High school football players, coaches attend first Nassau Media Day

Buddy Krumenacker has been coaching high school football on Long Island for a long time. He’s entering his 33rd year as Farmingdale’s head coach after 11 years at Hempstead.

Krumenacker has seen a lot in his decades of coaching, but he had yet to see players from all over Nassau get together before the season for a media day.

That changed Thursday afternoon at Oceanside High School, where 49 teams were represented at the inaugural Nassau County High School Football Coaches’ Association Media Day.

“I think it’s really great that everybody sees other guys,” Krumenacker said. “You’re gonna play against these people and they’re no different from you. They’re all kids. When they’re all in one spot together, it’s nice.”

Each team had multiple player representatives who took the stage in the Oceanside auditorium. One player from each team talked about his squad’s outlook for the upcoming season and answered questions from Newsday high school sports editor Gregg Sarra in front of the other teams’ representatives.

“It’s a different experience,” Garden City coach Dave Ettinger said. “Pretty cool for the kids to be up there and talk about their teams. It’s definitely a hard thing to do, but they all did an outstanding job.”

After all the teams in a conference finished their presentations, they went to the lobby to eat lunch and had the opportunity to mingle with the players against whom they will be lining up this fall. Krumenacker said it reminded him of the annual captains’ dinner, which ended about 30 years ago, in which the captains from every team would get together at a restaurant during the preseason.

“I think it kind of takes the edge off of some of that football ugliness that people want to talk about,” Krumenacker said. “I hope they keep it going.”

It also put the spotlight on teams that aren’t as successful as perennial powerhouses such as Farmingdale and Garden City. Valley Stream North senior Aidan Munro was excited to speak in front of the rest of Conference III. The linebacker made 65 tackles as the Spartans went 4-5 and just missed the playoffs. The preseason No. 8 seed in Nassau III, they’re looking to make a playoff push.

“This is an awesome opportunity, especially for the smaller schools,” Munro said. “You always look at the articles coming out about the bigger schools, so it’s great to be in the spotlight and have your name out there.

“At the end of the day, we’re all teenage boys and we all want to play football.”

“I don’t care if you play at Farmingdale or you play at Roslyn,” Krumenacker said. “The Farmingdale guys went up there, so did the Roslyn guys, so did Jericho and Hicksville. It’s something nice for a kid that, maybe this is it for their career. Most of the people in there are never gonna play the sport again.”

Before the players spoke, Section VIII executive director Pat Pizzarelli took the microphone to address them.

“I want to congratulate every one of you guys here today,” Pizzarelli said. “Your friends are all hanging out at the beach or doing whatever they do, while you guys are busting your butts in practice . . . Football is your love, that’s why you do it.”

While Krumenacker and Ettinger said they expected the event to be the grand spectacle that it was, some players didn’t know what to think when they heard there would be a media day.

“I was expecting something out on the field, taking pictures,” Oceanside quarterback Shane Harmon said. “I wasn’t expecting all the interviews, but everything has been really cool.”

Frank Luisi, director of the National Football Foundation’s Nassau County Chapter, said he received tons of positive feedback from players and coaches

“I think it went great because the kids had a chance to express [themselves] and to talk, and it’s important to be able to speak in front of others,” Luisi said. “We were able to bring everyone together and have sandwiches, have lunch together and to feel like they’re part of something greater than themselves. The idea of sportsmanship is the key to our future, and that’s why this thing was a great experience.”

Luisi was impressed by the way the athletes conducted themselves and showed respect to opposing players. He plans to hold similar events in the future.

“So many teams stayed until the end and they respectfully listened to what guys were talking about,” Luisi said. “That is such a great quality. It wasn’t like they were being paid to do this. This was the honor of being a football player and they showed it [with] grace.”