Despite all his accolades, Oceanside star QB Charlie McKee still is hungry for a championship
Oceanside's Charlie McKee warms up prior to practice on Aug. 23. Credit: Dawn McCormick
He is the most decorated high school football player on Long Island. In three years as a starting varsity quarterback, his teams have a record of 22-5. He has led Nassau County in passing yardage and touchdown passes in all three of his seasons and returns for his senior year after being named to Newsday’s All-Long Island first team and winning Newsday’s prestigious Thorp Award as the county’s most outstanding player.
And yet, if you ask Charlie McKee about all his accomplishments in high school football, the Oceanside senior’s reply is this: "I haven’t done anything."
The 6-1, 200-pound McKee has a dazzling resume and a career highlight reel that probably rivals any on the Island. However, something is still missing. McKee is still seeking a championship.
"I haven’t done anything yet because I haven’t gotten that ring yet," McKee said. "I’ve obviously helped build this program up – me and coach [Rob] Blount, me and my guys – we’ve done that. But the end goal is to win a championship and I haven’t done that in my years here. . . . All the records? That doesn’t really mean too much. The big picture for me is getting us the ring and hopefully us [winning] the LIC. That’s all I really care about for us this year."
As a 14-year-old freshman, McKee was the quarterback on a Sailors team that reached the Nassau Conference I finals only to suffer a championship-game rout by eventual Long Island Class I champion Freeport. And this past school year, when the football season was transplanted into the spring and compacted by the coronavirus pandemic, Oceanside took an undefeated record into the county championship game and suffered a 36-29 defeat on its home field at the hands of Massapequa.
"Nothing stings like last year," McKee said. "We played our best people on our home field and [Massapequa] won 36-29 and danced on our logo. That’s going to sting until we finish the job this year. And if it comes to the point where we are there again – and we should be – we’re going to finish the job."
Oceanside quarterback Charlie McKee and his offensive line at practice. Credit: Dawn McCormick
Already spectacular when he arrived, McKee’s game each year has been evolving and becoming more sophisticated. He has worked extensively with Blount on how to read defenses and it’s become second nature. He can throw deeper and more accurately. He is much more than a pocket passer.
The 2020-21 school year saw McKee take a quantum leap. He put on 20-25 pounds while simultaneously becoming faster on the run. Blount no longer feared his signal caller getting injured running the ball and turned him loose. Oceanside gained a new dimension.
In eight games last spring, McKee completed 69% of his passes for 1,459 yards and 16 touchdowns with just two interceptions. He also averaged 6.8 yards per carry, while rushing for 513 yards and 12 touchdowns. The new dimension was a big reason he was the overwhelming choice for the Thorp Award.
The only other Thorp winner from Oceanside was Tommy Heuer in 2017, after he led the Sailors to their first county title in 40 years.
"[McKee] has done just about everything you could ask a high school quarterback to do," Blount said. "He’s become the standard in high school quarterbacking today around here. The thing he’s got to finish here is he’s got to win a championship.
"For him to come in as a freshman and take us to a championship game was very good; It’s not normal for a 14-year-old to do that. Then to go back again as a junior is nice, but being a runner-up is tough for him. He wants to solidify his name and to do that he has to lead us to a championship, which I think he’s more than ready to do."
Last season, McKee also emerged as the team’s vocal leader.
"It’s always been his team since he got here, but even as a sophomore there were older guys and they held the team accountable," Blount explained. "Now he knows everything falls on his shoulders and he will set the standard [here] on how things should be done."
Only months removed from the past season, McKee’s game should look similar physically. He put on 10 pounds in the weight room and could prove to be a more powerful rusher. However he said that through extensive film study with Blount, "my mental game has gotten better."
He’s already set all the key Oceanside passing records, throwing for 6,746 and 66 touchdowns.
Still, there is one box he has not checked.
"Charlie realizes that this is it," Blount said. "For him, he’s always had another year, but now time is up and he has to make something happen right here and now. A lot of this is going to be on him. There is a pressure with that, but he can handle pressure and even enjoys pressure. We’re happy to have a guy like that leading us."
McKee may be the high school quarterback on Long Island with the highest profile, but there are a number of others who bear watching this season.
If no one had noticed Babylon senior Joe Young last season, they surely do now. The 6-2, 190-pounder is a two-way threat who led the Panthers to a 6-0 regular season in Suffolk before they lost a Division IV semifinal. Young completed 75% of his passes for 381 yards and 12 touchdowns and rushed for 786 yards and 10 touchdowns. He may be at a small school, but is the real deal.
Division may only have finished 3-2 in the spring season, but has a quarterback on the rise in 6-2, 185-pound Christopher Stancarone. He threw for seven touchdowns and ran for seven more in the 2020-21 school year.
And no look at the quarterback landscape on Long Island would be complete without checking out Suffolk Division III power Sayville and its high-powered passing offense. Inheriting the starting role from Jack Cheshire is 6-2, 190-pound Jack Smalley. Look for Smalley to be accurate in the short game and have the arm strength to throw deep and spread a defense out.
INSIDE THE NUMBERS
There are several factors directly related to the spike in passing yardage and touchdown passes thrown at the high school level over the past two decades. The spread offense has given quarterbacks the opportunity to throw into open spaces and more easily exploit the secondary.
The off-season training programs, including quarterback camps and showcases, have turned the position into a year-round endeavor. Strict tackling rules make it easier for receivers to run routes across the face of a defense with less concern about open-field hits. Officials have made it clear they will enforce rules designed to protect the quarterback, which makes it more comfortable in the pocket for quarterbacks.
These trends have given quarterbacks a big advantage and made it easer for the top QBs to pile up passing yardage.
Since 2004, eight quarterbacks have thrown for more than 4,995 career yards. In the 74 previous years, only one quarterback threw for more than 5,000 yards. It was Thorp Award winner Tony Capozzoli of St. Dominic between 1972-75.
Oceanside senior Charlie McKee, in his fourth year of varsity play, is on the cusp of setting the record for passing yardage in Nassau. He needs 915 yards to pass Lawrence’s Joe Capobianco and is 3,042 passing yards away from the Long Island record, held by Sayville’s Jack Coan.
Here’s a look at the top passers since 2004:
Name, School, Years, Yardage, TDs
Jack Coan, Sayville, 2013-16, 9,787, 128
Joe Capobianco, Lawrence, 2011-13, 7,660, 100
Charlie McKee, Oceanside, 2018-21, 6,746, 66
Steven Ferreira, Sayville, 2009-11, 6,407, 73
Chris Laviano, Holy Trinity, 2009-12, 5,833
Nick Frenger, Plainedge, 2010-13, 5,617, 59
Zach Howell, Huntington, 2004-06, 5,337, 50
P.J. Preziosa, Lawrence, 2004-07, 4,995, 59
Jack Cheshire, Sayville, 2019-21, 4,734, 60
Roger Rubin returned to Newsday in 2018 to write about high schools, colleges and baseball following 20 years at the Daily News. A Baseball Hall of Fame voter since 2011, he has covered 13 MLB postseasons and 14 NCAA Final Fours.
