Athlete of the Week: Nashua South's Anthony Muccioli

Nate Mazerolle isn’t surprised that Anthony Muccioli is leading the Nashua High School South boys basketball team in scoring.

The Panthers’ coach would have guessed that to be true before the start of the season, but there were no guarantees what else would come with the points.

So far, what South has received is direction from someone who wants to be a leader.

In two games last week, Muccioli averaged 20.5 points, helping South upset Bishop Guertin before falling to Londonderry. For his efforts, Muccioli was selected as NH-HighSchoolSports.com’s Athlete of the Week.

“We hadn’t beaten (Bishop Guertin) in a long time,” Mazerolle said. “A couple of my former players were and I told the guys before the game and reminded them after, they can go brag a little bit. There aren’t too many guys who are around still who beat Guertin. We hadn’t done that in five or six years.”

Despite that, Muccioli and the other players saw it as a game that they could take, and that’s exactly what they did.

“We knew that we had to come out and play strong,” he said. “That was a big game that we had to win and not many people thought we could do it beside everyone on the team.”

That recognition by Muccioli is one of the reasons Mazerolle has higher expectations for the junior the rest of this season.

A year ago, the coach had reason to worry about how Muccioli, then a sophomore playing varsity for the first time, was responding to what would turn into a 3-15 season. As the Panthers were preparing to play Spaulding earlier in the week, Mazerolle looked back at film from when the teams played a year ago and saw a different player.

“He didn’t play the entire first quarter and it was because of a discipline issue and we could have used him,” Mazerolle said. “We were down 18 going into the fourth quarter and he scored 10 points in the fourth quarter as a sophomore. We didn’t pull it out, but we were down 18 and I think we got it to seven at one point. He was a big part of that.”

Part of that change has to do with Muccioli understanding and embracing his role.

“At the beginning of the season, coach told me that I’m going to have to be vocal and be a leader and be positive at all times,” he said. “If I did that, we’d be fine this season. I had to grow into it because last year, I wasn’t much of a leader and I should have been.”

While Mazerolle admits it would have been hard for a sophomore to lead any varsity team, he has been impressed with how Muccioli has responded to adversity.

“He’s not a captain, captains are usually seniors,” Mazerolle said. “But he’s still a leader in that regards. That was part of why I was so pleased Friday night (against Londonderry). We played poorly and it was a very tough loss, but he kept his head on straight. He wasn’t happy, but he didn’t let it overtly show.”

Muccioli believes that overall, this year’s team is much different than its predecessor.

“Our attitude is very different and our work ethic,” he said. “Last year, we didn’t really work hard at times but this year, everyone is working hard all of the time.”

If that continues, the Panthers (2-3 in Division I) should soon eclipse their win total of a year ago, and maybe even make it back to the postseason. And if all goes right, Mazerolle will learn a little more about his leading scorer.

“He’s a hard-working kid,” the coach said. “He certainly wants to play at the highest level that he can, but that has yet to be determined.”