It takes Nate Sestina a little over two hours to get from his new home in Lewisburg, PA back to his hometown of Emporium.
On that drive back as he weaves his way through the hills and forests of Cameron County, it’s hard for Sestina to keep his mind off basketball.
Sestina is fresh off of his second consecutive trip to the NCAA Tournament as a crucial bench player for Bucknell University. Sestina, one of the most accomplished basketball players in District 9 history, came into his own as a junior this year for the Bison.
The 6-foot-9 forward appeared in 34 games, averaging 6.5 points and four rebounds for the Bison.
His team had another remarkable season, going 16-2 in the Patriot League before throttling Colgate by 29 points in the league championship game to secure another trip to the Big Dance. Their opponent in the first round: mighty Michigan State.
But, if you know anything about Sestina or his Bucknell teammates, it was obvious they weren’t going to go down without a fight.
“I was talking with our center (Nana Foulland) after practice, and he said to just look at it as another game,” Sestina said. “And that’s how you have to attack it. You can’t think of these guys as NBA players or gods, they put their shoes on the same way that we do, and anything can happen in a basketball game. It’s 40 minutes long.”
The Bison were tied with the Spartans at halftime before Michigan State (ripe with NBA prospects such as Miles Bridges) pulled away in the second half and eventually won by just four.
Sestina played 18 minutes against the Spartans, grabbing seven boards and adding seven points off the bench.
Coming from a town with a little more than 2,000 residents, Sestina admits he was a bit awestruck taking in some of the sights and sounds this season. The game against Michigan State at Detroit’s Little Caesars Arena had an announced attendance of 20,314 people.
“There were more people there than the seven surrounding counties where I grew up,” Sestina joked.
Earlier this year, Sestina and the Bison had tough non-conference matchups against North Carolina and Maryland. Those high-profile games meant that plenty of national analysts and former star players were studying up on Sestina.
“I’m used to being from a small town and having the small newspapers covering you and then all of a sudden you have CBS reporters talking about you or guys on ESPN talking about you,” he said. “I had Wally Szczerbiak talking about me at halftime (of the Spartans game). I think that’s awesome.”
Although Sestina has experienced some of the brightest lights in his sport over the past 13 months, he’s remained incredibly humble. Even though practices and classes occupy most of his free time, Sestina still checks in with his high school team regularly, and pays a visit to his old stomping grounds when he’s home in the winter.
Ironically enough, Cameron County lost their starting center to injury just before this season began. As much as Sestina probably wished he was a couple of years younger so that he could step into that role, he will have to settle for mentorship.
“Everytime I go home for Christmas I get to go in and either watch a game and talk to the guys before the game or I get to watch a practice,” Sestina said. “(CC head coach Mark Guido) comes over for dinner sometimes and we talk basketball. Sometimes we talk basketball at our level or basketball at his level and he tries to bring things into practice. For me, I’m always trying to learn how I can get better or how I can improve as a player and as a person. It’s always nice to go home and talk to him about it.”
And who better for the current Cameron County players to learn from than one of the best players in program history. As a senior in 2014-15, Sestina led the Red Raiders to the Sweet 16 of the PIAA tournament, marking the first time the school had won a state playoff game since 1972. He picked up 26 double-doubles in 28 games that season and was rewarded with numerous accolades that included Big 30 and North Tier League Player of the Year.
“I always compare high schools with my friends, and most of my teammates at Bucknell went to private schools and these preps schools, and had teammates from all over the country and I don’t get that,” Sestina said.“Whoever is in your town, or in our case your county, that’s who is on your team. For us, we had a group of five seniors who wanted to win games and win a District 9 title and make a run in state playoffs. I think it’s kind of crazy how I went from doing that to making noise in the NCAA Tournament at the Division I level.”
Sestina won’t be coming home this summer, however, as he’ll stay back at Bucknell to work on perfecting his game before his senior season, while taking a class, of course.
Sestina admits that Bucknell, which has an acceptance rate of just 24 percent and is considered a “Hidden Ivy League” school because of its rigorous academics, has its challenging moments for student-athletes. However, for a school that’s made six tournament appearances since 2005, their recipe seems to be working.
“The balance between school and basketball is the deciding point on whether or not kids want to do it,” he said. “I think that for us we found a group of guys that were committed to working hard and doing the extra stuff for the entire year. We have 14 guys that love winning and hate losing more than they love to win. For us, losing really isn’t a good option.”
Although Bucknell graduates three senior starters and close to 70 percent of their scoring from this season, the Bison are once again considered the favorite to repeat in the Patriot League. This go-around, it’ll be Sestina playing an even bigger role on a team that is hungry to advance past the first round of the NCAA Tournament.
Through it all, Sestina has never lost sight of his roots.
“It’s all super humbling,” he said. “You can’t ever let the spotlight get too big and forget where you’re from or who you are. I think you can give credit to my parents for doing that with all five of their kids. No matter what the circumstances, you never forget who you are or where you came from because that’s where things go wrong.”
