Area Athletes Honored for Exemplary Exploits
If you’ve just crawled out from under a rock and missed it, I’ll fill you in on the kinds of athletes we got in this neck of the woods. The Journal News/LoHud has named a strong cast of characters as their 2010 Fall Athletes of the Year in volleyball, field hockey, cross country, soccer and football, and it’s no coincidence that the vast majority hails from the northern Westchester/ Putnam area. The representation we get from our Section 1 student athletes is second to none, and they make covering amateur sports an absolute blast. Brewster’s Justin Maguire was tabbed the Journal News Runner of the Year in West./ Putnam while five harriers from the coverage area were named to the 17-man All-Section team, including Brewster’s Maguire, Charlie Carr and Adam McIe, Carmel’s Eric Holt and Mahopac’s James McDonough. To boot, Brewster Coach Joe Scelia was named Coach of the Year after guiding the Bears to a League I-B title, a second consecutive Section 1 Class A championship, a fifthplace finish at the state meet, and a secondplace finish at the Northern Counties meet.
This is just the start of some big doings on the local cross country scene. The field hockey hotbed of Lakeland High was well represented, too. Hornet hotshot Shannon Scavelli was named Field Hockey Player of the Year after leading the section with 38 goals and 16 assists while leading the Hornets to their second straight undefeated season and Class B state title. Lakeland’s Amanda DiDomizio was named the Goalie of the Year, having recorded 35 shutouts in her two years as the starter with a 0.36 goals-against average. Also named to the first team were Erica Wharton of Putnam Valley, Abigail Armstrong of Mahopac and Leanne Goldblatt and Emma Bozek from Lakeland. We’ve come to expect great things from our field hockey players, and were not disappointed this fall.
Hen Hud’s Jackie Tamburri copped the MVP on the volleyball circuit for the second year in a row as the top setter in the section with 1,223 sets. She also logged 29 digs, 124 kills, 104 aces and 85 blocks for the 11-time reigning Section 1 champions and twotime NYS runner-ups. Other first-teamers include Haldane sophomore Lauren Etta and Hen Hud’s Sareeta Nethersole and Taylor Wickel. Hen Hud is to volleyball, what the Yankees are to baseball… a lasting dynasty, and Haldane is making a bid for elite status. While Examiner-area players did not cop the top honor on the men’s soccer scene, I’ll go out on a limb and suggest it’s entirely possible that one of the following will do so over the next couple of years, including Lakeland sophomores Gonzaldo Prado, Timmy O’Driscoll and Sebastian Marquez, who take the reins from All-NYS middie Rob Caffrey. Mahopac freshman midfielder Arun Basuljevic, who takes the torch from leaders James Schiera, Arthur Strzepka and Joseph Iraola, is diaper dandy. These offensive gems led the Class AA Final 4 Indians to their finest campaign in history. Lakeland, Haldane and Mahopac all delivered on the pitch this fall. Yorktown junior Eric Cooley and Mahopac seniors Victor DiFusco (OL), TJ Foley (DB) and Ryan Wagner (WR) and Lakeland’s Conor Prunty were first team football players recognized by the Journal News for their gridiron exploits. Both Final 4 Yorktown and sectional runner-up Mahopac provided football fanatics with some major highlights on the Class AA front this season. With fall in the books, it’s time to head indoors until lax season in March… It’s entirely possible that Carmel’s Sabrina Diaz is my favorite new player on the girl’s hoop scene if last Tuesday is a portent of things to come. Don’t get me wrong; I love Carmel’s Georgetown-bound Brittany Horne, too; her low-post presence and her big-time ability, and the Tapio girl over at Brewster has some serious game. But the Rams’ engine is fired by Diaz, an up-tempo guard with more guts than MacArthur. Diaz went right at Mount Vernon in a 2010 Class AA semifinal rematch with the two-time reigning Section 1 champion Knights, scoring a game-high 21 points with an array of dips and dazzles in the paint.
Diaz is fearless, feisty and can play for me any time. Against Mt. Vernon she sported the look of a woman with unfinished business in her eyes. While Horne struggled (for her), scoring just 13 points, Diaz ripped off nine key points during a critical stretch where the Rams asserted themselves. “As a team we were very determined to win this game,” Diaz admitted. “We wanted a chance to verse them again and change the outcome of what happened back at the County Center. I was very proud of how we did. We really showed that hard work and playing as a team results in positive outcomes. It was a very good way to start out season and we know we have a long way to go and that this was only the beginning of what we hope to be a great season.” It’s not like the Rams weren’t already on the Section 1 radar, but the blip became a full-fledged swath when Carmel fired the first big shot of the year… I’m often the first guy to overrate a program because I yearn to see the athletes I cover succeed. So I’ll put a basketball team at the County Center before they’ve even played a game based on what I think I know and what other people are telling me. It’s a god-given curse; Croton basketball Coach Bill Thom calls me “The Kiss” when he sees me because I’ve given him the “Kiss of Death” a few dozen times by predicting his teams would reach these lofty, oftunattainable levels.
I think I might have passed the curse on to Yorktown High after I saw Coach Steve Veteri’s Huskers get their doors blown off, 77-53, last Wednesday by Class A Kennedy Catholic, a Class B school playing Class A (due the dominance rule applied to Catholic/Private schools playing in Section 1 NYSPHSAA). Man, I actually came out in this space and hinted that Yorktown might be worthy of a Class AA Final Four venture to the County Center later this winter, but Yorktown is going to have to find itself an identity before it heads south for the section’s grand stage. Kennedy’s full-court pressure was so vexing; it looked, at times, like Yorktown was trying to bring the ball up against Peekskill. The Huskers (1-2) didn’t rebound, they didn’t box out, they didn’t deny baseline, they didn’t score with nearly the frequency necessary to run with elite Section 1 clubs. Chalk it up to a lesson learned; don’t believe the hype! Read, but don’t believe, the hype I spew, and find a way to match the intensity of the foe at hand. Coach Frank Kelly’s Gaels, a legit Class A contender this season, brought the packed house to a crescendo with a suffocating defense and inhalant rebounding. Granted, Yorktown played without the services of 6-foot-5 sophomore Chris Schmitz, who has a stress fracture in his foot and will be out until after Christmas, but this was pretty bad from the second quarter on. Husker wing Danta Dixon and swingman Jordan Moddy had their moments, but their sense of defensive urgency and defensive rebounding were lacking as the Gaels went on this mammoth 11-1 run to start the third, ballooning their lead to 20 points just minutes in.
The Huskers had no biz being in the same floor that particular eve… The Negative Nelly’s are already out in full force in Putnam Valley after the Tigers are off to a 1-2 start, including a dismal 50- 32 loss to Haldane last week. Coach Ralph Smith, a genuinely nice guy, is rumored to be in his final year with the Tiger basketball program, and the finale is beginning to take on a negative tone as some parents got hold of my ear over the weekend. I would venture to say that newly appointed A.D. Pete Kuczma, an all-time Section 1 great, could be a hero if he finds a suitable replacement when and if Smith calls it quits. Jay Weltman is young and hungry and he’s right there in the building when he’s not assisting his father, Coach Henry Weltman, on the Lakeland sideline. Seriously, this should be a front-burner priority if Smith is set to leave at the end of the season. Weltman, though young and unproven, would be the easy route, as would a promotion from within for JV boss Larry Kunze. But Putnam Valley needs to do its homework and do right by its kids and this struggling basketball program come hell or high water. Kuczma, who takes over the athletic department for the second time in PV this January, is a diligent dude, so I suspect he’ll get ‘er done… The trickle down affect of NY Jets was in full bloom in the third quarter of Sunday’s game between the Miami Dolphins and New York Jets. Sal Alosi, a strength and conditioning coach for the Jets, stuck out his knee and purposely tripped Miami’s speeding gunner Nolan Carroll along the sideline while running down a punt. Carroll appeared to be hurt on the play, but returned to play the game. I don’t think Alosi should be afforded the same luxury and should never be allowed at any NFL game ever again without a ticket. A fine won’t cut the mustard. That dude needs to be fired and made to work at the Jersey Shore Planet Fitness where he can work out with juiceheads like “The Situation” and skanks like Snooki. Sorry, I just can’t resist a shot at Snooki.
Adam has worked in the local news industry for the past two decades in Westchester County and the broader Hudson Valley. Read more from Adam’s author bio here.