OLD BRIDGE, N.J. (BVM) — As soon as Mauro Sciancalepore was born in Staten Island (SI), NY in 2001, his biggest passion was soccer, and he was always on track to have a successful career with the sport. Sciancalepore has had a youth soccer experience that only a small percentage of American players will be able to match. For the past couple of years, however, Sciancalepore possibly derailed from that track forever due to some injuries suffered in the past couple of years.

Sciancalepore started playing competitive soccer for SI United from the age of 5-12. For those seven years, he competed against the best athletes in the northeast. His dad, also named Mauro, coached him for those seven years and helped mold him into the person and player he is today. Even at such a young age, Sciancalepore started taking soccer seriously. 

“I consider myself lucky that my dad was my coach when I first started playing soccer,” said Sciancalepore. “He made me and my teammates take the sport seriously while still making it fun. He’s definitely the biggest reason why I have such a hard-working mentality now.”

After moving from SI, NY to Old Bridge, NJ in 2014, he played for the town club team for a year before making a big step up to Cedar Stars Academy (CSA) in Monmouth, NJ. CSA has been one of the best soccer academies in the country and started playing against other top academies on the east coast. He also had the opportunity to play various Major League Soccer (MLS) academies. He started playing for CSA during his freshman year of high school until his senior year. 

“Joining Cedar Stars was one of the best decisions I made because the level that they played at helped me improve every part of my game,” said Sciancalepore. “The coaches there understood my ability and helped me turn my weaknesses into strengths.”

His time at CSA gave him the opportunity to be selected for a team to play a tournament in Agropoli, Italy, it was a select team called the Staten Island Freedom, made up of a select group of players from NJ and Staten Island. He played against athletes as old as 19 at the age of 14 at the tournament. By the end of the tournament, Serie B club Avelino, playing in the second division in Italy, offered him a tryout for their academy after impressing against them in the last game of the tournament. 

“Being offered a possible spot for a team that was overseas was overwhelming at the time,” said Sciancalepore. “I declined the tryout because even though I saw myself playing at a high level, I was unsure that going to Italy at that age was the best option for me.” 

During his sophomore year, Sciancalepore had the opportunity to play in Germany with CSA in a series of friendly games and that included competing against top German club Borussia Monchengladbach. 

“Going back to play overseas was an amazing experience, especially competing against tougher opposition,” explained Sciancalepore. “Even going to the Champions League game in Dortmund was a great experience to see such high-level professionals play the game that I love.”

By the end of his junior year, Sciancalepore was being looked at by a few Division I programs, including Seton Hall and Lehigh University. Then the summer before his senior year, his life would change forever. 

Cedar Stars also had a team in NY under the name Cedar Stars Hudson Valley. In 2018, their 2001 team were short players before their trip to Boston for the National Championships. Sciancalepore and a couple of his Monmouth teammates were lucky enough to get hand-picked to play on a team with multiple NCAA Division 1 commits.

Playing in the last group stage game against a team from Massachusetts, Sciancalepore suffered a torn ACL when going in on a tackle with a bigger player.  The injury forced him to miss his senior season at Old Bridge High School (OBHS), where he was a member of the varsity team for three out of the four years of high school. The injury also made Sciancalepore run into recruitment difficulties.

“After I got injured, I was scared to tell any of the coaches, so I ended up losing contact with them,” said Sciancalepore.

Sitting out for his last year at OBHS, Sciancalepore went to physical therapy for his knee three times a week in hopes to get cleared by his doctors as soon as possible to still get recruited by any school. After his injury there was only one school that offered him a spot on their roster, Kean University, a Division III school in Union, NJ. Head coach Peter-John Falloon heard of Sciancalepore when he played for CSA as he was a coach for different team while still at Kean. 

“I was so grateful that someone gave me a chance even after my injury and not playing for over a year.” Said Sciancalepore. “Coach knew that I was not cleared yet but he was going to allow me to fully recover before I would play so I don’t rush into anything and get injured again.”

In the summer of 2019, he was finally fully cleared by his doctors to train and play at full contact. But in July, a month into his preseason training for Kean, he went to the Philippines, his Mom’s home nation, on a family vacation which turned south a few days into the trip. 

On the beach in Cebu, Sciancalepore and his younger brother, Angelo, were relaxing on top of an elevated inflatable platform in the ocean close to shore. And that is when the unthinkable happened. 

“It was about time to leave the beach, so I hopped up from the platform to slide down,” the younger Sciancalepore described. “But as soon as I turned around I heard Mauro slip on the platform and scream.”

At the bottom of the platform was a sandbag that was weighing down the platform, less than a foot under the ocean. Sciancalepore landed on the sandbag with the back of his head. What he felt afterwards was a pain that was worse than his torn ACL the year before. 

“As soon as I hit the bag I felt like I was paralyzed. I couldn’t move or feel my body at all,” described Sciancalepore. “I thought for the rest of my life I would be stuck in a wheelchair.”

Sciancalepore and his family flew back to New Jersey after being released from the hospital in the Philippines. And the 19-year old had to be in a wheelchair the whole trip back with a neck brace on, which for Sciancalepore, was a scary experience. 

“The flight back from the Philippines is almost 24 hours, so I was scared that any turbulence would permanently injure me,” described Sciancalepore. “But thankfully the flights were safe and each of the airports’ staff took care of me.” 

Sciancalepore needed neck surgery after fracturing his c6 and c7 bones in his vertebrae, causing him to have a metal plate in his neck. In a neck brace for three months, he was not cleared to play in his freshman year at Kean, instead opting for a team manager role to stay connected to his teammates.

Sciancalepore has not played a competitive soccer game since he was 16, and is still technically not cleared to play at the college level, but he is now at peace with that and is looking towards new pastures. 

“I still play pickup soccer with my friends without the risk of getting injured and I still love the sports,” said Sciancalepore. “I am into fitness and working out, and now I’m trying to go to physical therapy school, so hopefully in a few years I’ll have a career in that industry.”

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