Yorktown Trio Represent Best in Student Athletes
There is plenty to be admired about Yorktown’s terrific basketball season: A league title, 17 wins, a run to the Westchester County Center Final 4 and a lifetime of memories for Coach Kevin Downes’ seventh-seeded Huskers.
But perhaps bigger than all that, bigger than the Huskers’ 61-44 loss to No.3 Scarsdale in last Friday’s semifinal at the Mecca, was the fact that three Yorktown players were honored with a Court of Excellence nod, which in the grand scheme of things is about as good as it gets.
The phrase “student athlete” rightfully places “student” first, “athlete” second, and Yorktown seniors Tanner Dyslin, Sol Barer and Matthew Severino are the epitome of the expression; each becoming one of the 11 honorees on the 2017 William J. Thom Court of Excellence team mandated by the Lower Hudson Basketball Coaches Association. According to Bill Thom, the man who founded the award, and LHBCA member Steve Purcigliotti, this is unprecedented: No Section 1 team has ever had three honorees in the same season. (Others from the region honored were Gregory Fucheck of Hendrick Hudson & Charlie Goldberg of Croton-Harmon).
“We got where we are in large part due to our senior leadership,” Coach Downes said. “Those three really took this team by the reins since the end of the season last year. I’ve never coached a team that was successful without having that type of senior leadership, and those three guys really showed us the way, on and off the court.”
So the Court of Excellence awards dinner on Tuesday, March 21 at the Doubletree Hotel in Tarrytown will feature an unprecedented three players from one team; something the administration at Yorktown High holds in the highest regard.
“I could not be prouder of Tanner, Matt and Sol,” said Yorktown High Principal Joseph DeGennaro, he himself a big fan of Cornhusker sports. “To have three student athletes named to the prestigious Court of Excellence is a first for our high school and such a well-deserved honor for them. They truly represent everything that is right about high school athletics. Beyond their success on the court and in the classroom, they are part of so many positive initiatives in our learning community. They are outstanding role models, reflect the highest level of character and are so giving. All three of them have incredibly bright futures.”
As does the future of the hoops program under Coach Downes, who came to Yorktown via Mahopac three years ago, and has compiled a 41-23 record since taking over a 6-13 team. Downes built a Mahopac program that went to an unprecedented four-straight Final 4’s and a championship loss to mighty Mount Vernon before his abrupt exit, which no one needs a reminder of. (Okay, so there was this racial incident that left Mahopac with egg on its face, ya happy!).
So he bolts for Yorktown — in what has to be among the great coups in Husker Athletic Director Fio Nardone’s established career – and guides the Huskers to their first Final 4 County Center visit since 2009, just like he did at Mahopac, where he snapped a 10-year dry spell. (Mahopac went back-to-back in 1999-2000 before Downes’ arrival, and then four-straight Final 4’s from 2011-14 with him).
So when Nardone retires this spring after an inspiring 16-year run at Yorktown, he can rest assured knowing he did what he could to restore basketball pride in a town of laxers. And one can only hope the same for the future of a highly respected athletic department, which is second to none in Section 1, upon his departure.
Over the course of the past decade, Fio Nardone has helped build a winning culture while presenting a “last-bastion” mentality that has steeped Yorktown in class and dignity.
I remember Yorktown going through a myriad of short-tenured AD’s after the retirement of the great Isabel Costa in the mid-90s (God bless her soul), and I recall saying just after the turn of the century, that Yorktown had hit a home run with the hiring of Nardone. It’s nice to know I’m right every once in a while…
If I had a dollar for every time Panas senior Carlyn Mucci hit the floor in the top-seeded Panthers’ 62-54 Section 1 Class A semifinal loss to No.5 Eastchester, I bethca I’d have close to $15 bucks laying around. On a Panas team that was a little light on top-notch talent and super heavy on heart, Captain Mucci surely epitomized the unit’s toughness and tenacity. Lucky for her, some dude made like a caped crusader and swooped out of the stands, and onto the court with flowers and a request for #Prom, which she seemed to accept at the time. Well done, chum…
Without getting in to the whole tragic Kristi Dini saga at Somers last spring, let’s just say that first-year Tusker Coach Marc Hattem was the perfect replacement for the Tuskers, who won their first-ever Section 1 title last Sunday night in a narrow 49-48 win over Eastchester. To his credit, Hattem lauded former Coach Dini (now coaching at Put Valley) for having prepared state-ranked (No.12) Somers for an inevitable run at the gold ball. Guy was pure class and I could not have been happier to see his program – one I’ve watched struggle for marginal success for much of the past three decades — finally reach the mountaintop…
Just gonna go ahead and put this out there: Ossining Coach Dan Ricci has no rival in Section 1 girls’ hoops when it comes to coaching greatness. The four-time defending NYS champion coach hoisted a seventh-straight gold ball (8th overall in 14 years) Sunday in a narrow 80-77 win over Albertus Magnus, in which he further etched his legacy as possibly the best hoops coach we’ve seen in Section 1, boys or girls. There is an argument to be made there…
When P.A. announcer Richy Leaf, the voice of Section 1 basketball and Iona hoops, finally returned to the Westchester County Center after several days with the MAAC Tournament, all was right again at the Mecca. Can’t replace that kind of energy with just anyone…
Good luck at states, ladies! Ossining, Somers and Haldane and the rest of Section 1’s hoopers: You make us proud!
Ray has 33 years experience covering and photographing local sports in Westchester and Putnam counties, including everything from Little League/Travel Baseball to varsity high school prep sports and collegiate coverage. He has been a sports editor at Examiner Media since its inception in 2007.
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