Records, awards, state titles . . . wow!
Garden City teammates with Alexandra Bruno, center, celebrate their 2-1 win over Sayville for the Long Island Class B field hockey championship. (Nov. 12, 2011) Credit: Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke
A trio of electrifying halfbacks tore up the gridiron through the fall season. For their effort, Stacey Bedell of Floyd and Dalton Crossan of Sachem North were named co-winners of the prestigious Carl A. Hansen Award, presented to Suffolk's top football player. It was only the second time in the 52-year history of the award that it was shared.
Across the county line, East Meadow's Robbie Healy blazed a winning trail for the Jets, who won the school's second Nassau Conference I championship. In doing so, the Jets upended Freeport, Long Island's two-time defending champion in Class I.
Healy was named the winner of the Tom Thorp Award as Nassau's best player. While Bedell, Crossan and Healy were making headlines, plenty of other athletes across the high school landscape were leaving their mark in the fall season.
Many records toppled, but none that stood longer than the all-time record for passing yardage in a career that was held by St. Dominic's Tony Capozzoli.
Sayville's Steven Ferreira set the all-time mark for yardage with 6,411, wiping out a 36-year record when he finished the season with 2,443 yards and 29 touchdown passes to lead the Golden Flashes to the Long Island Class III title. They beat Lawrence, 78-61, in the highest-scoring football game in state history. Ferreira finished his three-year career with an LI record 73 scoring passes.
"You'll never see another one of those games in our lifetime," laughed Sayville coach Rob Hoss. "And I definitely don't want to coach in another one of those."
And how about the tandem of record-setting linebackers at Syosset and Newfield? Braves senior Evan Kappatos became the first three-time winner of the Bill Piner Award as Nassau's top linebacker. Newfield's Ron Denig led the Wolverines to the school's first Suffolk crown and Long Island Class II championship in their 52-year history.
Denig also earned the MSG Varsity Rob Burnett Defensive Player of the Year Award in Suffolk and the Bob Collotta Award, given to Suffolk's top linebacker.
It was a celebration of outstanding athletes in all sports. Senior midfielder Alexandra Bruno led Garden City to its 17th straight Nassau field hockey title and seventh consecutive Long Island crown. She totaled a Long Island-high 31 points. Bruno was the latest great player in a long line of Trojans standouts.
And the stars weren't just on the fields. There was Olivia Chan, who swims for Sewanhaka and attends New Hyde Park. Chan won her third straight state title in the 100-yard breaststroke, clocking 1:02.76 to break her own county record. She won the 200 individual medley in 2:03.57 for her fifth state title.
Always on the run was North Shore senior Samantha Nadel, who led the Vikings to the state Class B cross-country championship at Vernon-Verona-Sherrill in Syracuse with a first-place time of 19:25.5.
And how about Syosset senior Hannah Camhi. who won her first state singles crown in girls tennis? Camhi had a perfect individual record to lead her team to an undefeated season and third straight Long Island title.
It was a banner year for state recognition as Long Island teams went to the upstate tournaments and brought home 10 team titles. So they tore it up downstate and across the state -- very nice.
