South Side coaches lament over lost spring season

Posted

It’s game over for public high school spring sports on Long Island for 2020.

Any hopes for even a modified season were dashed April 21 when health and safety concerns led athletic administrators and school superintendents in Nassau and Suffolk counties to announced the cancellation of the spring sports season.

“For the safety for our student athletes Section VIII has made the difficult decision to cancel spring sports for our high schools and middle schools.” Nassau County executive director Pat Pizzarelli said. “Long Island is one of the areas most affected by this terrible pandemic so both Section VIII (Nassau) and Section XI (Suffolk) have made this very difficult decision.”

Administrators in both counties met over a 24-hour span beginning April 20 and felt it was important to react sooner as opposed to later. Even if public schools reopen, no sporting events will be held. A week earlier, Governor Andrew Cuomo extended New York State’s stay-at-home policies through May 15, meaning that school buildings will be closed until at least that date.

“It’s very sad for the seniors, but we are dealing with life and death,” Pizzarelli said. “We have to safeguard our students and communities. We waited as long as we possibly could to make this heartbreaking decision.”

Nassau County’s Athletic Council, which includes superintendents, principals and officials, met the night of April 20 and was unanimous in its decision. Athletic Directors met the following morning and were in total agreement.

“My heart goes out to all spring athletes,” Rockville Centre School District's Athletic Director Carol Roseto said, “but most especially to the senior athletes who put so much time, effort and commitment over the years towards their high school teams who won’t get to play.”

Learning the news of the season’s cancellation particularly stung for the South Side High School Boys Lacrosse team.

“This was our deepest and most experienced team in 10 years,” Coach Steve DiPietro said, “so all of us are crushed.”

DiPietro said most of the 18 senior players on the team had been playing together since third grade, and the team included a number of standout players, including All-American Nick LiCalzi and All-County William Pickett.

“It was the biggest senior class we ever had,” DiPietro said, “and we’ve been talking about this class for years.”

The Cyclones were seeded second behind Manhasset in Nassau County Class B and had aspirations for first place.

“It felt like we finally had the depth, the talent and the leadership to take it to the next step,” DiPietro said. “We felt like this was our best chance in a long time to finally potentially win the county championship.”

South Side High School Varsity Baseball Coach Tom Smith said that with 15 returning players – 12 of whom are seniors – he, too, had been looking forward to a strong season.

“We had high goals for ourselves this year,” Smith said. “We were hoping to make a run for a conference or county championship. It’s really upsetting for my seniors.”

Five of the team’s seniors plan to play at the college level next year, and Smith said every spring there’s a chance senior players can get recruited to join the roster of a college. The juniors, however, are missing their prime recruitment opportunity.

“It’s tough for them,” Smith said. “How are they going to get looked at?”

Smith, who has been coaching at South Side since 2007, and has been head coach since 2013, said the team had completed a week of tryouts and a week of practices prior to the school closure. Since then, he has been regularly communicating with his team, holding “team chats” and providing drills and exercises to keep them in shape. Though he said the final decision did not come as a surprise, it was still a disappointment. Because of this, he made a point to be the one to inform the team directly.

“They invested so much time and work, I didn’t want them to see it on the news or social media first,” Smith said, “I wanted them to hear it from me.”

He’s hopeful this team might have one more chance to get together.

“I’d like to get the team together for one last practice before they leave,” Smith said, “but it all depends on what happens with this pandemic.”