Sometimes you watch so much professional sports that you forget the guys playing are normal people. In the case of my favorite new Flyer, Luca Sbisa, you forget that this tremendous athlete is just a kid. The 18 year-old defenseman was born in Italy but grew up in Switzerland before spending last season in Canada. He speaks four languages and spent the past few month's living with Riley Cote and his wife.
"We hang out and cook dinner together and do things together. It's just
like having a little brother around," added Cote, who calls Sbisa "a
low-maintenance kid and never a problem."
The Inquirer's Sam Carchidi has a fun article on Sbisa this morning that is a reminder that this gritty Flyer is only 18 years-old. That's crazy. The only sad part about the article is learning that tough guy Riley Cote has two chiuahuahs.
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Sbisa is adjusting to America fast though and will have his BMW X6 in no time.
One of the more interesting aspects of the story is about the lady who is going to take in Sbisa and act as a "housemother" of sorts which apparently is nothing new for her.
So Holmgren has arranged for Sbisa to live with a local woman, who,
over the years, has become the unofficial housemother for some of the
younger Flyers.Former Flyers Maxime Ouellet, Justin Williams and Todd Fedoruk also
lived with Allison Staffin. Sbisa will move in with her - she lives
about four miles from the team's practice rink in Voorhees, Camden
County - when he finalizes the purchase of a car this week."She's a principal or a vice principal at a high school near here, so she's used to dealing with kids that age," Holmgren said.
As noted in the piece, Sbisa's future with the team could get a little cloudy when Ryan Parent and Randy Jones return, but you know we'll be pulling for him. It certainly seems like he's off to a great start to his young career.
News
>>Youngest Flyer is fitting right in [Inquirer]