Shoreham-Wading River 8 10 6 10 34 Longwood 20 11 22 17 70 SWR: Kearon 0-8-8, Coster 4-4-12, Eglin 0-1-1, Brooks 2-0-4, Paquette 1-0-2, Keiller 1-0-2, Sapienza 1-0-2, Warren 0-1-1, Jalayer 1-0-2. Totals: 10-14-34. L: Klein 4-0-8, Hillen 5-1-11, Kaczmarski 10-2-22, Eleazer 3-0-6, Cotton 4-0-8, Bagley 4-0-8, Bradley 3-0-6, Simonton 0-1-1. Totals: 33-4-70. Dec. 9

95-95 HIGH SCHOOL BASKETBALL PREVIEW / KOOL KAZ / Longwood frosh playing hard, having fun:

By John Valenti. STAFF WRITER. Newsday, Combined editions; Long Island, N.Y. [Long Island, N.Y]. 10 Dec 1995

SHE TOOK HER high school team – the team at her last high school, that is – to the 1995 state public school Class A girls basketball championship. At that tournament, she was named the most valuable player. She was a first-team All-Long Island selection and was named Newsday’s Suffolk Player of the Year.

She has received 42 letters from NCAA Division I schools – UCLA, North Carolina, Tennessee, Georgetown, Arizona State, Arizona, Duke, Purdue, Florida State, Providence and Villanova, to name a few – and has a weighted grade-point average of, get this, 4.43. That, with a schedule that includes Sequential Math I, Regents Earth Science, Honors Global Studies, Honors English, Spanish II Accelerated, Art, Band and Jazz Band (she plays alto saxophone). She was named preseason high school All-America, as selected by Street & Smith’s Basketball Magazine.

You look at Nicole Kaczmarski standing in the gym at Longwood – she’s wearing a green-and-yellow jersey, No. 45, her blonde hair pulled back under a white headband; wearing a look that makes you wonder if she’ll burst out laughing at any moment – and you can’t help but wonder: What about the pressure?

She is precocious, personable, a bit rambunctious and seemingly effortlessly tireless. She is a sensation who took Sachem by the hand and led it to that basketball promised land as she weathered a season and summer filled with adventure, decision, rumor and innuendo that had her going everywhere from Christ the King in Middle Village, Queens, to St. Dominic in Oyster Bay and even St. John’s Prospect Hall in Baltimore before arriving this fall at Longwood.

She is here mainly because there was no place else to go; her father, Pete Kaczmarski, who was awarded custody of Nicole in a divorce dispute, could not sell his house in the school district. Already her teammates have wondered what she can do for a team that went 9-9, 6-6 in Suffolk League I, in 1994-95.

All this and she is only 14 years old, not even in high school yet, attending classes a mile down the road at Longwood Junior High School. It seems like so much to deal with for a kid with size 8 feet, a great handle – and that squeaky little voice.

“I want to be the best,” said Kaczmarski after a scrimmage with Bellport on Tuesday at Longwood. “Real bad. I’d like to be in the NBA. I wish I could do that. But it hasn’t sunk in yet, what’s happening. My dad was, like, `You made All-America,’ and that’s great.” She paused for a moment, longer than she ever would on the court, where she is a never-ending-never-blinking-blur-of-motion, moves and energy, then said: “It’s not really pressure. Not from outside people. It’s from within. It’s a big deal. People think I’m that good. But I don’t think that I’m that good.”

She is a year older – hard to believe she was 13 last season, in eighth grade, as she averaged 19 points and 8 assists at guard – and is almost four inches taller, now 5-9 1/2. She is more dexterous, more nimble, more talented. She is having more fun.

She hit the national circuit this past summer: national 13-and-under AAU tournament with the Liberty Belles in Amarillo, Texas; junior national 16-and-under AAU tournament with a local team run by Dowling men’s basketball coach Joe Pellicane; Blue Star Camp; Empire State Games (she helped Long Island win the gold medal); and Smithtown Summer League (she helped Longwood win the title, beating Bellport, Brentwood and Northport). She is one of 36 girls selected for the so-called “Elite Camp” at Indiana State in July and is one of three freshmen to make Street & Smith’s.

The girls at Longwood have made her feel at home, a claim she could not make at Sachem. Kaczmarski said she sometimes felt like an outsider on a team she helped create. Most of her teammates were seniors; she was in the eighth grade. People were talking and she was in the spotlight and maybe she wasn’t as good as they said she was. Or maybe she was. Whatever the case, it sometimes caused friction – with Sachem coach Mike Atkinson, with teammates, with parents, with outsiders – and that was too bad.

“I got the feeling,” Atkinson said, “Pete {Kaczmarski} was not ecstatic about Nicole’s experience here – with the awards and publicity. She was MVP of the state tournament but she wasn’t `Miss Basketball’ in Suffolk. I think he feels Nicole has to win in every situation. How do I describe it? I read about Andre Agassi’s father, about how Andre once got a second-place trophy and he chucked it in the garbage. There’s this sense of urgency with Pete that Nicole needs to be successful yesterday, today and tomorrow.”

“If a kid plays piano at a level that means she belongs in Carnegie Hall – if a kid is academically good enough to be in Harvard – should you hold them back, make them play sixth-grade music?” Pete Kaczmarski asked. “No. Well, you can’t hold her back, because she has this unbelievable talent and she plays the game laughing, smiling. Everybody is looking for me to be carrying a whip, locking her in the closet at night if she doesn’t score 30, wondering, `Is he going to let her eat?’ C’mon. I don’t have to push. She loves basketball.”

“Age had something to do with it,” Nicole Kaczmarski said of the situation at Sachem. “I felt like an outsider a little bit. We were all friends on the court, but off the court we weren’t as close. This team is different. We have friendships on and off the court. We go to the movies, everyone’s invited. I think we just like each other. We’re all friends.”

“We didn’t like the idea at first,” said Longwood senior Lenore Bilinski as she recalled hearing the news last summer that Kaczmarski would play at Longwood. “She had been at Sachem. They were our rivals. Last year, we felt like she didn’t belong out there. She was an eighth-grader and eighth-graders don’t belong on varsity. We’d be like, `Don’t let this eighth-grader beat you.’ ” And? “She did. Twice.”

Bilinski added, “We didn’t want her stealing all the limelight.” The school paper, in fact, already has dubbed the team “Kaz and Company.” But as Bilinski said, “All the girls get along with her great. We call her `Smart-Mouth Nicole.’ We know she’s the big shot. But we also feel like she’s one of the guys.”

“I didn’t know her,” Longwood co-captain Sarah Hillen said. “And I don’t want to say I was afraid of having her here, but I was curious. But she has fit in well. It doesn’t matter how old she is. She carries our team. She deserves whatever credit she gets.”

“She’s adjusted very well to all this publicity,” Longwood coach Pierce Hayes said. “She’s so good, so well-adjusted about it, in fact, it’s almost too good to be true. It doesn’t seem to faze her. All I can think of is maybe everyone has been looking at her from the negative perspective. Maybe she is one of those kids who wants this and can handle this.”

You can see her talent. The fullcourt passes, the three-point shots, the effortless glides to the basket for a layup. “It’s like,” Kaczmarski said, “on the court I can be myself. I get all my anger out. I get out my frustrations. It is my outlet. I can be me.”

What happens next remains to be seen. The talk of a county title? “Ridiculous,” Hayes said. How long she will remain at Longwood? “I don’t know,” Pete Kaczmarski said. “I’m still trying to sell my house. But if she wants to stay, we’ll buy another one.” The question of how good she’ll get? “You never know,” Pete Kaczmarski said. “She wants to be the best.”

“I guess,” Nicole Kaczmarski said, “that I want to be Player of the Year before I get out of high school.” She means in the nation. “I guess if I’m not, that might be a failure. I don’t know.”

And so you still have to wonder about all this pressure, what toll that will take on her.

After all, she is a freshman. She has not attended classes at the high school yet. Maybe the expectations are unrealistic. Or maybe not.

Kim Shaw scored eight of her 14 points in the first quarter to lead Bay Shore to a 16-5 lead en route to a 50-47 win over Longwood yesterday in a non-league girls basketball game. Holly Hannah led Bay Shore with 18 points and 19 rebounds and went 3-for-4 from the foul line down the stretch to preserve the win. Nicole Kaczmarski had 28 points for Longwood. Dec. 15

Commack 10 5 14 11 40 Longwood 12 14 11 12 49 C: Hurley 8-3-19, Menard 1-4-6, Cavalo 2-2-7, Kosar 3-0-6. Totals: 14-6-40. L: Klein 7-2-16, Hillen 4-3-11, Bagley 2-0-4, Kaczmarski 5-4-14, Eleazer 1-0-2, Cotton 1-0-2. Totals: 20-9-49. Three-point goals – C 1 (Cavalo). Newsday, Combined editions; Long Island, N.Y. [Long Island, N.Y]. 22 Dec 1995: 

Longwood’s Kaz All Business:

By John Gambadoro. STAFF WRITER. Newsday, Combined editions; Long Island, N.Y. [Long Island, N.Y]. 30 Dec 1995

A crowd of more than 800 started piling into the Northport high school gymnasium at about 6:40 p.m. last night. Nicole Kaczmarski was in the house and that was enough to bring many out on this Friday. The first two days of the Suffolk Shoot-Out had belonged to Kaczmarski, the Suffolk Player of the Year, as she led Longwood past Northport and Huntington and into last night’s final. But as Kaczmarski looked across the court during warmups, she saw the uniform she once wore, players she once called teammates and a coach she helped win a state Class A championship last season before her transfer to Longwood.

The phenom freshman tied a career high set two days earlier with 34 points as Longwood (5-1) shocked Sachem, 70-55, to capture the championship. Kaczmarski shot 12-for-19 from the field, grabbed nine rebounds and handed out five assists to garner MVP honors. She scored a remarkable 87 points in three games.

Longwood maintained the lead throughout the game and used a 7-2 spurt to close out the third quarter and gave the Lions a commanding 52-41 lead. Debbie Sneider had just hit two free throws to cap an 8-0 Sachem run, but Aysa Cotton took a pass from Sarah Hillen and nailed a jump shot, Kaczmarski converted a pass from [Dawn] Klein and after a basket by Sachem’s Katie Miller, Kaczmarski hit a long jumper with five seconds left in the quarter to give Longwood an 11-point lead.Less

Asya Cotton scored eight of her 12 points in the second quarter as Longwood turned a 15-10 deficit into a 27-21 lead by halftime as the Lions beat Smithtown, 52-40 in League I . . . In League III, Holly Hannah had 13 points and 16 rebounds and Kim Shaw had 14 points and eight steals to lead Bay Shore to a 59-29 win over Newfield.

LEAGUE I Longwood 10 17 12 13 – 52 Smithtown 15 6 8 11 – 40 L: Kaczmarski 7-2-18, Klein 1-0-2, Cotton 5-2-12, Hillen 3-0-6, Elazer 3-0-6, Bagley 3-0-6, Quinn 0-2-2. Totals: 22-6-52. S: Sweet 5-0-10, Sheehan 1-0-2, Skrenta 3-0-7, Larson 1-0-2, Kulick 0-2-2, Corey 0-2-2, Sweeney 1-3-5, Sussillo 4-2-10. Totals: 15-9-40. Three-point goals – L 2 (Kaczmarski 2); S 1 (Skrenta). Jan. 5

In League I, Nicole Kaczmarski had 31 points, 8 assists and 7 rebounds to lead Longwood past Patchogue-Medford, 73-51. Kaczmarski shot 11-for-23 from the field. Asya Cotton added 12 points and nine rebounds for Longwood. Jan. 6 

Nicole Kaczmarski’s 19 points led three players in double figures as Longwood beat Floyd, 64-39. Dawn Klein scored 11 points and Asya Cotton added 10 for Longwood, which outscored Floyd, 22-3, in the third quarter. Andrea Overton scored 11 points and teammate Kelley Palazzotto added 10 for Floyd Palazzotto hit two three-pointers to increase her season total to 19 Jan. 11

Asya Cotton scored eight of her 15 points in the first quarter as Longwood took a 17-4 lead in its 68-15 win over Ward Melville (1-3). Sarah Hillen added 11 points for Longwood (4-0). Jan. 17

Kaczmarski Stars for Longwood:

Newsday, Combined editions; Long Island, N.Y. [Long Island, N.Y]. 23 Jan 1996

Nicole Kaczmarski scored 17 points as Longwood (5-0) gained sole possession of first place in Suffolk League I girls basketball yesterday with a 49-41 victory over Brentwood (4-1).

Iris Murillo scored nine of her team-high 11 points in the fourth quarter for Brentwood. Avis Cotton answered with six of her 10 points in the fourth to help Longwood pull away.

“They put a whoopin’ on us tonight,” Brentwood coach Ernie Villatore said. “They came out and showed who the better team was.”

And Kaz?

“She just played a typically great game. To be honest, I thought we did a very good job on her but she came up with some big assists down the stretch.”

Nicole Kaczmarski had 17 points, 10 assists and 8 rebounds to lead Longwood (7-1) to a 61-35 win over Patchogue-Medford (3-5). Sarah Hillen (11 points) held Patchogue’s leading scorer, Danielle Giarraputo, to four points. Jan. 31 

Nicole Kaczmarski scored 21 of her game-high 29 points in the second half as Longwood (7-1) outscored Floyd 38-27 in its 62-35 League I victory. Jennifer Filosa scored all of her 14 points in the second half for Floyd (1-8). Feb. 2

COLLEGES / In on the Ground Floor / Sidebar- Courting Kaz.

Marcus, Steve. Newsday, Combined editions; Long Island, N.Y. [Long Island, N.Y]. 04 Feb 1996

What can best be described as Kaz-mania had its beginning two years ago when Purdue sent a letter to basketball player Nicole Kaczmarski. She was in seventh grade at the time.

What does the name Purdue connote to a seventh-grader? “Chicken,” my 12-year-old said.

“I knew it was a college,” Kaczmarski said. “But I thought it was down south.”

Thus, the collegiate wooing of Kaczmarski began at an age when most kids think Purdue is chicken and college is what comes way after first dates, curfews, school rings, the junior and senior proms and driving lessons. The NCAA doesn’t have jurisdiction over colleges contacting potential recruits before ninth grade, which the NCAA considers the first year of high school.

Now, albeit gingerly, let the recruiting of Kaczmarski begin. How about a little game of college (mail) pickup? Fifty-two pickup, to be precise. That is the number of colleges that have sent love-to-have-you letters to the Longwood freshman, a Street & Smith’s high school All-America honorable mention even before she entered high school. Recruiting is limited to questionnaires sent to the high school coach. That is Pierce Hayes, who turns the mail over to Kaz‘ dad, Pete.

“What she’s doing is playing the field,” Hayes said. Hayes has not resorted to protecting his prized 14-year-old, who is averaging 22.3 points, 8.0 rebounds and 7.5 assists. Hayes said the colleges realize what they can and can’t do. “They send me their programs and they’ll say things like, `Say hello to Nicole’ or `Wish her good luck,’ ” Hayes said. “That’s as far as they can go.”

Purdue got into the act early and with good reason. Though college coaches are not permitted to discuss Kaczmarski with the media, a source at Purdue said Kaczmarski could “play in Division I right now.”

No one interested or involved in women’s college basketball has not heard of Kaczmarski. Her fan following is enormous by girls basketball standards. When Kaz is in the house, 500 or more fans show up. Before her arrival on the high school scene, it was sitting-room-only at most girls games. The pizzazz of Kaz has changed that.

“The girls are getting the attention they deserve,” Hayes said.

To the recruiters, Kaczmarski is a still-growing 5-9 1/2 point goddess. To even some of the best schools, she already appears to be an untouchable recruit. Louisiana Tech, the top-ranked team in the country for part of the season and now No. 2, believes it has no chance to sign her. “You see kids like that and say she’s a great player,” someone close to the Tech program said. “We don’t even have a chance at her.” Yes, the No. 2 team in the country believes it is not in Kaczmarski’s league.

So who does have a chance, then? “I wanted to go to North Carolina, something like that,” Kaczmarski said. “Either that or UCLA.” The North Carolina idea comes from her basketball crush on Michael Jordan. Do not be surprised, when the time comes, if he somehow gets into the recruiting act for his alma mater. Kaczmarski said nothing is written in stone – or, in the case of North Carolina, tar.

“I know when it comes time for me to choose a college, I’m not going to rule anybody out,” she said.

She wants to be a doctor. That, of course, is after she plays in the NBA.

She isn’t kidding.

Kaczmarski already has a good friend in the college coaching ranks. Debbie Brajevich, an assistant at St. John’s, said she is like an “aunt or a godmother to Nicole” but said that does not mean she expects her to attend St. John’s. “When recruiting time comes, I’ll give her advice,” Brajevich said. “If we are not the right school for her, I would not ask her to come.”

Kaczmarski said her close relationship with Brajevich does not give St. John’s an edge. “She still is going to try to help me get in the best college for me,” Kaczmarski said.

Brajevich has known Kaczmarski and her family for five years, since Kaczmarski played for her in a youth league. Now they can’t even talk college basketball. “There are rules,” Brajevich said.

This summer, Kaczmarski will attend an elite camp at Indiana State. It will become camp Kaczmarski as recruiters swoop down on a player who may be the nation’s No. 1 female recruit in a few years. “Hers is a name that certainly has surfaced and floated around the recruiting gurus,” a source at Indiana State said. The child star has taken the women’s game by storm. “Everybody,” the source continued, “is anxious to see what she is going to develop into.”

Kaz has the second-most-famous three-letter name for a Long Island athlete. If you can’t name the other one – hint: it rhymes – maybe Kaz is more famous already.

COURTING KAZ

A future prospect, even a player 3 1/2 years away from college such as Nicole Kaczmarski, is allowed by NCAA recruiting rules to personally receive just “general” information about a college. College coaches are not permitted to make telephone calls to a prospect until July 1 after the completion of her junior year of high school.

Once her junior year begins, she can personally receive recruitment materials.

College coaches are allowed two opportunities in an academic year to watch a prospect play in a high school game. As of Aug. 1, this rule changes and coaches will be allowed a total of five chances, with no personal contacts until her senior year, when no more than three personal contacts are allowed.

Only senior prospects are allowed personal contact with a college coach and then only during NCAA-specified dates. Division I and Division II colleges have different contact dates. In Kaczmarski’s case, a college coach will be able to sit in the stands and watch her play in five of her high school games during the 1996-97 season.

An incidental comment made by someone representing a college program to a player before the time period allowed by the NCAA, depends on the context of where the comment is made. For instance, if a coach is working at a basketball camp that a younger player attends, comments between the two would be difficult to enforce.

Source: NCAA legislative services

Longwood 39, Brentwood 38

Nicole Kaczmarski grabbed an offensvie rebound and hit an eight-foot jump shot with three seconds left to give Longwood (9-1) a 39-38 victory over Brentwood (8-2). Brentwood took a 38-35 lead on two free throws by Christina Pagan with 55 seconds left. Asya Cotton answered 30 seconds later with a driving layup and after Brentwood failed to convert a one-and-one situation, Longwood got the ball back with 24 seconds left. Dawn Klein’s jumper with four seconds left bounced off the rim and Kaczmarski grabbed the rebound and then hit the winning shot. Feb. 7

Kaz, Lions Clinch Tie For Title:

Newsday, Combined editions; Long Island, N.Y. [Long Island, N.Y]. 10 Feb 1996

Nicole Kaczmarski shot 13-for-19 from the field for 29 points to lead Longwood to a 72-36 win over Ward Melville yesterday in a League I girls basketball game.

The win gives Longwood at least a tie for the league title and will be the Lions’ third title in four years, according to coach Pierce Hayes. Cheri Eleazer added 14 points for Longwood (10-1). Ward Melville is 1-9.

In another League I game, Amy Walters scored 12 of her 13 points and Christina Pagan added nine of her 11 in the second half to help Brentwood maintain its lead in a 45-37 win over Sachem. Behind 11-0 with 5:10 left in the first quarter, Brentwood used a 19-3 run to close out the first half and take a 19-14. It was the second win for Brentwood over Sachem this season and moved the Indians into a tie with the Flaming Arrows for second place. Both teams are 8-2. Tina Farley led Sachem with 15 points and 15 rebounds.

Satisfying Victory for Sachem / Longwood’s Kaz scores 20 in defeat:

By John Valenti. STAFF WRITER. Newsday, Combined editions; Long Island, N.Y. [Long Island, N.Y]. 16 Feb 1996:

She had been here, had made her name here, and moved on – so when Nicole Kaczmarski was announced as a starter for the Longwood girls basketball team last night at Sachem, the crowd booed.

What about the state public school Class A championship she helped them win in 1994-95, when she was a 13-year-old eighth-grader? Forgotten. Her selection to the All-Long Island girls basketball team? Of little matter. She had been one of them then, was now the enemy. That’s all that counted.

But in the end, it turned out the 1,000 or so who gathered last night at Sachem for Kaczmarski’s first appearence since her departure for Longwood – were wasting their breath. Because this game, the third this season between the two rivals from Suffolk League I, was not about Kaczmarski. It was about the fact that at this point in the season, Sachem is the better team, if by the slimmest of margins.

Sachem beat Longwood, 39-37, to not only take the series 2-1, but sweep both league games from Longwood – all as it wrested sole possession of first place in League I from the Lions, leaving a three-way tie between Sachem, Longwood and Brentwood.

Longwood had a chance to win when Sachem senior center Tina Farley missed the second of two free throws and Sarah Hillen was fouled by Katie Miller on the rebound with four seconds left. But after a timeout, Hillen inbounded to Kaczmarski, who took it at halfcourt, wheeled and turned upcourt – but under pressure, couldn’t get off a shot before time expired.

“Is there any sweeter satisfaction in beating them because she’s on that team?,” Sachem coach Mike Atkinson said. “No. It was satisfying because they’re a real good team with a great player – and on paper, we shouldn’t be able to beat them. That’s why this win was a great win for us. Because we won one that, on paper, we shouldn’t have won.”

“They’re a good team,” Longwood coach Pierce Hayes said. “They deserved it. They just played better.”

Kaczmarski, who missed a chance to tie Sachem with a final shot in a 42-39 loss to the Flaming Arrows on Jan. 24, finished with a game-high 20 points. But she was hounded from start to finish by former backcourt mate Lela McIntosh – and was overshadowed by the performance of Farley, a physical 5-11 senior, who had 10 points and 16 rebounds and whose big basket off a rebound broke a tie at 36 with 1:14 left and whose free throw with seven seconds left sealed it.

“Oh, my God!,” Farley said, wiping tears from her eyes. “I don’t know what to say. This was such a big win, the most emotional game I have ever been involved in. When a big player like her leaves, all five others have to step up. We don’t have anyone here who can score 30 or 40 points. So we had to be a team. We’ve become a team.”

Down 10-8 in the first minute of the second quarter, Longwood (16-3, 10-1) built the lead to 20-14 as Kaczmarski, 14, a freshman All-America candidate, scored 10 of the first 12 points by the Lions – six on a pair of three-pointers.

Even though Longwood built the advantage to 24-18 at halftime and 30-20 on a 10-foot turnaround jumper by Kaczmarski barely two minutes into the second half, Sachem came back. The Flaming Arrows (14-4, 10-2) rallied behind Debbie Sneider, who finished with 13 points, and Farley – a three-pointer by Sneider closing the gap to 34-30 at the end of three. She later tied the score at 36 with about four minutes left – and Kaczmarski missed two big shots down the stretch.

Afterward, Kaczmarski said she could not talk about it and excused herself.

“It was a tough night for her,” Hayes said.

Not so for her former team.

“I feel bad for her because I still love her like a sister,” Farley said of Kaczmarski. ‘`But this was such a great win for us. I don’t know what else to say.”

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Whitman, Brentwood Win:

Newsday, Combined editions; Long Island, N.Y. [Long Island, N.Y]. 24 Feb 1996

Whitman won the respect it craves and Brentwood showed it is among the Class A elite last night as both teams advanced with victories in the Suffolk Class A girls basketball quarterfinals.

Tara Jensen and Angela Vicari each scored four points during a 10-0 game-ending run as No. 7 Whitman beat No. 2 Longwood, 46-38. Whitman’s triumph may have been a surprise to everyone but the Wildcats.

“Quite frankly, we feel we were slighted in the seedings,” Whitman coach Bill Walsh said. “We were not happy. We felt we were as good as anyone.”

Nicole Kaczmarski hit two foul shots three minutes into the fourth quarter to give Longwood (15-4) a 38-36 lead. It was the last time Kaczmarski – and Longwood – would score.

The Wildcats (17-2) answered with 10 consecutive points to end the game. Jensen tied the score at 38 on a putback and then gave Whitman the lead for good on a jump shot with three minutes left.

Jen Servidio covered Longwood‘s All-Long Island guard Kaczmarski one-on-one for most of the game. Kaczmarski finished with 17 points, but scored only five in the second half.

Next for Whitman is a semifinal date with defending county and state Class A champ Sachem at 6 p.m. on Monday at Mt. Sinai. “We’re on a mission,” Walsh said. “We’re using {the low seed} as our motivation.”