Former boys’ basketball team manager and football player Anthony Sevieri has found a passion.
Anthony Sevieri had a bird’s eye view of the boys’ basketball games during his time at Whitman-Hanson Regional High.
He could usually be found either way up in the stands or up above on the walking track filming the game. His position was team manager.
“I was just chilling in Mr. [Bob] Rodgers’ room before the Scituate (playoff game), and he out of nowhere asked if anyone wanted to film the game and get in for free,” Sevieri said, “so I said, ‘Why not?’ It became my role from there.”
In the fall, he suited up for the football team. They called him Big Tony.
He also developed a passion for music in high school.
“Freshman year, I had gone through a bit of a mess-up situation and the best way I figured I could cope with that was writing music and it kind of became my thing,” said the 2018 W-H graduate. “I would write music for how I was feeling pretty much.
“My nickname on the football team was Big Tony and I kind of went with that for my stage name, and in 2018 I put out my first couple of songs and figured at some point I wanted to make merchandise to promote that and promote that anyone can pretty much do anything if they put their mind to it.”
Fitting for what Sevieri’s been going through.
“It was a day in September and I was with my trainer and I noticed my breathing wasn’t right,” he said. “It was feeling very different than how it felt before.”
So he alerted his mother about it.
“She said I had a doctor’s appointment that Wednesday, so I went in and explained how I was feeling,” Sevieri explained. “Despite there not being any signs on any scans or anything she ordered the X-ray and they found a 15-by-11 centimeter mass in my chest.”
Additional tests down the road revealed Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. He finished his final chemotherapy treatment last month.
And while he wasn’t able to socialize with his friends during that period, Sevieri found other ways to pass the time. He began to expand his brand, unveiling Big Tony Brand T-shirts in February.
“I haven’t been able to go out much, so it’s given me a lot of time to figure out internal things I can do, such as making the brand he said.
At last count — in early March — there’s about 100 floating around.
“I definitely want it to be a brand people will like and a brand people will see on shelves and see say ‘I like it, I’ll buy it,’” Sevieri said.
“Everything I make just helps me refund the company.”
To buy one: search @bigtonybrandofficial on Instagram.