BEVERLY — The Endicott College men’s basketball team has stormed out to a 23–1 start to the 2025–26 season, including an unblemished 15–0 mark in Conference of New England play.
At the center of that success is forward and Gloucester native Marcus Montagnino.
The graduate student is having a tremendous season, putting up 21.8 points, 7.8 rebounds and 4.6 assists a game, while shooting a very efficient 57.1% from the field.
Montagnino graduated from Gloucester High in 2020 and is the third all-time leading scorer in school history with 1,293 points. His path to Endicott is anything but conventional, spanning from high school standout to Division I walk-on, club basketball standout and ultimately a Division III All-American.
“I’ve known about Marcus since his sophomore year of high school. We tried to recruit him his senior year, but it didn’t work out at the time but we are glad he is with us now” said Endicott head coach Kevin Bettencourt. “Right away I loved Marcus’ versatility. We felt he was a perfect fit to play that point-forward role. Marcus was quiet at first, but his personality has come out more and more as we have gotten to know him.”
In his first year with the Gulls, Montagnino dominated immediately, posting 22.4 points, 8.4 rebounds, 4.6 assists per game, while claiming honors of Endicott Male Athlete of the Year, CNE Player of the Year, Div. III Athletic All-American and Academic All-American, among others. Endicott lost to Suffolk in the CNE semifinals, which ended its season after an 18-8 record. This season, Endicott is ranked No. 1 in Region II with one game remaining in the regular season.
“He is a very competitive, hard-working player who puts a ton of extra time into his game. His approach has really rubbed off on the rest of the team,” said Bettencourt. ‘I think his commitment to put in extra work and his humility have been just as impressive as his on-court success.”
“I learned hard work and putting in a lot of reps from my dad. Practice was the key to becoming good,” Montagnino said. “My first memory of basketball was when I was 5 or 6 playing at the Y and watching the Celtics with my dad and brothers. I did everything with my brothers. Playing pickup in the driveway or organized sports. It was always competitive.”
Montagnino comes from a long line of athletes. He has two brothers (Matt and Nate) who also played multiple varsity sports at Gloucester. Their father, Jimmy., did as well. Most prestigiously, his aunt, Paula Ryan, was the first girls 1,000-point scorer and a member of the school’s Hall of Fame.
A four-year varsity player, Montagnino helped the Fishermen to a state semifinals appearance in his junior year, which is tied for the longest playoff run in school history.
“He was the best player I have ever been around in Gloucester and was really fun to coach,” said longtime Fisherman head coach Khris Silveira. “You usually don’t see kids that age come in with that type of skill set with the fundamentals, team basketball style of play, and intelligence on the court. For someone who is not jumping through the gym or the fastest, he reminds me of how Luka Doncic plays offensively.”
Montagnino had offers to play basketball and/or baseball from countless local colleges, but had bigger dreams of playing at the Division I level. He enrolled at Xavier University in Ohio after high school, but did not attend until the spring semester of 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic restrictions at the time. Due to not being on campus in that fall semester, all sports tryouts had already been completed. He started to adjust to life as a regular college student, but missed the competitiveness of sports he had been accustomed to his whole life.
Coming back the following fall semester, the NCAA tryouts for basketball were earlier in the year so he planned to try basketball, and if that didn’t work he would go for baseball.
“I planned on trying out for basketball and baseball. If I didn’t make one, then I would try for the other,” said Montagnino. “Basketball tryouts were earlier in the year, so I did that first. I actually have never played AAU basketball before, only baseball. I played a lot more of that growing up.”
Montagnino ultimately earned a spot on the roster as a walk-on, one of just four players to do so. While he did not appear in a game or travel with the team, he practiced daily and remained fully embedded with the program. The Musketeers went on to win the National Invitation Tournament (NIT) championship that season.
Before that NIT run, Xavier had fired head coach Travis Steele. Montagnino was then told by the incoming coach that they would look in other directions for walk-ons.
“I was really annoyed and upset from the whole process, but I understood it,” said Montagnino. “At first I was kind of down, but things have turned out well.”
Instead of looking to transfer schools, Montagnino found another route. A friend of Montagnino’s had started a club basketball program at Xavier in the 2021-22 season. He was thrilled that Montagnino was looking to continue playing. The Musketeers’ club team would play roughly 20 games a season against schools from around the region, including Ohio State, Dayton, Butler and Indiana. The team won its region and punched its ticket into the club national tournament.
Montagnino was a star player, averaging roughly 25 points per game. He was unable to play in their first-round game due to an ankle injury, and the team lost. The next year, his final year of undergrad, the team only lost one game all season, and that was in their regional semifinal.
After graduating with a degree in sports management, he decided to continue his athletic career in grad school. Bettencourt had stayed in contact with him over the years. So Montagnino decided to make the 15-minute commute to Beverly and join the Gulls as a grad student with two years of eligibility.
After this season, Montagnino will earn his master’s degree in sports leadership and hopes to continue playing professionally overseas.
