HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL PREVIEW A Decided New Look Coaches change but balance within leagues remains:
By Gregg Sarra. STAFF WRITER. Newsday, Combined editions; Long Island, N.Y. [Long Island, N.Y]. 12 Sep 1993
Talk about a shakeup. Conference I takes on a new look this year as five new coaches test the waters in Suffolk’s largest conference. The hirings, firings and replacement of coaches certainly will have an effect on the conference. But none of the changes will be as great as the departure of Connetquot superback Chad Bosch.
Bosch, perhaps the most dominant player in the county for the past three years, graduated last year and left the Thunderbirds holding the Long Island Class I championship trophy.
“No one can take Chad’s place,” said Connetquot coach Nick Masi. “No one has his cutting ability.”
Whenever Connetquot stumbled, Bosch was there to improvise and make things right. When a big play had to be made, he made it.
Now Masi will turn to veteran quarterback Scott Coppola to make the plays and carry the offense. Coppola also kicked 36 of 37 extra point attempts and was 4-for-4 on field goals. In the backfield, senior Jake Poffenbarger and junior John Ciorcari will split time for the Thunderbirds, who lost 12 starters.
With Connetquot depleted by graduation, the team to watch is Sachem. Flaming Arrows’ coach Fred Fusaro has a tremendous offensive line corps with senior Drew Romeo (6-3, 235), junior tackles Jason Maher (6-4, 235), Dan DelOrfano (6-3, 245) and Ray Bauer (5-11, 235).
Northport captain and three-year, two-way starter Mark Dantuono (6-0, 220) could be the best lineman in the county, according to coach Kip Lukralle. Quarterback Brian Willie (6-3, 190) will run the Wing-T behind Dantuono and tackle Sven Kleven (6-0, 190).
At Lindenhurst, the Bulldogs will be hard-pressed to replace quarterback Vin Fredericks and lineman Terence Mueller, the Zellner Award recipient.
As for the coaching changes, Bob Scanone replaces Bob Reifsnyder at Patchogue-Medford; George McLaren takes over at Centereach after coach Robin Rosa left for a job in the Whitman district; Bill Edwards takes over from Al Mattera at Commack; Angelo Giugliano is in at Smithtown and Bob Pratt is out; and Matt Fauvell takes over at Brentwood for Ernie Villatore.
Ward Melville, Longwood and Floyd round out the conference.
Longwood 35, Melville 7: Longwood scored 28 points in the second half, including Jimmy Hill’s 23-yard run in the third quarter that broke a tie at 7. Jason Schuster scored two touchdowns and had an interception that led to a score in the third quarter.
Schuster, John Lange and Jimmy Hill combined for 371 yards rushing. The Lions made 19 first downs and 400 yards total. Sept. 19
Longwood 37, Brentwood 3: Jason Schuster rushed for 179 yards on 15 carries and scored twice to key a Longwood rushing attack that amassed 311 yards.
Schuster broke three tackles and went 71 yards for a score on Longwood‘s third play from scrimmage to put the Lions ahead 7-0. Longwood increased its lead to 17-0 by scoring on its first two possessions of the second quarter. A 30-yard run by Schuster set up Matt Simonton’s 29-yard field goal and after forcing Brentwood to punt, quarterback Eric Brown hit Jack Molini with a 15-yard scoring pass.
Linebackers John Lange (12) and Brian Drago totaled 19 tackles to lead the Lions’ defense. Oct. 3
Call Lions Contenders Win shows Longwood is for real:
By John Valenti. STAFF WRITER. Newsday, Combined editions; Long Island, N.Y. [Long Island, N.Y]. 10 Oct 1993:
The line of cars stretched down Longwood Road. That alone might be enough to explain how times have changed. Now, people come to watch Longwood play football games. Better yet, when it is time to leave after the game, they go home satisfied.
It wasn’t always like that, mainly because of Longwood‘s history of losing. But no more. Having put together only its second winning season in 22 years of football last season, when it reached the Suffolk Division I championship game, Longwood has proved that success was no fluke. The latest bit of evidence was suppiled yesterday, when the Lions overcame a dismal first-half performance to defeat Patchogue-Medford, 14-7.
With the win, Longwood improved to 3-0 for the first time in school history.
“There were four undefeated teams,” Longwood quarterback Eric Brown said of the race in Division I between Longwood, Lindenhurst, Floyd and Patchogue-Medford, “and all four of them were playing today. We said to ourselves, `Now we can see who is who.’ “
And, who is Longwood? “We’re the contenders,” said Brown, who sealed the win when he intercepted a pass by Kevin Keller on his own 11-yard line in the final minute – ripping the ball out of the hands of intended receiver Steven Brown. “Not pretenders.”
It would seem so, despite the first half.
Longwood lost five yards on its first possession, lost one on its second, was held to four yards on its third and had one play for 1 yard to end the first quarter with minus-1 yard in total offense. The second quarter was hardly better, the Lions managing 11 yards on seven plays – for 10 yards total offense on 14 first-half plays. It was scoreless at halftime because Patchogue-Medford committed three turnovers, which offset an offense that gained 117 yards – including 53 yards rushing by David Tina.
“They’re a good football team,” said Kevin McCarthy, the second-year coach of Longwood. “It was nothing-nothing at halftime and we stunk on offense and weren’t very good on defense, either. But they made the mistakes and we didn’t. That was the difference.”
“Sometimes, destiny is not on your side,” said first-year Patchogue-Medford coach Robert Sconone, whose team committed five turnovers overall. “We’ve got a good football team, a team that won’t quit. But the breaks went their way, not ours.”
The biggest break, no doubt, occurred at the end of the first possession of the second half, when Ronald Bose, punting from his own 25-yard-line, fielded a low snap – and touched his knee on the ground. That gave Longwood possession of the ball at the Patchogue-Medford 14. Three plays later, Jason Schuster took a pitch right and scored on a 7-yard run. Unable to move the ball on its next possession, Patchogue-Medford again had to punt. On the first play from scrimmage following that punt, Schuster went left, cut outside, burst down the sideline, then cut back to the middle to score on a 53-yard run.
Patchogue-Medford managed to trim the deficit to 14-7 when Steven Brown scored on a 7-yard run two plays after Schuster fumbled a punt at his own 9 and it was recovered by Terry Wenzel. Although the Red Raiders advanced to the Longwood 47 in the final minute, Keller had his long pass attempt to Steven Brown intercepted by Eric Brown.
“We did get lucky in the first half,” Schuster said. “They could have had us in trouble. But we came out in the second half and did the things we had to do, the things we knew we could do.”
Lindenhurst defeated Smithtown, 27-6, yesterday and Connetquot defeated Floyd, 21-18, – all of which means there are but two teams unbeaten in Division I. As of this morning, Longwood is one of them.
“And,” McCarthy said, “that’s a nice feeling.”
Schuster’s Two TDs Boost Longwood:
Newsday, Combined editions; Long Island, N.Y. [Long Island, N.Y]. 24 Oct 1993
Jason Schuster rushed for 114 yards and scored two second-half touchdowns as league-leading Longwood erased a 7-0 first-quarter deficit and defeated Floyd, 17-7, in a Division I football game yesterday. Longwood (5-0) rushed for 233 yards behind an offensive line of Ken Powell, Bryan Drago, Nick Avitable, Rick Hauser and Mike Cassione. Floyd scored on its first possession, but linebacker John Lange (14 tackles) and Schuster (11 tackles) stifled the offense.
Lindenhurst 38, Commack 6: Commack was held to 72 total yards, 58 on one play. The Bulldogs recovered three fumbles and recorded six sacks as they improved to 5-0 and set up a showdown next week with Longwood for the league lead. On defense, nose guard Keith Morgan had two sacks and seven tackles. Linebackers Joe Parmentier (eight tackles, one sack) and Joe Balsamo (seven tackles and a sack) keyed the defense. Matt Maltese had 111 yards on 13 carries and Rae Morrill (51 yards, 10 carries) scored two touchdowns. Lindenhurst rushed 44 times for 314 yards. Frank Migliore had two touchdown receptions from Duane O’Connor (5-for-10, 70 yards).
Northport 21, Brentwood 7: The Tigers’ defense intercepted four passes and recovered three fumbles to repeatedly thwart Brentwood, which fumbled on its first play from scrimmage at its 9-yard line. Four plays later, Darren DeMarco scored the first of his two touchdowns. DeMarco gained 138 yards on 16 carries. Cornerback Chris Ward keyed the Northport defense with two interceptions and a fumble recovery. Linebacker Adam Schaefer had nine unassisted tackles and returned an interception for the game’s final touchdown. Strong safety Phil Cuiffo also had nine tackles.
Connetquot 18, Smithtown 0: Connetquot scored all three of its touchdowns off Smithtown turnovers. Connetquot’s Chris Ekstam recovered a fumble on a punt to set up a first-and-goal at Smithtown’s 3-yard line. Scott Coppola scored from the 1 to give Connetquot the lead. with three minutes left in the third quarter. John Brady had two interceptions and four solo tackles. Brian Shaffer returned an interception for 70 yards, setting up Jake Poffenbarger’s 8-yard touchdown run for Connetquot’s last touchdown.
Ward Melville 36, Centereach 28: Ward Melville scored three unanswered touchdowns spanning the second and third quarters to take a 29-12 lead. Craig Velez caught a 37-yard pass from John Louis to put Ward Melville ahead for good at 13-12 with five minutes left in the first half. The pass capped a seven-play, 68-yard drive. Kevin Kalberer caught a 27-yard screen pass from Louis to give Ward Melville a first-and-10 on Centereach’s 40-yard line two plays before the score. Louis completed 12 of 18 passes for 190 yards and three touchdowns and ran for another score. Velez caught seven of those passes for 120 yards and two touchdowns. Dwayne Glass ran for 101 yards on 12 carries.
Patchogue-Medford 19, Sachem 14: Defensive end David Tina intercepted a Pete O’Leary pass at the 1-yard line with 22 seconds left in the fourth quarter to stall Sachem’s comeback attempt Friday night. Tina returned the interception to the Sachem 6-yard line and the Raiders ran the clock out. Quarterback Kevin Keller rushed for 76 yards on five carries and scored two touchdowns and threw for another score to lead the Raider offense. Keller’s 14-yard scoring pass to Anthony DeBlasio gave the Raiders a 19-0 lead with two minutes left in the second quarter.
A Shifty Golden Boy Schuster runs wild to help Longwood claim first place:
By Gregg Sarra. STAFF WRITER. Newsday, Combined editions; Long Island, N.Y. [Long Island, N.Y]. 31 Oct 1993
Kids do weird things for Halloween. This was Halloween weekend so yesterday Longwood running back Jason Schuster decided to dye his hair gold.
It must have had a profound effect on the rest of his body. Against Lindenhurst yesterday, Schuster was golden.
He gained 176 yards on 19 carries and scored two touchdowns as the Lions claimed sole possession of first place in Division I with a 21-14 win over previously unbeaten Lindenhurst.
Schuster is in a class by himself. Last year, he became the first Longwood back to gain 1,000 yards in a season since 1981. He had 1,177 as a junior and has 898 yards through six games this year.
Longwood won for the sixth consecutive time because Lindenhurst found Schuster’s moves too tricky. He opened the scoring with a 1-yard touchdown plunge for a 7-0 lead to cap a six-play, 32-yard drive with 1:18 left in the first quarter and gave the home fans a special treat with a dazzling 63-yard touchdown run with 4:59 left in the second quarter for a 14-0 lead. The Bulldogs never fully recovered from that run.
“He made us miss tackles all over the field,” said Lindenhurst coach Rich Biancaniello. “It was some run.”
That back-breaker came after the Bulldogs drove 46 yards to the Lions’ 37 before turning the ball over on downs. Biancaniello chanced a fake punt. Quarterback Duane O’Connor took the snap and was stopped well short of the first down by Lions linebacker John Lange.
“We were deep enough in their territory to try it,” Biancaniello said. “When it works you’re a genius – when it doesn’t . . .”
Schuster made the Bulldogs pay for not punting.
He took the next pitch from quarterback Eric Brown and got outside the containment for what seemed to be a 120-yard run. He weaved his way in and around Lindenhurst defenders, breaking three tackles, jumping over two defenders, and finally making a hustling but exhausted Joe Parmentier miss him at the 2-yard line for the score. It was as fast an obstacle course run as there is.
“My brother and his friends used to spank {tackle hard} me real bad when they let me play tackle with them,” Schuster said. “So I developed some skills running away from them.”
That he did.
“We’re an option sprintout type of offense,” said Longwood coach Kevin McCarthy. “And with Eric and Jason, I feel we have two of the best high school players on Long Island.”
He might be right.
Brown took the second-half kickoff and darted up the middle untouched for a 93-yard kickoff return for a touchdown and a 21-0 lead. Schuster threw the key block, sealing the inside as Brown whisked past him. “I couldn’t believe they kicked deep to us,” McCarthy said. “Not with those two kids back there.”
But there was no quit in Lindenhurst.
Matt Maltese gathered in the Lions’ kickoff and he went 88 yards for a Bulldog touchdown on the next play. The two-point conversion run was stopped by a hoarde of Lions defenders and the Bulldogs trailed 21-6.
“We never gave up,” said Biancaniello. “I give these kids a lot of credit. We were behind and I never saw one of them quit. We showed character and went toe-to-toe with one of the better football teams on Long Island today.”
Lindenhurst kept coming and coming. The Bulldogs outgained the Lions 351-263 and O’Connor completed 17 of 30 passes for 184 yards. He found wideout Jeff Klein seven times for 95 yards and hit Maltese with a 24-yard strike to set up Maltese’s 1-yard touchdown run that made the score 21-12 with 1:26 left. O’Connor then hit Joe Balsamo with a two-point conversion pass to make it 21-14.
“We’ve had some tough games and to be the best you have to win the close ones,” McCarthy said. “No win is as good as it seems and no loss it as bad as it seems. We never hit the panic button and we teach the kids to keep it on an even keel. We don’t get overly pumped or overly depressed. I think that’s helped us the past four weeks in four consecutive dogfights.”
With that in mind, Longwood covered the on-side kick and ran out the clock for another close victory. Longwood, the sleeping giant in Suffolk football, has arrived in a big way.
“We are where we want to be,” McCarthy said. “But not where we want to go.”
This may be the year the Lions go all the way. And that would be to the Long Island championship game at Hofstra.
Longwood 21, Northport 10: Longwood overcame a 10-0 deficit by scoring 21 unanswered points. Tailback Jason Schuster had 159 yards on 25 carries and scored all three touchdowns for Longwood. Fullback John Lange ran for 91 yards on nine carries and set up the go-ahead score with a 33-yard run. Nov. 13
Underdogs’ Time to Howl:
By Gregg Sarra. STAFF WRITER. Newsday, Combined editions; Long Island, N.Y. [Long Island, N.Y]. 19 Nov 1993
This wasn’t a good year to be second-seeded in Suffolk football, but it was a great year to be 10th-seeded.
Only one second-seeded team (Longwood in Division I) made the playoffs, while three – Bellport (3-5) in Division II, Riverhead (4-4) in Division III and Harborfields (3-5) in Division IV – failed to get into postseason play.
On the other hand, three 10th-seeded teams qualified for the playoffs: Hills East (7-1) in Division II, Deer Park (6-2) in Division III and Hampton Bays (4-4) in Division IV.
“I don’t know how to explain it,” Hills East coach Greg Toop said. “These things happen, I guess.”
It wasn’t a good year to be a defending Long Island champion either.
Suffolk’s two defending Long Island champions – Bellport and Connetquot – failed even to qualify for the playoffs.
Which means that in five of Long Island’s eight conferences, a team that was seeded no better than 10th made the playoffs and three of four Long Island champions, including Nassau’s Island Trees, did not qualify for postseason play to defend their respective titles.
What parity. DIVISION I
Connetquot was denied post-season play after an 18-13 setback against Sachem in the season finale. The victory moved the Flaming Arrows (5-3) into the playoffs as the fourth-seed against top-seeded Longwood (7-1). Although Sachem coach Fred Fusaro has his team on a roll with three consecutive wins, including a 16-0 shutout of Lindenhurst, he’ll need a supreme defensive effort against one of Long Island’s better backfields. Longwood has halfback Jason Schuster (1,103 yards rushing, 14 touchdowns) and lightning-uick QB / kick returner Eric Brown.
“This game will come down to our defensive line stopping their running game and our secondary containing {wideout Michael} Brantley,” said Longwood coach Kevin McCarthy.
Longwood Gets Won for History: [NASSAU AND SUFFOLK Edition]
By John Valenti. STAFF WRITER. Newsday, Combined editions; Long Island, N.Y. [Long Island, N.Y]. 28 Nov 1993
Their team had been the lost cause of lost causes forever, it seemed. Plagued by austerity, dogged by underachievement. The kind of team doomed before it ever stepped on the field. There had been one winning season in the first 21 years of football at Longwood, and in all that time there had been mostly frustration.
Jason Schuster and his teammates recalled that history yesterday – the two-win season his brother, Scott, endured in his senior year in 1989; the 0-8 season Schuster and his teammates watched as freshmen in 1990 – and that made all this so much sweeter. “When we were all younger,” Jason Schuster said, “it would have been hard to believe we’d ever even win a game. We would have been real happy just to win one game back then. Now this . . . “
“This” was what happened yesterday at Longwood, a little bit of history. Not only did the Lions earn the right to extend their second consecutive winning season one week, but they also accomplished a first at Longwood. They won their first county championship, beating Lindenhurst, 21-2, before a crowd of 2,000 in the Suffolk Division I championship. The victory earned Longwood (9-1) the right to meet Massapequa for the Long Island Class I championship Saturday night at Hofstra.
Who would have thought?
“It’s amazing,” said second-year head coach Kevin McCarthy, whose team made the county finals last season. “It’s something. I believed for a long time that Longwood had good kids, tough kids. That it could win games. I’ve been in the district since 1981 and I always thought it could be done and now they’ve done it. They’ve taken Longwood to a place that represents quality.”
That they did so was as much about guts, grit and determination as it was about talent, something Lindenhurst surely could understand. Like Longwood, which is playing in its first season in six years without being on austerity, Lindenhurst began the season on austerity – and suffered with it for a month before its school budget finally was approved. That the Bulldogs (7-3) even reached this game was an achievement, all things considered. They were seeded seventh in the division. They suited only 28 players this season.
“I told them,” Lindenhurst coach Rich Biancaniello said, “that I was very proud of them. They gave me a game every week.”
Try as it might yesterday, though, it wasn’t enough. Behind the running of John Lange, who finished with 89 yards rushing on 11 carries, and Schuster, who gained 126 on 29, Longwood drove 54 yards on its second possession and scored on Schuster’s 1-yard dive.
It appeared Lindenhurst would come right back. The Bulldogs drove from their 37-yard line to the Longwood 9, but an illegal-procedure penalty and two straight incompletions by quarterback Duane O’Connor meant Lindenhurst had to opt for a 32-yard field-goal attempt. In the stiff wind, O’Connor’s kick never got above waist level. And from then on, it seemed Longwood had control of the game.
Longwood managed to shut down an early second half drive by Lindenhurst after the Bulldogs moved 26 yards on nine plays. Then Longwood went 54 yards in five plays – Schuster gaining 37 yards on three carries, Lange gaining the rest on two – and Lange scored on a 12-yard run with 6:19 left in the third, putting Longwood ahead 13-2. The Lions added a fourth-quarter touchdown on a 1-yard run by Lange, and for all intents and purposes, the game was over.
“You know,” Lange said, “going from oh-and-8 three years ago to this . . . it’s a little Cinderella story. It makes it that much better because we’re not just winning for ourselves. We’re winning for all the kids who went before us, for the community.”
As Longwood quarterback Eric Brown said: “There was a time most people didn’t even think Longwood had a football team, that’s how bad it was. Now they do.” He’s right. Now they do.
LINDENHURST 0 2 0 0 2 LONGWOOD 7 0 6 8 21
Longwood – Schuster 1 run (Simonton kick)
Lindenhurst – Safety (Schuster kicked ball out of end zone)
Longwood – Lange 12 run (run failed)
Longwood – Lange 1 run (Brown run)
LONG ISLAND CHAMPIONSHIPS For Longwood, Loss Is Tough to Accept:
By Mike Candel. STAFF WRITER. Newsday, 05 Dec 1993
They had come so far in such a short time. From doormat to Suffolk Division I champion in what seemed like the blink of an eye.
Remember, only three years ago Longwood was a winless football team. Oh-and-eight and going nowhere. Yet there it was in the rain and wind at Hofstra Stadium last night, playing for the Long Island Class I championship.
It was an experience that will last a lifetime. When the players – Jason Schuster, Eric Brown, Nick Avitabile et al – meet at a class reunion 25 years from now, they will talk about this game, maybe even share a laugh about it. It will be easier then.
But last night, moments after Massapequa defeated Longwood, 12-7, it was not easy. There were pats on the back, and players hugging players, and words of encouragement from coach Kevin McCarthy.
“I am proud of every one of you,” McCarthy said.
Still, none of it soothed the pain for John Lange and his teammates.
“We didn’t come here just to be here,” the Longwood fullback said. “Being here isn’t enough.”
As a two-time defending state wrestling champion, Lange knows something about winning, so losing was not the way he envisioned this, the last high school football game of his career. Lange surely did his part, lugging the ball 11 times for 68 yards and scoring the Lions’ lone touchdown on a 4-yard run with 4:06 left in the third quarter.
He got plenty of help from Suffolk’s premier running back, Schuster – who carried 23 times for 145 yards, including a brilliant 43-yard run in the first half, but never got into the end zone.
Mostly because Massapequa matched Longwood hit for hit.
“This was a heavyweight fight,” Massapequa coach Lou Andre said. “You can’t take a thing away from Longwood. Believe me, they could have won. We beat them but they’re still champions. Don’t forget that.”
Were there questions? Sure.
The sideline second-guessers could have asked why, in the final minute of the fourth quarter and Longwood pinned deep in its own territory, it chose to run the ball twice instead of passing. Or why it waited 20 seconds to get off a second-down play with less than a minute remaining.
But all of that is meaningless conjecture because nothing short of a miracle – whether running or passing – would have helped in the closing moments.
“We made some mistakes and they capitalized,” McCarthy said.
In the end, two similar teams spent a cold, wintry night battling the wind, rain and each other.
“Hey, Massapequa is a great team,” Lange said. “They have a lot of class.”
Funny, that’s precisely what Andre was saying about Longwood.
Rutgers Trophy Win Sweet to Longwood: [NASSAU AND SUFFOLK Edition]
Valenti, John. Newsday, Combined editions; Long Island, N.Y. [Long Island, N.Y]. 09 Dec 1993:
Which team was going to win the Rutgers Trophy as the most accomplished team in Suffolk in 1993? The picture was muddled. There were no unbeaten teams, so that would not be a factor. And, unlike Nassau, where Bethpage set a county scoring record en route to winning the Rutgers Cup, there were no teams with record-setting offensive or defensive statistics. So no one seemed sure which team would be awarded the trophy at the Suffolk County Football Coaches Banquet last night at the Marriott Wind Watch Hotel in Hauppauge.
Would it be Longwood, the Suffolk Division I champion and a team that had gone from 0-8 four seasons ago to 9-2 this season with a berth in the Long Island Class I Championship Game? Would it be East Islip, which went unbeaten en route to the Division II regular-season title, or West Islip, the team that upended the Redmen in the county championship game? Would it be Southampton, the Division IV champion? The winner proved to be Longwood, which earned 94 points. The Lions gained the trophy in their 23rd season of football – and only their third winning season ever. The win was especially sweet for seniors Eric Brown, John Lange and Jason Schuster, who also captured the Hansen Award as the premier player in Suffolk, as well as for Longwood coach Kevin McCarthy, who took the Lions to the playoffs for the first time in school history last season, his first as head coach. The Rutgers Trophy The Rutgers Trophy is presented by the Rutgers Club of Long Island to the season’s outstanding football team. The winners:
1947: Southampton 1948: Huntington 1949: Huntington 1950: Amityville 1951: Bay Shore 1952: Huntington 1953: Riverhead 1954: Amityville 1955: Amityville 1956: Amityville* 1957: Amityville 1958: Greenport 1959: Port Jefferson 1960: Amityville 1961: Amityville 1962: Lindenhurst 1963: Lindenhurst 1964: Central Islip. 1965: Commack. 1966: East Islip. 1967: Central Islip. 1968: East Islip. 1969: Bay Shore. 1970: Brentwood. 1971: Brentwood. 1972: Sayville. 1973: North Babylon. 1974: Whitman. 1975: East Islip. 1976: Copiague. 1977: Sachem. 1978: East Islip. 1979: Glenn. 1980: East Islip. 1981: Copiague. 1982: East Islip. 1983: Bay Shore. 1984: Bay Shore. 1985: West Islip. 1986: Sachem. 1987: Tie: Ward Melville.
and Wyandanch. 1988: Riverhead. 1989: Connetquot. 1990: Comsewogue. 1991: Northport. 1992: Mount Sinai. 1993: Longwood.
HIGH SCHOOL NOTEBOOK Winner Pays Tribute To Coach’s Coaches:
Krupinski, Joe. Newsday, Combined editions; Long Island, N.Y. [Long Island, N.Y]. 31 Mar 1994:
On Dec. 9, the day after Longwood was awarded the 1993 Rutgers Trophy as the best football team in Suffolk County, coach Kevin McCarthy carried the prize in his car to visit, and pose for pictures with, the two former Rutgers winners who most influenced his own coaching career: John DeLuca of East Islip (’68) and Ed Madden of Sayville (’72).
“If I hadn’t had the good fortune of knowing those two gentlemen, believe me, Longwood never would have won the trophy this year,” the 37-year-old McCarthy said. “Everything I taught my players, I stole from those guys.”
Both men, who knew they had terminal cancer when McCarthy visited, enthusiastically welcomed him as the newest member of their exclusive coaching fraternity. DeLuca died on Jan. 27 and Madden on Feb. 12, just 16 days apart.
“I was a pallbearer at John DeLuca’s funeral,” McCarthy said. “I was in Florida visiting my father when Ed Madden died.”
McCarthy grew up in Sayville with John DeLuca Jr., the coach’s son, as his best friend. “We were co-captains of the last team that Ed Madden coached before he left education to go into finance {becoming a vice president with Merrill Lynch},” McCarthy said. “I will always consider that senior year one of the proudest seasons of my life. He’ll always be `Coach’ in my mind.”
John DeLuca Sr. became McCarthy’s other role model. “I practically lived at their house while I was in school, and I often wished my own family was as close as that,” McCarthy said. “That’s also how I met my wife {the former Laura Blydenburgh}, who lived across the street from them. I’ve tried to become the same kind of coach, husband and father {Kyle McCarthy is 5 years old} as he was.”
The careers of DeLuca and Madden touched countless other athletes and coaches – including Bellport’s Joe Cipp, Sayville’s Lee van Voorhees and East Islip’s Sal Ciampi – a diverse but influential group that McCarthy calls “the Who’s Who of Suffolk County Football.”
“Two great people,” said Cipp, who coached alongside both men before taking charge of the Bellport program. “I learned a lot of football from them and a lot about life, too.”
“Ed Madden took me off the soccer field {as a JV coach at Sayville} and made me his first football assistant in 1968,” van Voorhees recalled. “He said he liked my enthusiasm and preferred assistants who were brand new so that he could train them his way.”
A John S. DeLuca Memorial Scholarship Fund, which will benefit a deserving Sayville senior football player each year, has been established. Donations may be mailed to P.O. Box 411, Sayville 11782. Standouts