has made a name for himself as a hard-working and dominant player.

St. Lucia started playing basketball around the 3rd of 4th grade for the Junior Warriors. A local program in Niskayuna to get younger kids a chance to learn the game of basketball. In the 6th grade, he started playing AAU for the Capital District Ballers. Playing for the B team until about the 8th grade, making the jump to the A-team around 9th grade, and never looking back.

St. Lucia’s dominant play on the court has not gone unnoticed. Being named to the First Team All-Suburban Council in 2020, 3rd Team All-Area 2020, and being named a Suburban Council Senior All-Star in 2020. St. Lucia has made a great name for himself and he is not done yet.

With just about every Suburban Council athlete I have interviewed for any sport, the team that is mentioned as a team that nobody likes to play against is Shen, and that is no different here. I asked St. Lucia what made playing against Shen so difficult which he responded with, “They controlled the pace, it felt they knew everything that we were going to do.”

St. Lucia and Niskayuna met Shen in the semi-final round in his senior year. Ultimately not able to capture that win that has evaded them for so long.

St. Lucia always looks forward to matching up against Guilderland’s Ryan Teaney. “He and I started playing AAU together in 9th or 10th grade and we just became best friends pretty quick…he’d always challenged me when we would play each other in school ball and it was always a fun matchup.” Many players create friendships when playing travel ball and end up playing each other in school ball, and it can be one of the most enjoyable matchups for a player to have.

At the next level, St. Lucia will be attending Suny New Paltz. When asked about what made New Paltz stand out, St. Lucia stated, “I’m majoring in Mechanical Engineering and they have a great engineering program so that’s a big part of it…. It’s not that far from home and when I went to visit there the whole staff were all welcoming.” 

Finding the right school to go to is so much more than just finding a school with the best basketball team. To some players, it is about their academic programs and their team atmosphere, and that was the driving force in St. Lucia’s commitment to New Paltz.

St. Lucia is looking forward to the opportunity of playing with Shen’s Lucas Seyoum at New Paltz. “He was my roommate this year and we got really close, and he just kind of created a whole new identity for himself, he really took his game to the next level and I’m excited to see how he does.” St. Lucia is more than happy that he does not have to match up on the other side of the court anymore with him and the two look to help bring success to the  New Paltz Men’s Basketball program.