By Christopher Tremblay, Staff Sports Writer

Ashland High School boys' basketball coach Mike Normant began a program in 2014 when he was an assistant at Westwood under Steve St. Martin, who played basketball professionally in Germany. St. Martin was continuously saying he wanted to go back and eventually Normant put together a program where he would take a handful of local high school basketball players to play European teams on the court. The program inaugurally take off in 2014 and would then run for four more years between 2016-2019 before Covid 19 ravaged the world. 

For the last six years the program was on a hiatus due to all that was going on and Normant, who had moved on from Westwood and was now in charge of the Ashland program was looking for the right time to reestablish the overseas trip. Enter the summer of 2025.

“I felt that this year was personally a good year for me to get this going again. I’m looking for serious basketball players and ones that don’t play football and soccer in the fall as it would interfere with their practices,” the Clocker Coach said. “I always like to bring a few athletes from my high school and Ronan (Kyatsandra) and Ygor (Sabadini) were a good fit.”

Normant noted that a lot of the kids that take basketball serious year-round are not looking to play basketball in August when they are getting ready to start up another school year, they’d rather relax. Normant, however, reached out to coaches within the league and then others that he knew to get recommendations for athletes to play for the Greater Boston All-Star team. He would then reach out to the families and sit down with them to discuss the program.

The Coach likes to keep the group at a minimal, but not too small n case of injury as well as they play by European basketball rules, including four 10-minute quarters. The extra two minutes a quarter leave the kids on the court for an extra 8 minutes throughout the whole game and Normant needs to have enough players sitting on his bench. 

“I was totally taken aback – I didn’t think that my game was that good to go up against European athletes,” Kyatsandra, the Clockers point guard said. “My parents were skeptical as well, but my Mom thought that it would be a great opportunity for me so I should take it.”

Sabadini was also somewhat surprised and shocked at the Coaches selection but was proud that he had been given the opportunity. The Ashland shooting guard felt that his game was good but didn’t consider himself to be of elite talent. However, like Kyatsandra, was glad to get the opportunity to play against higher level competition.

While his biggest contingency to fly oversees was 13 players, this summer he took 11 Massachusetts high school basketball players, including the two Ashland athletes with him. The team went on to play 5 games over a 9-day span against 3 Germany teams, a team from the Czech Republic and a team from Ireland. All five teams were top level basketball teams. Greater Boston would go 4-1 on the European trip. 

Although the team was successful, Normant said he had selected a group of talented, serious hoopsters who were looking to play a high level of basketball, despite being a style they were not used to. They were only together for a mere two practices where they bonded quite nicely before getting on the jet. 

Prior to beginning those practices with his new teammates Sabadini realized that he was going to have to take his game to the next level if he didn’t want to make a fool of himself.

“Playing in the TVL compared to Europeans was a totally different experience. They used a lot of presses so we had to pass much quicker and it was a much faster game pace,” he said. “Before getting there I knew that I needed to work harder and get a stronger mentality of the game so that I could play up to their level.”

In regard to the competition overseas Kyatsandra was right there with Sabadini’s assessment.

“It was so intimidating; everyone of the European players were over 185 pounds and bigger than 6’4” – they were massive,” he said. “We were basically playing against men who had the basketball skills, but I believe that we were better.”

Both athletes were not only intimidated by the competition, but they also felt that their game was not there in the beginning. Kyatsandra’s intensity was not up to par with the host team so he just went out and did the nitty gritty things to help his squad. Sabadini had found that he was away on vacation before the trip so he had not found his way onto a basketball court for a while and noted that he was a little rusty at first.

“I had not played a lot of basketball prior to the trip,” he said. “I wasn’t playing my best but by the last few games I started to get my shot falling and played much better.”

While the hometown boys were enjoying the competition on the court, they were also getting an introduction to the European culture. Normant wanted the boys experience the European way so they team doesn’t stay in hotels, instead they are hooked up with a host family.

“I’m sure they are nervous at first, but they eventually find it enjoyable,” the Ashland Coach said. “They are basically on their own and must follow the guidelines of their host family, that’s what makes it so different.”

Sabadini found that his host family was amazing and treated him like one of their own.

“I’m a very picky eater, but the food over there was really good,” he said. “They told me to try different things and I found that I actually liked them.”

While Sabadini found his host family was great, his Ashland teammate was not to thrilled with his host.

“Staying with a host family I expected to see the world in another way, but the man I was originally set up with was not a good fit,” Kyatsandra said. “The Coach got me moved to another family that was so amazing and loving. Their son Leo was on one of the Germany teams that we played, so they were much more supportive and hospitable – I got really lucky with them.”

In addition to making new friends on the other side of the world, the basketball players selected by Normant to play for the team bonded and formed a lasting friendship.

“It was a great group of kids,” Kyatsandra said. “It was defiantly very awkward at first but no one could have ever guessed that we would all become so close. Coach Normant was a big part of that with his support.”

Both Ashland athletes noted without hesitation – if given the chance to be a part of this – go for it 100%, just be prepared to play some bigger and stronger players.