Check out the new state boys volleyball championship logo!
The state finals will be at Suffolk County Community College Brentwood this season.
Dates and times are still not determined.
Check our fall championship info page frequently for updates as the season progresses.
#SectionXITBT: With football season about to kick off, we’re going back to the ’90s with this classic East Islip image featuring Sal Ciampi and son, Sal Jr.
They are one of the winningest father-son tandems as head coaches in Long Island history.
The Redmen start their season on September 8 at West Babylon.
It’s almost that time … fall sports! The season kicks off later this week. We know, we can’t believe the summer went that fast too, but we’re excited about the sports action to come!
Make sure you’re getting your schedule right before September arrives because Section XI fall sports will be plentiful.
You can access our full slate of games for all sports on the Section XI Schedule Page.
Good luck and enjoy!
Multiple individuals from Section XI have been named as “Coaches of the Year” by the New York State Public High School Athletic Association (NYSPHSAA).
The following individuals were honored:
The honors were announced at a NYSPHSAA Central Committee meeting this summer.
According to a note from Ron Woodruff from the New York State Coaches Association, coaches are selected based on years of coaching, win-lose records, participations in league/sectional committees, and being a positive role model within their school and community.
That didn’t take long, but did you expect anything less?
Jack Coan is vying for the backup quarterback spot at Wisconsin as a true freshman.
“Coan was impressive as an early enrollee in the spring and looked plenty capable in the spring game when he completed 10 of 17 passes for 121 yards and 1 touchdown,” wrote Landof10.com, a Big Ten blog.
Coan, a Sayville product, is listed as one of the top freshmen to watch at Wisconsin, but will likely be one of the top to watch in the conference soon enough.
A Suffolk native and wrestling coaching has helped guide a high school athlete to not only walk again, but wrestle.
“The kids would help him,” Smith said of Cristian Penland. “The kids really got it. He’s part of our team. He always had a partner in the wrestling room, someone was always on the mat with him, always helping him to learn, showing him how to do stuff.”
Read this inspiring story about Smithtown alum, Kevin Smith and his wrestling team … click for more!
Normally we feature Suffolk County natives who play or previously played in pro sports in this column, but this week we’re highlighting Mike Pellegrino, a young Super Bowl winning coaching assistant with the New England Patriots who hails from Connetquot.
He also played Major League Lacrosse for the Boston Cannons, but has since stopped playing one sport to dedicate his career to another.
Pellegrino was a Hansen Award Winner in high school as Suffolk’s top football player and a talented All-American lacrosse player that took his skills to Johns Hopkins.
Through his work ethic and networking thanks to Blue Jays head coach and legend Dave Pietramala, Pellegrino landed an internship with the Patriots in 2015. He caught the eye of Bill Belichick and by fall of 2016 he was hired as a full-time assistant.
Now he has a Super Bowl ring.
Lacrosse Magazine highlighted Pellegrino’s story this week. Have a read!
Led by the largest one-year increase in girls participation in 16 years, the overall number of participants in high school sports increased for the 28th consecutive year in 2016-17, according to the annual High School Athletics Participation Survey conducted by the National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS).
Based on figures from the 51 NFHS member state high school associations, which includes the District of Columbia, the number of participants in high school sports reached an all-time high of 7,963,535. The increase of 94,635 participants from 2015-16 is the largest one-year jump in overall participation since the 2008-09 school year.
The top 10 states by participants remained the same; however, Florida moved ahead of Michigan to seventh position this year. Texas and California topped the list again with 834,558 and 800,364 participants, respectively, followed by New York (367,849), Illinois (341,387), Ohio (340,146), Pennsylvania (319,153), Florida (310,567), Michigan (295,647), New Jersey (283,655) and Minnesota (239,289).
Rich Castellano graduated from Deer Park and made a legacy as the girls’ basketball coach at Northport.
For his efforts he was officially inducted to the NYSPHSAA Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony in late July at the 1000 Island Harbor Hotel in Clayton, NY.
Since starting his coaching career in 1979, Castellano has won 613 games as head coach of the girls basketball team at Northport High School, ranking him top five in New York State.
Furthermore, he won 24 league titles, ten Suffolk County Championships, five Long Island Championships, was a New York State Semi Finalist three times, and a New York State Finalist once in 1992.
Each year the winner of the Lt. Ray Enners Award is profiled on RayEnnersAwardWinners.com.
Chris Gray did a Q&A about his lacrosse career, his future and the overall meaning of the award in his eyes.
“Receiving the Raymond Enners Award has been a great personal experience. Not because of the individual accolade but because it inspired me to really learn who Ray Enners was,” he said. “Being mentioned in the same sentence as Ray Enners is a great honor. His accomplishments in the class, on the field and in battle inspire me to live my life as Mr. Enners did each and every day.”
