Senior basketball player Sam Iorio had plenty of options to play basketball in college. Twelve different schools offered him scholarships, but only one got his commitment. And that was the school that stuck with him through the beginning, and who he had the best relationship with.

Two weeks ago, Iorio committed to play at American University for the next four years.

“American stuck with me the whole time, they had a lot of faith in me,” Iorio said. “I took a visit there a couple of weeks ago and I hung out with the team. The coaching staff has great, great guys. I really felt like this was the best opportunity for me. I wanted to be 100 percent sure of my decision. I started boiling it down to two and that’s when it got real for me. If I felt good about it, I decided to get it over with so I could focus on other things, like what I need to do to make Parkland better this year.”

Besides the relationships with the coaches and players, the opportunity to play was a big factor in the decision. The other finalist along with American was Villanova, a school coming off a national title, and the alma mater of Iorio’s grandfather.

“I had many great opportunities and one of them was Villanova, but this opportunity gives me a chance to play, and maybe even start right away,” said Iorio. “That was big. That really contributed to my decision. I probably wasn’t going to get the immediate playing time I will at American if I went to Villanova.”

Another plus to American is the familiarity with the Patriot League as a whole. There will be two games a year played in the Lehigh Valley against Lehigh and Lafayette. Iorio’s former teammate at Parkland, Kyle Stout, is a freshmen at Lafayette, so they will now be competitors.

“I have a lot of AAU teammates in the Patriot League, so every league game should be a lot of fun,” said Iorio. “We’ll have a good enough team to compete in the nonleague games as well. It will be nice to play back home a few times a year.”

Iorio has been a three-year starter for Parkland, who has won four straight District 11 Class 4A titles. He averaged 18 points, 7 rebounds and a pair of assists per game last year as a junior. He ended his junior season with 1,222 points, the second most in school history behind only 2002 grad Adam Lane, who totaled 1,636.

“Parkland has been great to me,” Iorio said. “I have been on some great teams, and played with some really good players, and have had great coaches that have taught me a lot about the game of basketball. It has helped me get to where I am and be able to play Division I basketball.”

Iorio will be a small forward at the next level.