Jumping off from hoops into life

It all began with a few softball games. Inwood native, Nicole Di Iorio, or “coach Nicole” as her players call her, started the HardKnox basketball organization back in 1998, when she saw a need to bring communities together.
“At first, it was like, let’s just play against each other,” Di Iorio said. “From there, it became something bigger. I really had no plan of doing any of this. If you had told me that today I would be coaching young men’s basketball, I’d have told you that you were crazy.”
Di Iorio said 80 percent of her players come from the Five Towns area, and a few other places as well. “They’re from Brooklyn, Staten Island, California, Las Vegas and Connecticut,” she said.
HardKnox member Andrei St. Vistal, 22, a native of Inwood and Far Rockaway, met Di Iorio through a friend. “Ahmed, my friend to this day, was playing for coach Nicole and HardKnox in the summer of 2011,” Andrei said. “We went to play three-on-three at Lawrence High School. It was there when coach Nicole saw something in me.”
After St. Vistal lost his mother in 2012, he has leaned on Di Iorio. “The main thing I learned is that I’d become a different kind of man,” he said. “When my mom died, I didn’t want anything, didn’t want to go to school. Coach Nicole really helped me through the storm.”
St. Vistal freely admits he struggled at first, and is grateful for Di Iorio and the HardKnox program. “It’s good for a female and a male ball player,” St. Vistal said. “Until Coach Nicole, I’d never met a female coach. It’s been four years since I’ve been with HardKnox and it helps you with discipline and things like getting good grades. It’s taught me how to live a good life, and how to get through the ups and downs. My mom would want me to do better for myself. I thank Coach Nicole every day in my life.”