Just days after the Malta Basketball revealed that Starlites captain Alec Felice Pace would be leaving the club in favour of a move overseas to Germany to join City Basket Recklinghausen in the Regionalliga 1 West, fellow Felice Pace brother Ian will now be taking charge of the team’s captaincy together with Kurt Xuereb for the coming season.
Speaking to Malta Basketball, Ian Felice Pace said that the team has learnt a lot from his brother but it is now time for them to step up.
“When he (Alec) announced it to us, we were all gathered together at the end-of-season meeting, and it was a shock for all of us,” he said.
“As his brother, I knew about it before, but still, you know, having him there to show the ropes the whole time, and being that smile in a morning session where you just don’t feel like it was important. He would just be up and down, jumping around smiling, and you know it lifts our spirits as well. So those 8AM sessions were okay then.
“We just have to step up now. We learned from him a lot, a lot, both on and off the court, so we just need to carry what he learnt and take it out there on the court and give it our all.”
Memorable season
On the back of a memorable season at Starlites, helping the team win all possible domestic trophies, Felice Pace was awarded an important role within coach Duncan Fenech’s National Team, starting all but one of the five games played throughout the FIBA European Small Countries Championship in Andorra in June.
During Malta’s silver-medal run, Ian Felice Pace averaged 3.5 points, 2.3 assists and 2.8 rebounds per game as Fenech opted to play through the young guard. Asked about the experience, he told Malta Basketball it was one he would cherish for the rest of his life.
“I mean, it’s quite surreal, it’s something you dream of, winning all competitions you take part in, including under 23s as well,” he explained.
“It was also my last time (at U23 level), so it was even sweeter. But then, you know, you have to forget what you did throughout the season and focus on the national team. Because it’s a totally new experience, a new coach, and we didn’t know what to expect. I mean, four teams in the competition, we were going for gold full-on. It turned out how it turned out, but for me personally, it was my first time starting in the national team, and first time scoring. So, it was a dream come true for me. Andorra is going to live in my memory forever.”
Felice Pace returns to European competition soon, this time with Starlites, in the FIBA Europe Cup qualifiers in September. Felice Pace showed his excitement, saying it was “something you dream of as a kid”.
“I’m 23 years old and playing in Europe is something you dream of as a kid,” he remarked.
“Malta is mostly a football country, so (we’re used to) watching Champions League football all the time, and this is also a European competition, you know what I mean?
“This is going to be, not just one step, but two steps up for us. We’ve looked at the list of possible teams we can play in the draws this week, and they’re tough, but we’re going to go out there, we’re going to give it our all, and we’re going to learn so much from this.
“We’re such a young team. I mean, we have a saying between us on our team – we don’t take a loss, we learn: L is for learning not for losing, so we’re gonna give it our all and we see what happens. These teams are incredible so all we can do is learn from them and this experience.”