As a high school student playing football and lacrosse, Nick Savastano knew when he grew up, it was certain that he’d be part of a team environment. Fast forward to his senior year of college and Savastano is fulfilling his dreams: he’s an attackman for Springfield College’s men’s lacrosse team, and over the summer, completed an internship with the Los Angeles Rams of the National Football League.
Springfield College was a clear path for Savastano. His dad, Nick Sr., is a Springfield lacrosse alum who won the 1994 Division II National Championship under former head coach Keith Bugbee, and he helped guide Savastano to the college. Because of the strong reputation the sport management major had along with the Pride’s historic lacrosse program, Savastano chose Springfield to be his new home.
Throughout his time at Springfield, Savastano has developed several connections with alums in his major, but none more connected than Brendan Burger.
Savastano and Burger went to the same high school at Jon Jay in Cross River in N.Y., with Burger graduating from Springfield in 2008 and now serving as the Senior Equipment Director of the Rams. Ever since Savastano’s senior year of high school, the two have stayed in touch and when the time came, Savastano capitalized.
“My freshman year, we had to do a project on a professional in sports management, and I did it on [Burger],” Savastano said. “Staying in contact with him and maintaining a good relationship with him definitely helped me get [to the Rams].”
A new journey started for the rising senior at Springfield. On July 16, Savastano packed his bags and traveled over 2,800 miles to Los Angeles as an Equipment Operations Intern. Savastano had no exact plan for housing, and had never been out west to the extent of living alone in a major city.
“I was fully prepared to get an Airbnb, and I was basically just going in blind for a while,” Savastano said. “I didn’t really have that much information until much closer to the internship. I found out that we were supplied with housing everywhere we went. I was excited about that for sure.”
For the Rams’ training camp, the team was stationed at Loyola Marymount University. Savastano stayed in the staff dorms, but the setup wasn’t an average college experience.
“We had Sleep Number beds and pillows, they were shipping in mattresses,” Savastano said. “I got there before the players did, and it was one of the coolest things I’ve ever seen.”
Savastano got the typical benefits of a player, eating professionally cooked meals catered to their needs, along with the everyday life advantages that an NFL player has. The first two weeks were all planned out, waking up at 5 a.m. for a 12-plus hour work day as a do-it-all equipment person. Savastano would do laundry loops, set up the field, be a part of drills and the chain gang, as well as catching punts.
After those two weeks were up, Savastano and the rest of the Rams went back to Woodland Hills in Los Angeles for its preseason, where he stayed in the team hotel with the majority of rookies who were on the preseason roster. The contrast in life in Los Angeles was night and day compared to Springfield or even New York for Savastano.
“It’s a different world,” Savastano said. “Because I had to make it on my own out there, every day was something new. The city is so wide, everything seems an hour away unlike New York.”
As the preseason got underway, Savastano had the job of preparing jerseys and gloves for the players, including jerseys like starting quarterback Matthew Stafford’s.
Savastano’s hard work and progression throughout his internship was a product of his surroundings at Springfield College. In a Division III program such as the Pride, there isn’t a designated person for each staffed position – the reason why Savastano became the social media manager for the team he was also playing on. Using mostly media day pictures and with the help of other photographers, Savastano put together impressive graphics that were appealing to a wide audience.
“Talking with people that I worked with for the Rams, they liked the fact that I had to do a lot of stuff on my own considering I’m from a Division III school,” Savistano said. “It’s more impressive in a sense because nothing is handed to you; you have to pave your own way. It was funny because I was with guys from Michigan State, Mississippi State, and then there’s little Springfield College.”
Savastano’s time on the field for the Pride hasn’t been a stat-stuffing career, but he was still a very useful and important player under Bugbee, and now under his father’s former collegiate teammate, new head coach Sean Quirk. Late in the game, Savastano used his burst of speed multiple times last year in Springfield’s 2025 undefeated conference play, including one where he closed a game out against No. 20 Babson by running around and keeping the ball away as the clock hit triple zeroes.
Being on the field and sidelines on Stagg Field is something that Savastano enjoys, but SoFi stadium is the type of place he’d love to be in the future.
“There’s no environment like being on the sideline of an NFL team,” Savastano said. “For me, going through my career, it feels like just getting my foot in the door was the biggest step I could take. It feels like if I could survive the first experience then I have the confidence to go out and continue to do it.”