PHOTO COURTESY OF AGGANIS TOURNAMENT
Father George Tsoukalas; Cynthia Mazareas, wife of George Mazareas; and Eleni Mazareas, his daughter; present the George “Maz” Mazareas Award to Winthrop’s Nick Tsiotos. At right is tournament director Bill Booras.
By HAROLD RIVERA
LYNN — Winthrop native Nickolas Tsiotos has been selected as the 12th George K. “Maz” Mazareas award recipient for the 62nd annual Harry Agganis National Hellenic Invitational Basketball Tournament.
“I was really humbled and honored to receive the award,” Tsiotos said upon receiving the award Saturday. “George is a role model and a dignified human being. He’s very active with his family. He’s been a great role model for everybody.”
A former basketball star at Winthrop High, Tsiotos starred for the Vikings from 1972-1976. He was a team captain alongside his younger brother, Chris. Among their many accomplishments as Vikings is a 17-1 season.
After seeing success at Winthrop, Tsiotos took his talents to Huntington Prep. He then played college basketball at Suffolk University and had a one-year stint as a professional player with the Sporting Athletic Club in Greece.
“I was very fortunate,” Tsiotos said. “I played at Winthrop High for a great coach in Henry McCarthy. I captained a team that was 17-1 and I played on championship teams. We had a couple great years at Suffolk University, we played in three NCAA tournaments.”
Tsiotos’ career also included a number of appearances in the Agganis Tournament. He was a member of five Agganis Tournament championship teams, and won the Most Promising Player Award as a 16-year-old.
“It was a highly competitive tournament,” Tsiotos said. “It brought the best talent throughout the United States. I played in the tournament at its high point.
“There were teams from Detroit, Chicago, New York City. There were a lot of great basketball players. It was highly competitive,” he said.
Tsiotos also recalls playing with, and against, Mazareas in the tournament and throughout their basketball careers.
“I really have a great admiration for George Mazareas,” Tsiotos said. “He’s a great inspiration to so many people. I was very lucky to have played with George in tournaments. I also played against him, he was a fierce competitor. He has a great family.”
He added, “I think the world of George Mazareas. I was honored and humbled to receive the award. He has some identical traits to Harry Agganis. They both loved the city of Lynn. I think they both had a lot of great qualities.”
Mazareas, a former Lynn School Committee member as well as a professional basketball player in Greece, was stricken with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis in 2003.
Throughout the years, the tournament has worked to keep the Agganis legacy alive while instilling positive values into those who participate in it. While Agganis was a star athlete at Lynn Classical, Boston University and with the Red Sox, Tsiotos believes that his character is what makes the event special.
“To this day, he’s a role model,” Tsiotos said. “The fact that he’s so great, he was truly New England’s greatest athlete. He batted cleanup behind Ted Williams. The thing that carries this tournament on are the ideals that Harry stood for. Even today, he’s a role model for everybody.”
Tsiotos hopes that those who played in the tournament this past weekend get the opportunity to study Agganis’ life and the values he believed in.
“The most important thing they can carry from this is to take the time to study his life,” Tsiotos said. “There are so many Harry Agganis stories. He was a gift from God. In his short life, he impacted so many people. I think the kids are learning a lot about Harry Agganis.”
Tsiotos recently retired after a 36-year tenure as a teacher in the Boston Public Schools. Most recently, he taught at the James Otis Elementary School in East Boston.
He resides in Winthrop with his wife, Nitsa, his two sons, Dino and Vasili, and his daughter, Polixeni.
