Malverne football begins conference championship quest with rivalry matchup
Malverne football player Josiah Brown at poses his home field on Aug. 24. Credit: Newsday/Thomas A. Ferrara
The last time the Malverne football team won a Nassau conference championship was 1991. Head coach Kito Lockwood was a 17-year-old senior and a Newsday first team All-Long Island defensive back.
“We had two excellent years of football when I was in high school,” Lockwood said. “We won the conference and Rutgers Cup my junior year. And we had a real successful senior season. I want to see my guys and the school experience that kind of feeling. We invest so much in this program.”
Malverne travels to neighbor East Rockaway for a Nassau Conference IV opener at 6 p.m. Friday.
“We have a football rivalry with East Rockaway for the battle of Ocean Ave,” Lockwood said. “And the winner receives the Dr. Ken Leistner Trophy, a former Malverne coach. He was a great guy and helped everyone.”
In Lockwood’s junior year at Malverne, the Mules went unscored upon in the regular season – the last unscored upon team on LI in the regular season. They won the Rutgers Cup in 1990.
Lockwood wants to bring that championship feel back to Malverne.
“It’s time to restore the winning culture,” he said. “And we have the right group of players.”
Penn State commit Josiah Brown makes his debut with the second-seeded Mules. East Rockaway, the preseason five seed, will have its hands full with Brown and halfback BJ McLaughlin behind big two-way lineman Kevin Estime. The Rocks can score with halfback Louis Cortazar but will it be enough?
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Gregg Sarra is Newsday's high school sports editor and has been on the beat since the mid-1980s.
