Pietro Passiatore lost his battle with illness. He was only 17 years old.

The Italian basketball community is in shock over the passing, at just 17 years old, of Pietro Passiatore, a very young basketball player for ASD Santa Caterina of Genoa, who died on Saturday, November 7, after bravely battling a serious illness. Pietro was the son of Stefano Passiatore, a highly respected coach for the team and a prominent figure in the regional basketball community—active with Ardita Juventus and Polisportiva SCAT Genova—as well as a longtime organizer of the Vittorio Cavaleri Clinic.

““After a long battle, Pietro Passiatore, an Under-19 player, has left us,” wrote the club for which the young athlete played basketball. “Our hearts go out to his parents and Chiara at this time. The club has requested and secured the postponement of today’s games to a date to be determined.” This weekend, only the U13 boys’ and U17 girls’ games against Ardita Juventus 1906 will be played—a derby that was especially important to Pietro, given that SCAT nurtured him, but Nervi was where he took his first shots at the basket.”

The Ligurian Regional Committee of the Italian Basketball Federation also expressed its condolences: “The President and the entire Executive Board of the Ligurian Regional Committee extend their heartfelt sympathy to all his loved ones, especially his mother Lea, his sister Chiara, and his father Stefano, a prominent figure in the regional basketball community who has been active in recent years with Ardita Juventus and Polisportiva SCAT Genova and who for many years organized the ‘Vittorio Cavaleri’ Clinic.”

As announced by the family, the Holy Rosary will be held on November 8 at 5:30 p.m. inside the church of the Santuario della Madonnetta in Castelletto, while the funeral service will take place at the same sanctuary on November 9 at 11:30 a.m.