Jeron Roberts in Italy: He’s got game coaching three teams

The all-conference Wyoming guard with LA roots played pro ball 14 seasons, with a year on Israel’s national team before Italian basketball came calling.

“I think we have a lot of talent,” says Jeron Roberts, head coach of Novara Under-17 Gold, above, one of three teams he guides.

Heat is radiating over a lengthy Catholic schoolyard where a Wyoming Cowboy from Los Angeles is explaining a juggling act as head coach of three basketball teams.

In north Italy.

“Beautiful day” are the first words out of Jeron Roberts’ mouth as a half dozen players file by him at the Don Bosco church grounds in Novara, a proud but unheralded Renaissance-era city 40 minutes from Milan.

The season-opener—one of a trio on his docket—is set to tip off in the adjacent gym, where young men are about to put their lanky frames to test. Who’s to say what their playing days might hold? NBA power forward Danilo Gallinari, who grew up a quick drive away, started out just like this.

Chill yet direct, Roberts and his six-foot-four frame check up on a familiar squad—one of his—striding by in sweats, combining pointed care with repartee.

“Watch out for the Malibu guy,” he calls out to the pack, quipping to a player recently back from six months abroad at an LA high school set among well-heeled residents.

Raised in LA, Roberts is starting his third year of coaching in Novara, seen here at the sprawling Don Bosco sports center.

To another he says, tongue in cheek: “Stay out of trouble.”

Such are the linguistic advantages as an American who led UW in scoring (19 points, 5.9 rebounds per game) in 1998 as a first-team all-WAC guard before taking his inside-outside skill set to top-flight Israeli pro teams, which compete with Europe’s best, such as Real Madrid. His 14-year pro career culminated with a year on Israel’s national team, which took part in the 2007 European Championships, with seasons in Turkey, Cyprus and Amsterdam along the way.

“(The players) speak in Italian, I speak in English,” says Roberts, who turned 47 on Wednesday. “Their parents love it. For them, it’s a win.”

Married to an Italian, Roberts commutes to and from Arona, a Piedmont town on the shores of Lake Maggiore, with its glacial-fed waters and majestic scenery, captured in Ernest Hemingway’s “A Farewell to Arms.”

Roberts is minutes from Lago Maggiore, seen here farther north from Arona, where he lives with his wife and two kids.

At home, he speaks a mix of Italian and English with his wife, Maxi, and their two elementary-school-age twin children. “(My Italian) is getting better,” says Roberts, who has been living in Italy for more than three years. “Being around it helps.”

[Editorial note: Few Americans who have no genetic ties to Italy speak Italian fluently, and native speakers of English are a prized commodity among Italians intent on improving.]

Periodically glancing at his wrist watch like a school teacher, he details a daily routine that includes neither American coffee nor Italian espresso.

“I drink tea or hot chocolate—that’s the best,” he says, alluding to Italy’s to-die-for creamy cocoa, far more viscous than its US cousin.

A hot drink might be carried into Roberts’ home studio on a Saturday night or Sunday evening when televised tackle football steals an ex-patriate’s focus, but most days are all about gymnasium hustle.

“I just get up and go,” he says.

Under contract full-time, he guides three teenage teams, each of which sees weekly league action across Piedmont and Lombardy, for starters. His three squads all belong to Novara, which is without a pro team:

•Under-19 Gold
•Under-17 Gold
•Under-17

In Italy, high schools don’t field prep teams, and no college basketball exists. Instead, youths join sports clubs belonging to amateur leagues. A select few land on junior teams under the umbrella of “1A” Italian professional basketball, with top squads in such cities as Milan and Bologna, where the occasional star makes it big, in a few cases as far as the NBA.

On a Saturday afternoon, he is psyching up his Under-17 Gold roster members for a spar-off with Vercelli—just down the road—when the opponent’s coach strides across the Don Bosco courtyard. Well acquainted, they rap right off the bat:

“Hi, Coach, how are you?” says Antonio Galdo, who helped Roberts get licensed as a coach several years ago. “Everything good?”

Roberts, beginning his third season at Novara, breaks into an easy smile: “No complaints.”

Antonio Galdo, pacing below the Novara basketball sign, is coach of Vercelli. He and Roberts have known each other several years.

The native of greater LA (Covina) is content at the triple helm yet knows the world of coaching is by nature nomadic, affording growth at other basketball posts, either abroad or in Italy, where a job with a pro team might be appealing, he says.

“We’ll see what’s best,” says Roberts, whose first name is pronounced Juh-RON. “(A1)’s definitely in the cards.”

Family, though, takes precedence: “A lot depends on the kids.” 

Ditto for his other family—the three Novara squads.

“I enjoy the (team) kids as well,” he says. “They’re youthful.”

In the meantime, Robert carries on as an American nine time zones away from Southern California. In Italy, he tells folks he’s from LA, a city almost everybody has heard of. 

As for high-altitude Laramie, Wyo., where he had teammates like future NBA All-Star Theo Ratliff, few here can put its name to a map.

“They don’t know it,” he says before bounding off to pre-game warm-ups, having revealed no game-time strategy.

***

It’s Saturday evening when most Italians are getting ready for dinner at Mom and Dad’s, soaking up unseasonably warm October sun or dressing up for a night on the town.

Seventy-five choose a hoops game between rivals Novara and Vercelli in an Under-17 league match-up. The gym has a balcony section, where spectators are required to sit. 

Roberts played defensive-minded basketball under Wyoming coach Larry Shyatt.

Seated in balcony stands, Novara’s faithful cheer on the full-court press. An air horn, typical to Italian spectator sports, is tooted.

From the get-go, Novara’s starting five employ a full-court press, reminiscent of coach Nolan Richardson’s Forty Minutes of Hell at Arkansas in the early 1990s, only Vercelli is on the troubled end. Roberts is not Rick Pitino hyper, but he’s urging his players to keep up the pressure.

A husband and wife are fixated on a Novara player who has been named team captain by his teammates. Energetic and aggressive, five-foot-11 Emanuele Salamanca doesn’t start but makes his presence known when he enters the game, converting a lay-up off a loose ball. 

His father, GianPaolo, credits Roberts for helping Emanuele funnel on-court emotion into plays leading to buckets.

“Jeron teaches him responsibility,” says the elder Salamanca, 54, one of several off-court managers who helps out with organization and sponsorship. Hiring Roberts was a win-win opportunity, he says.

“He’s been optimal, in my opinion. Jeron’s role here is important because not only does he see over (basketball) technique but the mentality, too. He’s instructive.

“He’s not authoritarian—the players trust him.”

GianPaolo Salamanca assists Novara Basket with various tasks. His son, Emanuele, fits right in to Roberts’ grind-it-out philosophy. Italians refer to basketball as simply ‘basket.’

During a time out, a member of Novara’s Under-19 girls’ team says Roberts’ coaching style is a good fit.

“It’s pretty cool to see him train players (using) English,” says Victory, 16, a guard. “He’s open-minded. It’s different from what I see every day but in a good way.”

Roberts considers himself old-school. “I’m tough on the kids,” he says, citing the importance of fundamentals and a “grind-it-out” mindset.

“We don’t just shoot from three like (players) today,” he chuckles—to a point.

He has a point. 

Novara breaks out to 8-2 lead, capitalizing on back-court traps, turnovers and superior rebounding. Six-foot Alessio Medici—he with the Florentine surname—is everywhere, showing nifty body control by shielding the ball on slick drives to the basket. His 22 points and polished overall game point to potential, exhibited too on the Under-19 team, which won 62-61 on a buzzer-beater on Monday (See video below).

An Under-19 thriller, two nights later, ended with a buzzer-beater, giving Roberts’ team a 62-61 win over rival College Novara.

Alessio Medici, shooting, uses apt body control en route to 22 points and is a cog in Roberts’ full-court press, an obstacle for opponents.

With 35 seconds remaining, Novara had already broken 100 points.

“He’s one of our best players,” Roberts says. “He shoots it. He knows how to use his body.”

At half, the score is 53-19. Relentless Novara goes on to win 111-37, substituting plentifully. The full-court press has been lethal. In Italy, Roberts says, teams are not accustomed to seeing it.

“Make the defense the offense,” he says. “It disrupts their game. We wanted to pressure the ball, don’t let them play easy.”

After shaking hands all around—even with referees—both sides disappear into the locker rooms but not before Roberts helps a Vercelli player get ice.

It’s Saturday night, with “pizza and (college) football” programmed, he says. The UW graduate, pausing at the top of a stairwell, confirms he’ll be tuning in late at night to see No. 24-ranked Fresno State take on 4-1 Wyoming in Laramie.

“I’ll be watching.”

[Note: Wyoming pulled off the upset, 24-19]

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