'Gentle giant' accepts his shocking stature

Tyler Bergantino, 14, towers over his peers at 6 feet 6. But to him, "it's normal."

By JOHN C. COTEY
Published January 29, 2008

ADVERTISEMENT Video A tall tale: Meet the "gentle giant" [Brian Cassella | Times] The 6-foot-6 Tyler Bergantino, center, scores 18 in the season opener for Challenger Middle School. [Brian Cassella | Times] Even when he was in the second grade, Tyler Bergantino had to show his birth certificate at sporting events to prove his age.

SPRING HILL - Tyler Bergantino is only 14 years old, but he is 6 feet,6 inches tall, 245 pounds heavy and ducks when he enters a room.

When he does, people stare. When he walks down a hall, people point. When he walks onto a basketball court, jaws drop open.

This is life for Spring Hill's gentle giant.

"It's normal for me to walk around and just be big, I guess," he said.

- - -

His old YMCA coach said he remembers last year when Bergantino was a mere 6 feet 2.

He remembers a game when the team he was coaching was desperately trying to get a little girl named Amy her first basket of the season.

She kept missing. Bergantino kept rebounding.

Shoot. Rebound. Shoot. Rebound.

Swish.

"He kept grabbing the ball and feeding her until she made the shot," Harry Johnson said. "That's the kind of kid he is. He really is a gentle giant."

Johnson thinks one day Bergantino will be a Division I-A player. But he'd rather tell you the story about Amy instead.

- - -

Jeff Laing coaches at Challenger Middle School, where Bergantino scored 18 in Monday's season opener.

Laing coached the varsity team at Hernando High for seven years. He had more than his share of tall kids, and eventually they grew into 6-7 or 6-8 college players.

But they didn't weigh 245 pounds when they got to high school. Bergantino is 10 months away from the start of basketball season at Nature Coast Tech. He's still growing.

"How big will he get? That's the question," Laing said.

Challenger won its first game 41-12. Bergantino was covered half the time by kids who barely came up to his jersey number.

He is modest and unselfish, and he can post up anyone on the court - and that includes just about anyone in the stands.

Most of the time, though, he looked to pass.

Unless his team needed points.

Laing implored his kids during a timeout: "Let me put this as succinctly as I can. He's 6-5. Throw him the ball."

- - -

Mike Bergantino took his son to the doctor last year, when Tyler had to get a broken hand checked.

The doctor told the dad that after most kids reach 6-5, their growth plates begin to close.

Tyler's, she said, are wide open.

"She said if she was starting a pool, she'd say no shorter than 6-9 or 6-10," Mike Bergantino said.

Tyler Bergantino was only 7 pounds, 6 ounces at birth. But from three months on, he was "off the charts."

Sometimes, Bergantino doesn't like being off the charts.

"He's had people in the past call him a freak," Mike said. "He wants to know, 'Dad, why do people call me a freak?'"

But most of the time, he likes being big. Tyler says 6-7 would be perfect.

- - -

Of all the equipment Bergantino brings to games, none is more important than his birth certificate.

"Really, we have to bring it everywhere," Mike said.

One time, when Tyler was in the second grade, they wouldn't start a soccer game until his mother went home to produce proof of his age.

At another game years later, he reached up and touched the crossbar. Parents cried foul.

Birth certificate, please.

"Some people don't believe it, even after you show it," said his AAU coach, Goldie Ayers. "They just say no way. No way."

- - -

This week, Bergantino got a new pair of shoes.

Size 20.

Last week, it was size 19. The weeks before that, the numbers fly by like those on the face of shuffled cards.

Up and up he goes - where he'll stop, no one knows.

John C. Cotey can be reached at 813 909-4612 or johncotey@gmail.com.

[Last modified January 29, 2008, 00:03:50]