Cuozzo's memory of his stellar career: "Wow!"

In Joe Cuozzo's case, the candle is burning out long before his legend ever will. The Mount Sinai boys lacrosse coach admits the flame is flickering, but the pilot light on his legacy will never be extinguished.

"The fire doesn't burn as bright or as deep as it once did when I was younger," said Cuozzo, 72, the winningest boys lacrosse coach in the United States with 744 victories. He earned 699 of them in 38 years at Ward Melville, where he won 35 league titles, 22 Suffolk crowns, 15 Long Island championships and seven state titles.

"I know when it's time to step down and turn it over to a younger guy ,'' he said. "I can't coach the only way I know how: with 100 percent total physical and mental dedication. I just can't do that anymore. I don't want to do that anymore."

Cuozzo declined to single out any favorite players or teams. "I can't because I know I'd leave somebody very deserving off the list and I'll feel bad about it," he said. "I won't name a favorite team, either, because there were a lot of favorite teams."

Cuozzo did, however, provide five memorable moments of a 42-year career:

1 His first Long Island championship in 1974. "We were an unknown," he recalled of the victory over Massapequa. "They were loaded and were more established. We were country bumpkins."

2 His first state title in 1978, a victory over Farmingdale at Cornell.

3 His first state championship at Mount Sinai in 2008, and eighth overall. "Totally unexpected," he said.

4 A dramatic comeback in the 1999 state title game against upstate power West Genesee. "We were down a goal with 30 seconds left. We tied it and won it in regulation," he recalled. "Derrick Preuss scored the game-winner."

5 A loss to Elmont in the 1977 Long Island championship game, the first year of the state tournament. "We were one goal down and I can still remember our midfielder taking a shot that just went over the cage. That one hurt."

Of his spectacular career, one he said he never could have imagined when he first began coaching at Ward Melville in 1969, Cuozzo could only say, "Just looking back - wow!"