Stein Thelusma and his family had just started their summer vacation at the Jersey Shore when they got the phone call Stein had been hoping for for months. It was from United NJ East AAU head coach Pete Vicent with the opportunity to play for its Boys Seventh Grade National Team for the AAU Basketball D2 World Championships
“On the first day of vacation we got the call from Coach Pete and he told us because I had played a tournament with them in the Bronx before where he saw the way I played and he liked what he saw,” said Thelusma, a Kearny native about to start eighth grade at Lincoln School. “We had to cut our vacation short.
“I told my mom (months ago) because I knew they were going to Orlando that I was going to work hard to get to Orlando.”
Thelusma not only reached his goal of making it to Orlando, once there, he and his United teammates made the most of the opportunity.
United NJ East went 8-0 during the tournament held at Disney’s ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex in Orlando. The run culminated with a win over defending champion Carolina Celtics and a victory over the Durham Hurricanes to take home D2 13U/7th Grade National title.
“When he found out the National Team was going to Orlando, he told me, ‘Mom, I’m making it back to the National Team and I’m going to Orlando with these kids,’” his mother, Angelica D’Argenio said. “We knew we couldn’t miss that opportunity for him because it’s exactly what he said he was going to do.”
“When we won everyone was just really happy and excited,” said Thelusma, who admitted to being a little nervous the first day of the tournament. “Taking the whole thing home was very exciting. Being from Kearny, I know that not a lot of kids get to be in that moment (for basketball) and to be a part of that was special.”
Thelusma, a 5-foot-11 forward was one of nine players on the Hudson County- based team. At just 12-years-old, he is also the youngest on the roster by more than a year. While it was not Thelusma’s first experience with United’s National Team, he has played largely with the program’s Select Team this past fall, winter and spring. However, Thelusma played with the National Team at the Hoops in the Sun summer league in the Bronx.
“He got a lot better, he got bigger, he got stronger and we gave him an opportunity,” said Vincent, a longtime high school coach in Hudson County. “We felt he worked really hard to earn that opportunity to get to go with these guys, with our ‘A’ team guys to Florida for Nationals. He is young (for this level) so for us it is really cool to see him be able to get there and put in that work to get to that level.”
A forward for United NJ East, Thelusma plays primarily as a guard for his other AAU team, New Jersey Royal Knights out of East Newark. It’s allowed him to become a versatile player capable of doing multiple things on the court.
“He’s a multidimensional player,” Vincent said. “He can shoot the ball, he can rebound down low, he can play down low. He’s got good size, is very strong, and he can shoot the three ball. He runs the court well, is very athletic. He’s getting better and better every month. It’s a testament to how hard he works.”
Added Thelusma, “my confidence and defense (have improved a lot) because I’ve been working on my footwork, my handles and I just go faster than I used to be.”
One thing’s for sure, while Thelusma’s still in the early stages of his career, July’s National Championships is a reminder of what looks to be a bright future on the court.
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Kevin A. Canessa Jr. is the editor of and broadcaster at The Observer, an organization he has served since 2006. He is responsible for the editorial content of the newspaper and website, the production of the e-Newspaper, writing several stories per week (including the weekly editorial), conducting live broadcasts on social media channels such as YouTube, Facebook, and X, including a weekly recap of the news — and much more behind the scenes. Between 2006 and 2008, he introduced the newspaper to its first-ever blog — which included podcasts, audio and video. Originally from Jersey City, Kevin lived in Kearny until 2004, lived in Port St. Lucie. Florida, for four years until February 2016 and in March of that year, he moved back to Kearny to return to The Observer full time. Click Here to send Kevin an email.