The Winning Moments | Season 2 Ep. 4

Girls flag football is TAKING OVER 🔥

From undefeated teams to viral “Moms Love Football” moments, this episode shows why youth sports are changing forever.

Plus:
💥 Top 10 plays
💥 INSANE stats
💥 Future D1 athletes
💥 Real talk on multi-sport kids

📲 Send your highlights → Text 88500

Transcript

SPEAKER_04 0:26

Coach, you watched the nickname last night, or did you watch the draft?

SPEAKER_02 0:29

Or did you watch the Mets?

SPEAKER_04 0:31

I watched a little bit of everything.

SPEAKER_00 0:33

And um glad our Mets pulled it out, Kevin. Yeah. Um after after a little bit of a rough patch.

SPEAKER_02 0:41

And uh more than a rough patch, like you're gonna call it an eighth inning grand slam a rough patch?

SPEAKER_00 0:46

I mean no, I'm talking about the 12 game the losing streak. I'm talking about losing streak.

SPEAKER_04 0:52

Sandwiched by Mets fans over here as the only Yankee fan of the show.

SPEAKER_02 0:55

We sent people around around the moon before the Mets won another game. They came back. They landed, they were in the ocean.

SPEAKER_00 1:03

They didn't win a game for two weeks. Yeah. That's 14 days. Around the moon. Around the moon. Around the moon.

SPEAKER_02 1:08

But there was a point last there was a point on uh Thursday night where if you timed it right, you and you're a Mets Giants and Knicks fan, you could watch the Knicks playing like absolute garbage and blow the game. Uh the Giants completely passing on like this possible Hall of Fame defensive player, maybe a couple of them, letting them go the Cowboys, and then the Mets give up a grand slam. So, like, really was just like a nice low point on a Thursday night. Get them all in one, you get them all in about 10 minutes space.

SPEAKER_00 1:35

Once again, welcome to New York. And um, how about the Knicks? How about those Knicks? How about the Knicks?

SPEAKER_02 1:41

Come on, it's depressing.

SPEAKER_00 1:42

We can't start to show off depressing.

SPEAKER_04 1:44

How about the Knicks?

SPEAKER_02 1:45

You know, listen, we I think all of our viewers, most of our viewers are probably Knicks fans, but I'd lived it with us. Absolutely as bad as the last play was, I thought the possession before the last possession was a word when the air ball threw. What is Jillian Bronson doing? Like, why I don't know. I just listen, the guy's amazing. He's been nothing but just carry this team the last four years. He's been on it, but there's just times where the hero ball, uh, I just I can't I can't do it. Hero ball stuff.

SPEAKER_00 2:08

Uh I'm gonna say this to both of you and Claudio as well, because I know he's a big New York fan as well. You you you the the way that you play in the regular season, yeah, you're not gonna get away with playing this exactly the same way in the postseason. Yeah, and you better have player movement, ball movement, and you can't put it on one guy. What was striking to me though, as a coach, CJ McCollum is one of the best mid-range jump shooters getting to his spot.

SPEAKER_02 2:41

Let's put a 5'10 guard on him guard on him.

SPEAKER_00 2:45

Well, how about this? How about let's run a second defender? If we're gonna go small, let's run a second defender at here.

SPEAKER_02 2:52

Let's put OG on him. Why didn't OG on him? OG, by the way, and not to get too we're talking too much here, but we are Josh Hart at two points. McCubridge is at zero points. In the game, zero points. In a playoff game, he took the last shot to try to win the last game, he had zero points next game. I mean, that is so one I'm out. I'm more out on the Knicks than I'm on the Mets.

SPEAKER_04 3:10

So I'm gonna say this. Well, I mean you got a longer, you got a longer drawing season for that one. So I mean that's the case.

SPEAKER_00 3:14

Double him and make someone else make a shot, other than CJ McCollum.

SPEAKER_02 3:20

All the teams, all the teams we root for, there's only one we can rely on, though. Westlake Girls Flag Football.

SPEAKER_00 3:25

Holy segue. The only one. And what a segue.

SPEAKER_04 3:31

And welcome back to the Winnie Moments show where we are gonna talk about all the spring sports, but we must we must start with a big thank you to the Westlake moms. To the Westlake Moms Football Club program. Yeah. Football moms. I'm not sure what you want to call them, but that picture that you put out there, they put out, they put out.

SPEAKER_02 3:50

So obviously last week, the you know, and we don't rehearse this stuff, we barely even prepare, but we um we don't really rehearse the things we say. But one of the things that came out last show was I, you know, I always say about Somers football, the why the why the the the tackle football program at Somers is so strong and why their flag football program is so strong, is it said because the moms are all in. I said Westlake is is within that same category where the moms love football. So we said moms love football, and then I we got it, we got it, I got a note from uh one of the parents saying that, oh yeah, my wife, my wife has her t-shirt ready for today's game, moms love Westlake, moms love football. And I I didn't think it was serious. And then they sent this picture out where there's multiple parents like wearing, and I can tell you, so you guys have learned this, like I've been doing this a long time. You guys are obviously so so new to this. There's gonna be times like at the county center where you're gonna feel like you feel like famous, like you know, like Westchester famous, which is like a nice thing, but then there's times where it's even better, you feel like very appreciated for what we do. Sure. Um, and this is it. This is one of those times, and it's a great, it's really like I I saw that in like my heart kind of was like that was nice.

SPEAKER_04 4:51

At first I thought it was fake because the post went up, you sent it to us, right? Oh, then it was late. And then it went down, and I was like, wait a minute, was that AI? Like, are you messing with me? What's going on here? And then they updated the score and then put it back up, and I was like, Yes, Director Kentris, he um Mr.

SPEAKER_02 5:05

Kentris, he he posted uh the picture and then was probably like, well, I should probably post what the score was because they won. They they beat Putt Valley at 12-0. Right. Uh they went to 10-0 in the season, which is uh pretty remarkable. And this so they combined with Briarcliffe um for the program. They're you know, they're one of the two undefeated teams left, and we'll talk about undefeated teams in a moment. But this Weslake team, um, they got something going here. Special. I mean, this is when you look at the defense, um, the the the the depth of talent they have on the offensive side with the wide receivers. Obviously, Juju Di Marino is the star of the team. 42 touchdowns in 10 games. Um so the breakdown is she has 18 rushing touchdowns. She's a quarterback, 18 rushing touchdowns, she has 20 passing touchdowns, she has two interception return touchdowns, uh, and two so she has uh 44 touchdowns in 10 games um combined. So two punt return touchdowns.

SPEAKER_04 5:57

So that's the real star of the game.

SPEAKER_03 5:59

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 6:00

Whoever we need to find, I don't know who the maybe you know this question. Who is the the person that brought girls flag football to light?

SPEAKER_02 6:09

So I don't know. So the sport the the person is uh this person I know called the NFL. So the NFL genius, right? So it's like baseball has softball and boys across has girls' cross. Like there's kind of like a counter to all football didn't really have a girls' version. Um flag was a big deal.

SPEAKER_04 6:29

Well they did, it was just inappropriate.

SPEAKER_02 6:30

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 6:31

I mean, they it many, many, many, many moves ago, they had an inappropriate like lingerie bowl. Like it was an inappropriate thing for women, and it was bad.

SPEAKER_02 6:40

It was a very sexist image of football. And the NFL like got a grip on this and said, No, there's a sport here. There's a sport here uh for girls to play. Um, and it is flag football. So so they actually were the ones who sort of went to the section, went to the different parts of the country through their local team. So the Giants and Jets really started to push flag football. They're Go60.

SPEAKER_04 6:59

What was it, go Go 60 or basically get out and play for 60 minutes a day, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 7:03

And so they had they've had a lot of different initiatives um to help grow the game. And and honestly, what schools around here, I think Somers was one of the first, Katie Dicharo, the head coach of Somers, one of the first to be kind of like pioneer this a little bit, um, because she played in a women's adult league uh flag football. And so she kind of helped bring it. But the NFL, if you want to do a flag football program, so like my kids play in a program, the NFL will send you and give you, I think they give it to you, I don't even think you have to order it to pay for it, is uniforms with like the logo. My daughters, my daughters on the Saints, other daughters on the Bears. It's the real Saints logo, it's the real Bears logo. Ah, and they're smart. And it's yeah, it's the NFL's.

SPEAKER_04 7:42

There's a reason, there's a reason that they're they're number one.

SPEAKER_02 7:44

They're they're billion, million multi-billion dollars. Yeah, they're reasonable. They um they they want to promote the game on the girls' side because it was just it's just was kind of just like an a blank canvas in a lot of ways. And like you said, the only time you ever heard about football for girls was Power Puff, Powder Puff or lingerie ball, like that sort of stuff. It was so inappropriate. And it was inappropriate, you know, and or it wasn't taken seriously, and now it's being taken very seriously. And when you have schools like Westlake, who have strong softball programs, strong girls across programs, now you have you're you're just getting athletes to you know kind of put time into a new sport in flag in flag football. Westlake, if you ask me, if you told me before anyone played a game, which communities would have been good at flag football, and the girls said I was like, well, if Westlake has a team, they're gonna be good because they're gonna absolutely, you know, um and because because moms love football. Moms love football. Um uh Maya Rivera Font, Juliana Nigrelli, Izzy Murray, Emma Casau. They have uh great re great receivers on this team. The defense kind of is winning them games. Um, 12-0 win over Pud Valley. They've allowed under nine points in on average per game, uh, which in gross like football.

SPEAKER_00 8:48

And Leah Vicaro, 20 sacks. Yeah, I mean that's incredible. And then and my this astounding statistic for me with Juju DiMorino, 2,300 yards from scrimmage in 10 games. I mean, come on though.

SPEAKER_04 9:04

If you were gonna have a flag football uh uh daughter and she was gonna be amazing, Juju, that name is is that name speaks like I'm playing professional flag football. Yeah, yeah. Okay, it's a great, great mom and dad. Congratulations. You nailed it. It's amazing. It's it's absolutely amazing.

SPEAKER_02 9:20

Yeah, so and they, you know, they have some tough games coming. They play Han Hudd, who's defending champions coming. They play him twice in the final couple weeks. I think they actually play, maybe playing them on our tape. We tape them on Friday mornings. Uh, they play on Friday night. So um that's the first of a couple matchups. They're gonna have to they're gonna be the front runner to win the section uh in class C. I got to pause again.

SPEAKER_04 9:36

Friday night. Like, let's just give a lot of credit to the schools, to this, to the the section, to the we did it to the NFL, but what you talked about before, like yeah, you've been doing this for a lifetime. I mean, you might actually be older than coach in that that that example, but yeah, seven. Yeah, so you've been doing it for a lifetime. Seven years. Would you have at what point in your career would you have predicted, like, hey, you know what? I'm gonna produce a show, I'm gonna be on a show, and I'm gonna leave this show off talking about moms love football, and then we're not gonna talk about boys, we're gonna talk about girls football.

SPEAKER_02 10:06

No, so absolutely not. And obviously, having two daughters that play it makes it even more special. So the other night, um after basketball practices, AU basketball practice, um, my daughter, so she we live in Byram Hills district, and Byram Hills flag football is playing at Fox Lane. And so I said to some of the girls, they were playing a seven o'clock game on a on a Wednesday night. And so my daughter and her friend said, We'd love to go to the games up the road. Fox Lane's just, you know, up Route 23. So we go up and uh I put uh the five kids? I don't know if three. Yeah, so five kids in the car, forget it. I I came home with as many that I left with. Um and uh so the we I took five of the kids up to go watch and they got there. And it was like a football atmosphere, like a Friday night football atmosphere on a on a Wednesday night. Um, seven o'clock game, back and forth, and I'll talk about this game a little bit later, but it was uh because they play in the Bedford Armonk flag football league, um Bedford Flag Football League. Um, you have a lot of girls from that will go to Fox Land, a lot of girls will go to Byron. They play in the league together, and they have a third and fourth grade, fifth, sixth, and seventh, and eighth. And um, so they they had two of the teams that happen to play at halftime. So they played that at halftime, and it was exciting. And then you had this down to the wire game that came down to the final two minutes. Unreal. And it I love it. I gotta tell you, so I I've noted one thing I've noticed with flag football is that a lot of the dads go to these games and watch their daughters play, and they don't really know like what to expect in terms of do these girls know football? Like, do they know like how the game's play? And I'm gonna tell you about one of them in a minute, a little bit. Um, but this I'm talking about at pure joy watching these dads the other night high-fiving each other just because it went back. By him Hills like to leave, Somer uh Fox Lane comes back, takes the lead back, wins the game on an interception. And um, it was it so if you're wondering, is it uh is it like a real sport yet? It's it's not quite probably on the level in terms of seriousness, um, because no one's dealing with the refs during these games. Um it's not quite there yet. That's how you know you're gonna be. Then you know that it's very much like a great atmosphere, it's a fun atmosphere. Um, but that felt like a real Section One varsity sports. Yeah, and and the reason why it's significant is because it's always felt that way in Somer at Scarsdale and Somers at Tap and Z, but now you're seeing it in other communities, so it's definitely growing.

SPEAKER_04 12:21

We need more highlights, we need more highlights uh uh from the team and the girls. Yeah, we need more highlights.

SPEAKER_02 12:25

That game was as exciting a game as I probably just watched this whole state. Oh, I think it's fantastic to have that environment for the little game. And my daughter and my and the best part is that there was all these girls, young girls there watching it.

SPEAKER_04 12:35

And now they aspire to be that on a Wednesday night at seven o'clock.

SPEAKER_02 12:39

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 12:39

Well, parents, send the highlights. You can uh send the highlights at the winymoments.com or you can text the highlights by texting highlights, the word highlights to the phone number 88500, and we'll get all the highlights and we'll try to put them all across our social media and talk about them on the show. Talking about social media, let's talk about if uh if the fans, Kevin, agreed with the KDJ top five. So in baseball, you had Meranak and class triple.

SPEAKER_02 13:04

Oh, so wait, so so like this is like poorly timed on my my part here because all the teams that I had highlighted have all lost in the last week or two. Oh, all right. So let's do that. Let me have a lot that we have. Let me have it.

SPEAKER_04 13:17

He says the winning moments kiss to death. I mean, it might be KDJ. It might be the KDJ kiss to death, right? Maybe it might be that. Okay. No, it's always a team game. Team game. We would never leave them hanging. Never leave them hanging. No. So uh the fans agreed Memor Aranak is uh is the favorite for a class AAA.

SPEAKER_02 13:32

And they and they lost. They lost to Scarsdale. They've uh they've they've you know they've struggled a little bit. They're five and four overall, only four and two in section one. So, like, you know, this is you know, they're they're not no none of these teams, none of the teams that have ranked at number one or two compared to like boys and girls across, are clear-cut favorites. They're kind of who I felt body of work at the end will be. Mamaranak still, I I don't know if they're my number one team this week. Here we are five uh seven days later. I think Ketchum may have overtaken it.

SPEAKER_04 14:01

Yeah, I was shocked that Ketchum didn't come out, and uh and that's the thing, guys. We put this on social media, you got to come out with your voice. I'm surprised Ketchum didn't come out and like, what are you kidding me? Of course we're number one. Yeah, but no, no, Mamaranak uh fans agreed that they are they are number one going to class double A, okay? You had Mayapak and uh the Lakeland fans. Lakeland fans came out and said, Kevin, man, you're absolutely out of your mind. We're the number one team in in class double A. Uh followed by your Rockland, uh, your Rockland County, uh, Clarkstown North was second in the voting, saying that they were the number one team in class class double A.

SPEAKER_02 14:34

Lakeland is six and six, and they said they were the best team. They said they were the best team. Oh boy.

SPEAKER_04 14:37

They said they were the best team. I want to do that. Well, here's the thing.

SPEAKER_02 14:40

Well, I'll tell you, they beat Zach Bond and Horace Greeley this week. They beat them one-nothing. So if you're able to go out there and play good enough defense and pitch pitch to the level of Greeley and Bond, Zach Bond. Then you're doing something. They also lost the next game two to one. So they had two one-run games against a team that I have pretty high up in the standings. So why, you know, a little tongue-in-cheek that they were six and six, um, they are they've won four out of seven. They're four and you know, so like they've played well. They had it, they've had a tough schedule. Look at this, especially. Um, they've played Panas twice, um, their rival. They've played Mayapack, they've played Pleasantville, who's 10-2. So like they've played a brutally hard schedule, John J. Cross Rivers. So they've played a tough schedule. So I'll I'll say six, they're a good six and six. Um, they're a worthy top five team. Are they number one? We'll have to see that in the next few weeks.

SPEAKER_04 15:25

That's why you play. That's why you play the game. But their fan base says that the number one. Then we go to class A. Lots of love for each team. So uh so we we leave you there as the uh Tap and Z. Tap and Z. Tap and Z. And then Class B, okay, you had Putt Valley.

SPEAKER_02 15:41

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 15:42

The Blindbrook community said, You're absolutely wrong. And the community showed up big and said, listen, Blindbrook is the number one team in Class B, and we're gonna prove it to you.

SPEAKER_02 15:51

And they've proved it and they've done well. They are they are now nine and three in the season, another big win, four-nothing over uh three-nothing over Lafell on Thursday, Thursday night. Um, they pitch, they pitch really well. Yeah, that's the name of the game. You have arms multiple arms.

SPEAKER_00 16:05

Arms. You have to have arms. If you have arms, you can you can get things done. And I think this is the best start Blybrook has had in baseball in quite a while.

SPEAKER_04 16:14

Yeah, they won 2-1 last night, right?

SPEAKER_00 16:15

Two ones.

SPEAKER_02 16:17

They won 3-1. They beat Dobbs, they've won four games in a row, and they've won uh nine out of ten. So they're uh they started 0-2, lost to Pauling and Hastings, and Hastings defending champion. They've lost to Westlake mixed in there 11-6 um on a string of when they had three games in like four days. So um hard to do that. Uh, whenever you look, whenever you look at baseball losses, and you're like, oh, they lost the team. What a surprise. Then you you have to look at like how many games they had days before after.

SPEAKER_00 16:41

Yeah, weather, are they on their four how many guys could pitch, how many uh, how many pitches that they had in their count and the whole thing. That and weather. That and weather.

SPEAKER_04 16:49

I love I love how the community showed up on social media, and then the boys backed it up on the field. I mean that that's that's a great great side. Absolutely. So moving to softball, we got class triple A. Uh you had North Rockland. The White Plains community said uh come back over the bridge. We had North Rockland, number one. You had North Rockland, uh, maybe number one. Uh no, no, no, no. My my apologies. My apologies. Yeah. You had White Plains and North Rockland. North Rockland said, come across the bridge, coach, use your plastic thing and happen. North Rockland says, we are the team to beat in class triple A against your pick of White Plains.

SPEAKER_02 17:23

Yes. And uh one thing I didn't uh account for is uh you know, predicting champions is North Rockland's hosting the section championships this year. They North Rockland's kind of hosted, but they're actually at their new stadiums, which are incredible. The baseball and softball stadiums, North Rock and High School are just you you don't even you can't even imagine that these places would exist. Talk about like things that didn't exist until a stadium that looked this nice, I didn't expect. Um and they're gonna be the home team, they'll they'll get to host those games. So and they've hosted it in the past, but uh it's an advantage. Yep. Um and uh White Plains has a working up and white plains.

SPEAKER_04 17:54

I mean, listen, it's not a far stretch. You add them as as number two, and the fans say they're number one.

SPEAKER_02 17:57

And catch them has been good too, man. The gadget was taken off in the last last two weeks. So catch them is uh it's a it's a nice tight race to the top teams, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 18:06

Uh so class double A, you had East Chester, and the Carmel community came out and said, absolutely not, there's no way we are going to be the champions of class double A. How do you feel about that?

SPEAKER_02 18:18

Um double A is the most competitive bracket of all the uh brackets in in softball. It always has been and kind of always will be. Uh, they've played a really tough schedule. They also played catch them, they've played Yorktown a few times, they've played Somers, um, they've played uh they beat Panis. So yeah, they and they've lost a catch em. They lost a man pack 3-2 this week. So Carmel's right there. Um Eastchester to me though, I just feel like the one through nine is solid. It's gonna be hard. Solid and they're gonna keep getting better.

SPEAKER_00 18:48

But listen, that's that's why, coach, that's why we play the games. Well, I mean, uh and and we talked about it all fair before. I mean, Eastchester is young, and you know that when you're a junior and senior laden team and a young team comes into postseason like in Eastchester and softball, it um they got nothing to lose, and they're gonna play like that.

SPEAKER_02 19:10

Yeah. And all of us, if they get on a roll, it can be do you do you believe in senioritis too? For uh I I I feel like I've seen this away. Wait, oh, senioritis.

SPEAKER_00 19:19

Explain what senioritis is so so I I do, Kevin.

SPEAKER_02 19:22

Um senioritis is when you get to your senior year of your high school career, and it's kind of like you're waiting for waiting for college to start, waiting for summer of your college. It's hard, man.

SPEAKER_00 19:30

It's it's very difficult. Very difficult. It is.

SPEAKER_04 19:34

We um the weather changes.

SPEAKER_02 19:36

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 19:36

Yes, it's it's very difficult. I mean, no, it's I I'll give you a perfect example. We were 17-0, my senior year in high school, number one ranked team in the state. Yeah. What school was this? Somerville. Somerville High School. Somerville High School, Summerville's stock growth. We didn't club. Greenway. And um and we finished five and five, our last 10.

SPEAKER_02 19:59

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 20:00

And we were out of the playoffs in three games. Yeah. Because just my never thought about P I think it was part of that.

SPEAKER_02 20:11

Nobody slept. Um we played a game at 10 a.m. at Hen Hod. Oh boy. Every time I drive by Han Hod High School, I think to myself, I wish I just took like a two-hour nap. Two-hour nap. Nobody's prom and you know, you go out afterwards and behaved, but didn't get any rest.

SPEAKER_04 20:26

Make sure uh kids, key word, keyword that uh Kevin behaved. He behaved on uh on prom night. So let's wrap this up really quick. Uh class, class A, there were lots of love for each team. There was no clear winner. But class B, class B, uh you have Dobbs and uh Rye showed up. Rye showed up and said Ryanek.

SPEAKER_02 20:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 20:46

Yeah, yeah. They showed up and said, uh, hey, listen, we're not uh we're not something to laugh at. So we're gonna win this section, and we think Kevin's wrong.

SPEAKER_02 20:52

Ryanek, when all of a sudden done, typically is the team that improves the most. Uh Joan Spedafino is a Hall of Fame coach. She's sports Hall of Famer. Her program year in, year out. Their only loss was to Hastings, um, which was uh this is defending uh Dallas Ferry's only losses to Hastings. So I felt like they beat, you know, they only lost to defending section champions. Um and they beat Ryanek 12-0. So I felt like uh, you know, yeah, felt that we're gonna do that.

SPEAKER_04 21:16

I still feel feel good about that one. Yeah, feel good about that one. Yeah. All right, so now moving right along. This is uh a segment that we will not always have because uh actually this segment today was a shocking segment when I read it coming across the wire. This segment in spring sports is the undefeated segment for section one sports.

SPEAKER_02 21:33

So section one is and spring sports are not meant for long sustained winning streaks, Chris. There's obvious reasons why, right? Baseball's baseball.

SPEAKER_00 21:41

Yes, absolutely.

SPEAKER_02 21:42

Softball you you see more, but the thing of softball does the same thing that Boys and Cross and Girls Across do, which is the best teams want to play the best teams all the time.

SPEAKER_00 21:50

Of course they do. So during the postseason.

SPEAKER_02 21:52

A good uh uh you uh we have section champions in lacrosse that win that are typically four lost teams because they went and played. Wilton, Connecticut. They played Massapico on Long Island. They played all the best teams in New Cane. And so they travel and they play these teams. So you don't really see it. But we do have some. Tappen Z baseball being 12-0 is remarkable, but it's not really should not really be surprising because we've talked about the pitching that they have. Um but also like the pitching is one thing, but they just they've the bats have woken up. And um Marsico has a grand slam yesterday in their wins. So TZ is getting better. You know, it's like it would be hard to keep improving as a as a pitching staff with the aces that they have, the three aces. Um, but the offense is what's really kind of stood out to me, and that they just keep hitting the ball. Roosevelt's not an old, they play in developmental league. They're not playing this nearly a tough competition, but they are undefeated, which is uh remarkable.

SPEAKER_00 22:45

Any time a school from the city of Yonkers is undefeated in any sport, yeah, it doesn't matter developmental or not. I I I really that's a credit to the staff, they're coaching staff, a credit to those kids to be successful to that point where they won the first nine games of the season.

SPEAKER_02 23:03

And just so everyone knows, because this is something that's come up and it's been questioned, love for Yonkers? No, they're in the developmental league. Um so they are positioned right now in class double A to be the one team. So at the developmental league, there's uh how many teams we have? We have uh seven teams that are developmental in class double A.

SPEAKER_00 23:22

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 23:23

Roosevelt, Gordon, Lincoln, Saunders, Yonkers, Peekskill, and Poughkeepsie. Only one of them can make the playoffs. Okay. And if they make the playoffs, the one team that makes the playoffs, as long as they all qualify, which Roosevelt already has, um, then they are um the last seed of eligible teams. Just like we did in basketball. Yes, so exactly. So people the thing is we forget that basketball baseball people might not know what happened to basketball. So basketball, you could have you could have three or four teams. Now it's only one. This is the first season now with section one. It it didn't kind of run on their regular calendar. So it's only starting now, only the one team can make it. So let's just say right now we're looking at there's 13 teams total in class double A in Section One. Harrison and Suffolk are gonna have a hard time making the playoffs, maybe even Carmel. And Fox Lane's. So let's say Fox Lane is the last team at as the 10th seed. So Roosevelt would go into the 11 and they would play the number six seed in the first round, okay, which right now is nice. So long way to go for that. Um and it could listen, it could be the 12th seed if Carmel makes it. So um it I think it's the best thing Section One has done in a long time is come up with a system where competitive games for programs like Roosevelt's, um, you know, City Pride, go in the city, it means something to them, and then get a chance to go in the postseason. So the postseason is still available for these.

SPEAKER_00 24:42

And it helps rebuild, rejuvenate um the baseball programs in the city of Yonkers and hopefully get more interest.

SPEAKER_02 24:51

And and also it helps programs like Irvington and Sleepy Hollow, who are in class A, also in the developmental league in class A, only one of them can make the playoffs. So Irvington, Sleepy Hollow, Roosevelt, and Obama are the four Class A schools. Only one of them can make the playoffs. And right now, Irvington is sort of the number one team, but like they have to play Sleepy Hollow, so like it could flush, it could go down to the end to see who gets to be in the postseason with them. Okay. Cool. Now that's all cleared up.

SPEAKER_04 25:13

Now that we have all the education.

SPEAKER_02 25:16

Brian Hills, Nick Stevens taking over as the head goes. The Bobcats. Yes. Eight.

SPEAKER_00 25:20

No, Reed with where the Devaney family resides.

SPEAKER_02 25:24

Yeah, we were at a game recently. We saw Reed. Um, I told you, I think I told you last week, I was walking down the hill from the parking lot to go to the baseball game. We saw Reed score, I think, twice. So it was just like right over there on the shoulders. Um, yeah, this is it's sort of needed um for for Baram Hills. They've had a couple of rough seasons, and um, you know, they they kind of you'd feel like when you look at sports, they should be better in lacrosse. And and now they have Coach Stavicano in there and uh, you know, a player to build around and read and and uh excitement. I you know, my son is nine, and there's a lot of his friends play lacrosse, he doesn't play lacrosse. Um it's hard to be good at baseball on lacrosse. Rye makes it look easy. Um but um they won they went to the state final on baseball last year, state final four, and they won to the state final four in lacrosse. It's very hard to do that. Absolutely. And uh Byron's trying to trying to join them in that. It's not gonna be easy. But uh Coach Savastano has things kind of pointing in the right direction. They're obviously not playing the difficult schedule as uh some of the other teams are gonna you know get challenged here at some point soon, but um, yeah, they're they're right there.

SPEAKER_00 26:24

But I mean, listen, Nick Savastano's got a tremendous background in lacrosse. He was a phenomenal player in our area. Yeah, and um you know that a guy like that is going to really revitalize, rebuild, whatever you want to call it, reconstruct that lacrosse program in his image.

SPEAKER_02 26:45

Yeah. Yeah. So it's it's lacrosse is built really from the ground up. So a challenge for any varsity lacrosse coach is to know and understand and sort of help organize what's happening at the lower levels. And I mean, I mean lower levels like starting third grade, fourth grade levels. Absolutely. Um, and so that's how Yorktown and Rye are so good. And uh John Jay got good. Like all these programs, they did this by building all the way through. And that's what makes it hard. But it's a challenge for Byram Hills. Hey, they build a new turf field in town, so they're gonna be not gonna terrible grass fields that we used to have.

SPEAKER_00 27:16

I'm sure Nick's got a vision for what the grassroots program is gonna look like. Um on at least the boys' side, I'm sure that the girls' program is gonna reap the benefits of that as well.

SPEAKER_04 27:27

Listen, I'll tell you though, I think people take that for granted. Like uh I was talking to Sean Lindsay, uh former Section One standout stars player, right? He was phenomenal. Okay, I was talking to him the other day, and uh we were talking about the show, and uh his dad's like, listen, those guys are really good on there, but they gotta get someone like uh like me on the show to talk about it. So uh Mr. Lindsay Pop Lindsay will definitely uh reach out to you. But we were talking about he built a program out in LA before where he teaches now. And he's like, John, listen, for me to get that program, I literally had to go out to the streets in LA and basically build a youth's program before my high school team could even be relative in the side of it. And he said it basically took about 15 years to build it up to where his program became top program in LA. And I mean, now he's got the LA Mavs and he teaches at uh uh Christian Academy, and it's just it's it's phenomenal. But it I took for granted like 15 years is a long time. How long it takes you to build a youth program from I mean he had to do it from scratch. I it's not easy. Yeah, it's not easy now.

SPEAKER_02 28:26

In any sport now, basically, um Suffering did it in Girls Across, they're undefeated right now. Brewster as well, they're 5-0. Pleasantville 10-0 with all these multi-sport athletes that they have. Um 10-0. Uh Matty Bissera had five goals in uh a win this week after playing in an AU tournament the week over the weekend. And so you're seeing the so I don't know, and and this is something that I've talked to some other parents about. Basketball players make great lacrosse players, and vice versa. But the important season the timing doesn't work. Like, I don't know how these parents, I don't know how girls lacrosse parents are doing it with basketball um because AAU season is so important, and like especially in high school when you're traveling, you know, they were in Milwaukee. They were in Milwaukee over the weekend, you know, and um now she's gotta come back and put the stick back in her hand and play. And she's not the only one. There's so many girls.

SPEAKER_00 29:15

So many girls are here, you're doing both right.

SPEAKER_02 29:17

Or or or trying or failed and trying. And like not failed in the sense that they just they couldn't commit the time. Correct. And so um, because of the demands on both sports, it's so hard.

SPEAKER_04 29:27

It's got to hurt practices too. You can't practice during the weekend and lacrosse they're playing during the week. So like the AAU practices have to be light.

SPEAKER_00 29:35

Correct. And and you gotta have a certain um understanding with the parents if you're an AAU coach or via, you know, where okay, you know, the kid just ran eight, 65, 70 minutes, whatever it is, yeah. And and and then and then you they come to your practice, you can't kill them.

SPEAKER_02 29:54

Did you say the AAU coach should understand this?

SPEAKER_00 29:56

Yeah, the AAU coach should understand it because it's spring. I'm gonna be honest. And I'm not this is not this is not a two. I've got kids that are running track. Who I don't I don't kill them. Go on. Okay, I don't kill them. If they if they or if they pitched or whatever.

SPEAKER_02 30:09

Who thinks they're who thinks they're more important in this in the spring season? Is the AAU coach think he's more important than the than the varsity coach of the spring sport, or the varsity coach think he's more important than AU coach? Because I'm gonna tell you something. They both will have different answers.

SPEAKER_00 30:21

So I've we've always tried, we've always tried to accommodate the kids for the spring sport of their high school program. Okay, because they're representing their community, they're representing their school, um, it's with the school, and we try to work try to work around that situation for them as best as we can.

SPEAKER_01 30:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 30:45

What if what if it's a better basketball player? What if the basketball player is a better basketball player versus like uh he plays baseball, but that conversation's okay, but that conversation is had prior to us, you know, starting the spring season.

SPEAKER_02 30:59

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 30:59

Now if they and if they still choose to play a spring sport, then we support it.

SPEAKER_04 31:04

That's a senior, that's a senior AAU coach at Chris Ward basketball. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 31:07

Because the junior coaches, I don't think, would be like Because you know, I'll tell you the basketball coach will see this is where everyone's kind of selfish in this regard, too, you know. Um the basketball coach will say that, well, if they focus more on basketball, they'd be better. Um they would so this this is this is uh a much deeper conversation that we've kind of gone off on here, but it is something that I I think a lot about because I know a very prominent basketball player who felt that this past weekend got injured. And she's not gonna play. I can't say who it is, but um she got injured, ACL, of course. Um boy and is it is it is it uh did she is it too much? Is she playing too much? But then I said to some we're trying to this conversation with uh actually her high school coach, and I said, you know, it's a double-edged sword. Did she play too much basketball? Probably, but if she didn't play all this basketball, would she keep the pace of where she's going? No, she wouldn't. No, it's just like, okay, so what's the answer? Nobody knows. Nobody knows. Nobody knows. I think playing a different sport might have been the better way to do it. So if you're asking me right now, um, I hope I'm in this position one day as a parent that my daughter is excelling in multiple sports. My son's daughters are doing um and we have to make this decision. If you ask me right now, I would lean towards the other seasoned. I would I would lean more towards the high school of sport because it's not the same sport year-round. I can't, I I'm having a hard time with this, um, with this idea that every sport every kid plays has to be a year-round commitment. I I hate it. I stuff.

SPEAKER_00 32:32

I suffer sports that I as I've listened, I I can say this real quick. As I've gotten older, and even when I was a younger coach in AAU, I always wanted to make sure that the kids got the best or and the most experienced in athletics that they could get, whether it was with AAU or score, if they could do both, do both. Because as I've said before to John, it's a finite amount of time for these kids to play. You want them to enjoy and have as many great experiences in different realms of athletic activity that they can possibly uh be a part of and experience.

SPEAKER_02 33:10

A great person who would be able to answer this, uh, give us their thoughts, and this would be uh our next team, Tappen Z and their quarterback Eve Girardi and her parents because she's the all-time leading scorer in Rockland County in girls' soccer. She won a state championship as the point guard in basketball, and she's absolutely killing it with her team. Um, she's the best quarterback in the section right now. I mean, she is Eve Girardi, um, throwing the football, running the ball. The the the rules, so people don't realize this too. Girls' flag football rules are all different anywhere you look. So, like youth plays one level where you you can't like now you used to be able to run on every down, or some leagues you only run if you're blitzed. Um, high school you can run, quarterback can take the snap and just go, um, which is really what football you can do. Yeah, right.

SPEAKER_04 33:50

You should be able to do whatever places.

SPEAKER_02 33:51

There's a lot of coaches, high school coaches that hate it because they feel it's you all oh well one player just uh you know dominates the game. Okay, so what's the problem with that? Like the Michael Vick, the Michael Vick of uh The NFL's emphasis is that they want it to be a passing sport. They want it to be a passing sport because it's they they are they they have their reasons. The NFL changed some of the rules um in at the you'll see in the Olympics. Um it's more of a passing sport where you you can get blitzed and still not be able to cross the line of scrimmage with the football as a quarterback. Now you can pitch the ball and throw short passes.

SPEAKER_04 34:26

No, that's gonna be awesome. Um men's football. That's what I'm saying. Flag football in the Olympics.

SPEAKER_02 34:30

My prediction is gonna be in a couple of years. We're ready for my jersey. We're on, we're hopefully we're still doing the show. Uh, a couple years we're talking about the high school varsity boys' flag football league. I think that's sort of something that people don't don't expect, but it might be coming too. Um, but anyway, so um Eve Girardi, the rules for the high school favor her very much so um because of how fantastic an athlete she is, and she can just take off and run, and she's uh sensational throwing the ball. They've well outscored their opponents 286 to 80 on the season. A lot of the boys have come after they've been up 33-0. So she's she's special. And then Westlake, obviously, we talked about their uh undefeated, uh, their 10-0. I love it on my sheet. 310 to 89, their scoring margin. Amazing. And uh softball undefeated. You see more of the undefeated teams. They're all um kind of East Chester's 6-0, Hannah's 9-0, Summer's 6-0. So those are undefeated teams in uh in section one so far. And there's that list will probably be less next week. Well, after you announced them, I mean with the with the current current James.

SPEAKER_04 35:30

Let's see how let's see how good that uh that that curse is on these these poor teams, okay? Uh yeah, I mean, insanity. Yeah, you had a note here uh that uh I wanted to bring up here since we're uh in Section One sports here. This uh Pat Massaroni.

SPEAKER_02 35:44

Oh, he's not sectionary, but yes, yeah. So Section One, uh he's well, obviously. Section one family or the Westchester family. So um there was a tweet that went out this week about Pat Massaroni um from Samurai Hoops, which if you if you're like you have to be like a real insider to know, like they only have 7,000 followers, but like anyone knows that this guy or this banner woman has serious inside information at a high level of basketball. And uh just threw out there this week that Pat Massaroni is a finalist for the IMG basketball job, which is significant. Uh for the coach from Georgia, and then obviously another coach came into the mix as well, Steve DeMeo is a Westchester uh former division one coach. Yeah, and so probably long time, yeah, long time coach, and that they're the finalist for the job. Pretty that's significant. It's a great company.

SPEAKER_04 36:30

It's a great company. He deserves it.

SPEAKER_02 36:31

Oh, it's not even forget the who other guys nominee uh the finalists are. It's the fact that IMG has been, you know, basically courting Pat Masterone to be their next head coach in the program of uh uh an elite. Uh elite is not even the worst. Stepheneg's elite, like IMG is like as close to college as it gets.

SPEAKER_00 36:50

IMG's with Mont Verde, yeah, with uh the uh La Lumière in Indiana, the the the big program at the Aspire, you the one in Utah, um uh the one in Kansas, I forget the one in Kansas, but there that's that echelon.

SPEAKER_02 37:06

There were the there were it was Oak Hill really first, but IMG was the one that came out um and sort of put made all these schools, all the copycats that followed IMG is the thing. Correct. So I don't know if it's gonna happen. I would, you know, I talked to him and just got a little inside, little information from him about it. Um, not impossible. I would be surprised if it ended up happening. I just but uh to even be mentioned there just goes to show you just that he's that close to being a college coach. Every coach who's been there basically becomes a college coach.

SPEAKER_00 37:33

I'm gonna say this though. If he does get it, the biggest question becomes You're taking his job? Who takes Steppen out?

SPEAKER_04 37:41

Chris was Chris Ward has come out of retirement.

SPEAKER_01 37:44

Some people will apply for that, uh for that. Uh you think there'll be a long line, there'll be a long line out in front of Main Street.

SPEAKER_02 37:50

Al Shepherd, Alexis Nunez, they have coaches in the program. Yeah, who've been here forever. But you would have you'd have some names. You sure you certainly would. You would, you'd have some some serious names uh interested in that uh in that uh position to go coach the Catholic school in Westchester that's on the map right now.

SPEAKER_04 38:07

Right, which is which is insane. Speaking about colleges, do you want to give us a quick update on some of the announcements this week of college commitments?

SPEAKER_02 38:12

So Via Tavaras, coach, coach Ward from Walter Pan, and she graduated. We know her very well. She's uh just finished her freshman year at Conn College, coming off the bench as their best player. I never understood that. And uh she didn't seem to understand it either, and uh transferred. She went to the transfer portal, and um she's gonna play Division I basketball next year for uh at FDU. Congratulations, and Coach Caitly, who's done an amazing job at that time. She's the tournament again this year. You know, she's been she's been awesome, she's been great at developing players. Um, she obviously was an old Fordham coach, she has strong roots um to Westchester, family and stuff. Um but um she also got her and she also got Ali Kaminsky from RC Ketchum committed to FDU.

SPEAKER_00 38:51

Love watching her play. She's a she's a warrior. I just love how hard she plays. Yep, and she's relentless.

SPEAKER_02 38:58

Smart she plays and she's smart tough. Talk about a player who like puts the team on her back. And I've watched FDU play live and on obviously on on uh on TV, uh the women's program, and it's exactly the type of player. Like you need to be a certain type of player to play for Coach Gately. Um you need to be very coachable, is what I'll say, right?

SPEAKER_00 39:16

She's a she's gonna coach. She's on the coach, she's gonna coach you hard. She's gonna be hard.

SPEAKER_02 39:21

Yeah, and yeah, be able to handle it. Which is fine. That's okay. It's okay. The success speaks for itself. Totally. Um coach getting Coach Hard. I mean, it's it it is uh there was a great tweet uh a couple weeks ago about um the transfer portal for AAU is officially open after one weekend because like some parents found out that their coaches might not be so might be a little tough on them. Um I watched this guy, we watched John, we watched uh Coach Ward and Chris Ward in the Wild.

SPEAKER_04 39:47

Coach Chris Ward in the Wild. It was so fun to be on that bench and uh be the assistant coach, yeah, which I basically handed the board to and reminded him that you have no more timeouts.

SPEAKER_02 39:56

Yeah, don't yell at me like how many fouls do we have? How many fouls do we have, yeah. Um, but that's that's something that um is is important. I think you can coach hard. I mean, my daughter's coach, Coach Nick Rezoby, he's coaches are really hard. Coach all the kids are hard, you know? Yes, we're gonna we're going to AC this week, Atlantic City this weekend.

SPEAKER_00 40:12

And and don't think that there's not a feeling for for Coach Nick. Coach Nick has a feeling within himself about wanting to make sure that his kids are prepared and he's gonna coach them. Especially this weekend.

SPEAKER_02 40:24

This weekend's been a humbling weekend the last couple years for these girls. So, like I I think about the uh AAU parents. I talked to I talked to obviously a lot of varsity parents, and they'll say, Hey, what's going on with your daughter's AAU? And I'll say, Oh, you know, AC weekend. They're like, Oh, I remember those times. The convention center, currently convention center.

SPEAKER_04 40:39

Concrete floors at the basketball courts.

SPEAKER_02 40:40

Well, I will say this phenomenal there's a lot of parents that are getting in their cars today, um, heading down to Atlantic City and are about to waste a lot of money, and they're they're also Mike Gamble. So they lose a lot of money and they also might gamble. So they're gonna learn, they're gonna learn the hard way, uh, you know, on the court that uh, you know, what they're what they're up against. But um, yeah, it's this is this is a great time. I mean, this is a fun time. And it's and listen, I'm I'm I'm so thrilled for I've Sophia was like one of my one of the girls I'd watched. I was like, man, it's like undersized for you know for to play Division I college basketball, but toughness, heart, relentless competitiveness, unbelievable. Allie fits the fits the mole more. She's 5'10, 5'11. Um, great ball handler, could play inside outside. So the two of them going there is gonna be pretty special. And then Marcus Jacquette uh commanded to play at Pace University. So Marcus, um right down the street. Yeah, and Marcus is awesome, obviously all-time leading scorer, Westlake, um, and worked so hard. And and he always wanted to go to Pace. Like he's a pace was kind of his number one choice for a very long time, and now he's gonna get his opportunity to go play there.

SPEAKER_00 41:44

It's fantastic for him and the Jaquette family. Congratulations to them over there in Westlake. And uh I know that this Charnies, coach Coach Chad, and Coach Jeff are very uh proud of this young man. Yep.

SPEAKER_04 41:56

I mean, I think his hardest decision was to uh not be the uh starter for football when he was called up to do so. Uh he turned down the starting position of being quarterback of football so he could focus on basketball. And now uh this week it pays off. Paid off. This week for Marcus.

SPEAKER_02 42:11

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_04 42:12

Um so before we go to our our next uh honor roll and top performances, which is uh uh starting to become our favorite segment here, not only for us to do, but for the fans out there are loving it. Uh, you want to give us a quick update on the uh Section One private public?

SPEAKER_02 42:26

Talked about oh yeah, so we before we I've had another thing in my mind. Um there's really no update other than the fact that it just seems very evident that Section One is gonna move forward with this. You know, one thing I I've talked to a lot more people on the last week about this amendment. So Section One obviously has its proposal. Um it's gonna get voted on at the Athletic Council, it's almost certainly gonna pass unless something drastically changes. Um Albertus and Ursulin, obviously the focus is on them. KO and LaFelle are sort of standing by being like, what's going on here? So my my thing is at the same time, so there will for and it doesn't start until 27, 28 school year. So anyone that has says, someone told me it was no, no, it goes into effect immediately. It's gonna go in effect for this. It's not what it is. That's not Section One's plan. So they're gonna get another year to to kind of prepare. Um, but my thing is with when I look at this, there the ultimate plan is to have two non-public play, like a large and a small combat. Maybe maybe they don't need it in all sports, but you know, so KO and Lafelle are not in girls' basketball not playing against Ursula and Albertus in in a postseason. To me, if you're KO and Lafelle and and their arguments or their their stance, not arguments, but their stance has been, you know, KO's uh an all Japanese school, students come from overseas to come here. It's not about athletics. Lafelle school is very similar, it's not about athletics. You know, this is a you know uh uh it's a religious school, uh, education school. Uh I totally understand it. If it's not about athletics, then all they're really being deprived of, they're still getting membership in Section One. So all they're really being deprived of is postseason games. They're in the smallest classification every sport. So they're in a they're already in a classification in class C in for KO, where they only play one playoff game anyway, in pretty much every sport that they have. Lafell, same deal. They have a chance to win a championship now, probably only going against the KO. And I to me, this is an opportunity for Section One to attract more non-public schools locally. CSE, the Charter School of Yonkers, you can bring them in. Uh Montfort Academy, they can be brought in. It sort of opens up the opportunity for more schools to be part of Section One because those schools were never really accepted into Section One that have applied over the last 10 years because of the fact that people didn't want and public schools didn't want non-public schools in. Now if there's a now there's a way for them to be ingrained in this regular season schedule and then separated for the postseason, they might take in all these all these other schools, these local small schools. So to me, it makes a lot of sense for them to stay with KO and LaFelle. And Albertus and Arsulan, I I think that they're gonna realize that the world in the athlet the athletic world in certain sports is fine when you leave, but their regular season schedule is not gonna be disrupted. Um and if anything, they should be kind of part of the team that sort of helps build this across the state. Because if you have it across the state, then you have something, then you have something here that I think would benefit them. So long way away. Hard to convince people of that right now.

SPEAKER_00 45:22

I could see a vision for Albertus and and um Ursulin, where it's a hybrid situation where they play Section One schedule, but then they go to CHSAA or the New York private uh athletic association school for postseason. I could see that happening.

SPEAKER_02 45:42

Yeah, so the the the the challenge for them right now is the convenience of their schedule. Um it's not convenience to be in a Catholic League schedule for Albertus. It's not. I mean, they could say they've got better competition in certain sports, but like, you know, more Catholic is on Staten Island, St. Joe's about to see other schools, Zavarian. It's not, it's far as far, it's not gonna be convenient. Brooklyn's a lot of people. They should want to keep their regular season schedule intact and play and then separate for the postseason. I mean, honestly, no, it would be great is if Lords came back to Section One and Kenny Catherine came back to Section One and they were part of the four non-public, and then they four of them duked it out in every sport. That'd be great. That'd be great.

SPEAKER_04 46:17

That would be great. Yeah, but we'll see, we'll see what happens.

SPEAKER_02 46:20

Uh one player before we get into our honor roll, because um, to me, the one of the great stories of the spring season right now has been Riley New of Fox Lane. So you coach, you know Riley New and uh obviously saw her in basketball. She's gonna go play at Muhlenburg. She was a lacrosse player her whole life lacrosse and basketball. I don't know how she did it. Obviously, we just talked about this the time, commitments on the two sports. Um family family's got a deep history in lacrosse. Yes. So um her father uh tells me recently that yeah, she she um gave up lacrosse for a senior year to play flag football. And she just, you know, lacrosse, she she knew her path was gonna be basketball. Lacrosse was intense. It was the you know, the and she just wanted to try flag football, it would be fun. And there's a bunch of girls in Fox Lane that did that, then moved from lacrosse to flag football. Um he says, uh Kevin says that she never watched a football game in her life. I find it impossible. She's never watched a Super Bowl. So anyway, so she's never she's never watched a football game halftime show. Halftime show Super Bowl, maybe. She on the football field is phenomenal. She does some things and once a ball, the way she pitches the ball back. It's you know, she wants to run the football. She's an elite-level athlete. You realize this is how athletic she is, but her and Amelia Emanetto from Byram Hills, only a freshman at Byron Hills, they're very similar to each other, just different ages, obviously. Um but just they stood out so much on the field. And so here comes Riley News. She goes, uh, she runs for six, she threws, throws for 66 yards. Most of them came on their game-winning drive when they lost the lead in the fourth quarter. And she leads down the field for a game-winning drive. She um had two touchdowns, she threw for one, ran for one, 157 yards rushing in the game. She just takes the ball and goes. And she's so gifted. She's she maneuvers well, she kind of understands the sport, and in terms of understands just an athlete, you know. Like, if you are an athlete, try flag football. If you're a female, just just trust me, you're gonna you're going to excel as an athlete because you're gonna understand it. Um, you're gonna see you know a lot of its angles and anticipation and um just being athletic and being aggressive. Sure. She's not afraid. Um, she had the game-winning uh interception at the end uh to seal the game. By him Hills came back, took the lead in the fourth quarter. She leads him down the field. John Elway-esque down the field, Tom Brady down the field to the go-ahead touchdown. Um, and then the game sealing interception on the other side of the field. Uh Amanda Bazooka was great for them as well for Fox Lane. Uh, and they won that game, and they've been playing great. It's the second time that she's led them down the field at the end. And so maybe the fact that she's never watched football, supposedly, um, is helping her because she's a little naive and she just understands just being an athlete and winning games. But it was it was so fun to watch. And um, it kind of just reminds you that the sport is there for the for the girl that maybe doesn't have a spring sport. It's if you're if you're an athlete, if you're an athlete, it's great and you want to compete and and the way the game, it's such a cerebral game, too, because there's so much about um you can't block, but there's so much about screening, moving without the ball, just like basketball things. Amazing. How you maneuver, how you find space, and understanding concepts of plays and play development. Um, Rylan Bora, the coach of Fox Lane, is a great offensive coordinator for Fox Lane's varsity football team. Um, long time coach, and uh he's positioned them and and he's really turned Riley New from an athlete into a quarterback.

SPEAKER_00 49:31

It's amazing. Yeah, and and and you know, I want to go back just for a second, Kevin. It seems like Section One has adopted a hybrid uh uh rule system of taking a little bit of of the certain ways that flag football go, John. Yeah, they go about New York State, but yes, yes, of course, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 49:49

Yeah New York State rules. And so um it sort of lends itself to the athlete. Um the NFL wants it to be more about the passer. Um, they want the next generation of players. So they people playing now are athletes. Uh they want the next generation, um, you know, the girls who are in fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh grade now to be passing uh the ball. They want passing catch. Um and that's what's something that Byron Hills did really well. I mean, they threw the ball really well. They have four, three or four receivers that catch the football. Amelia Manetto, one of them was was great. Um, but uh Riley New is sort of this this current wave of just give me the best athlete.

SPEAKER_04 50:21

So the high school rules really fit a girl like Riley New.

SPEAKER_02 50:24

Totally.

SPEAKER_04 50:24

Well, listen, that's why we need the highlights. We need the highlights, uh, girls flag football, every sport. Please send them in at the winningmoments.com or text the word highlights to 88500, and we'll get them and we'll put them on the show and put them across our social media because this next segment is all about highlights down a roll. Before we start, uh last week's winner from the fans vote. The fans vote, because all these 10 performers and performances are winners, but the fans voted that Abigail Rogers was the highlight of the top 10 that we put together. So congratulations to Hart. Yeah. Yeah. Football. Flag football seems to be the thing.

SPEAKER_02 51:00

It is. This week's show is a flag football show.

SPEAKER_04 51:02

It's a flag football show. Flag football this show. Why? Why? Because Bombs Low Football. Bombslow Football. Bombs Low Football. Absolutely. All right. So now this week's uh top 10. Let's start with you, Kevin. Nash Maclin.

SPEAKER_02 51:12

Nash Maitland from Stepanak, uh, stand-up football player, six foot three, 220 pounds, great lacrosse player as well. Uh, eight goals, ten assists against Cardinal Hayes. Against that's one game. 18 points in the game. He came back. Cheshire, uh, three goals and an assist. Uh just a completely dominant week uh from Nash. Um, and uh he's a just a terrific, just a presence on the field in terms of his size, and uh uh it's in it's incredible. Um and uh Stepanak's going through a tough time right now. They had uh one of their students um in the school got into a serious uh accident this week on the way to school. Um he's a football player. Uh and so Nash and him are close friends, so it's obviously a tough time for the school community, but uh Nash um having having a great week on the field. Prayers with him and his family. Yeah, absolutely. Uh motorcycle accident on the way to school. So prayers, yeah, absolutely. Community and the family. So he's our uh first player, just completely dominant in those uh two games, which is insane.

SPEAKER_04 52:10

6'3 football player on the cross side. I mean, Jesus. I wouldn't want to bless him. I wouldn't want to bless him. Yeah, uh yeah, because Rye is uh Rye is Rye. Rye is Rye. Uh coach, Luke Desi.

SPEAKER_00 52:20

Luke Desi out of Greeley. Um, this was based on the best competition that he could possibly face this week. So this was not stat padding with regard to his uh um performances. So why he's in, listen, best strength of schedule resume of the week, produced in two high-level wins, faced the number one team in class C to close the week versus Fox Lane, four goals, three assists, and a big rivalry game. Versus Somers, defending state champ, six goals, one assist. And and then, and for the for the week, ten goals, four assists, fourte points, an outstanding week against really top competition in our area.

SPEAKER_02 53:04

Yeah, they came back to earth on Thursday night against Rye, uh, going on the road to Rye, just got to a slow start and just never really recovered. It just never it just seemed like the possession was never on their end of the field on the offensive end for Luke Desi. Um but grilly defending champions, Rye, probably the best team in the section, M.M. Merick. That's why.

SPEAKER_04 53:20

Faceoff, Fogo. The face-off guy.

SPEAKER_00 53:22

Really, really important. Yeah. And listen, if it's if it goes bad early for you against Rye, yeah, you're fighting. Yeah, you might start to think about where you're going to eat after the game.

SPEAKER_01 53:34

Ride Roadhouse. I like Rod Roadhouse.

SPEAKER_04 53:37

Ride Road House, alligator. They serve alligator there as great. Very good alligator there, right? Yes. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 53:41

So uh alligator's gotta be done a certain way, John Lim. Just saying. I mean for a man from the south. There's gotta be cooked.

SPEAKER_02 53:49

The only way to do alligator is to run the other way.

SPEAKER_00 53:51

Yeah. No, I'm talking about what cooked.

SPEAKER_04 53:53

Cooked alligator? Yeah, Rod Roadhouse, great cooked alligator. Uh, you heard it here from the down the south uh uh coach over here. Okay, great. So, Kevin, let's talk about this uh this next young player, Amelia Walsh.

SPEAKER_02 54:04

Amelia Walsh from Brewster, eight goals, three assists on the week. Um, she was the reigning low head player of the week. She did in a win over Pearl River. Brewster's undefeated. Uh, they've been playing really well. Uh the program sort of kind of seems to be back in contention. Um, 60 points on the year through seven games and uh went over 200 career points uh of this season uh for a career. So 200 points, uh goals and assists. She's just dominant player up top for the for the Bears.

SPEAKER_00 54:29

I have a question. Yeah. Would 200 goals in in LaCore?

SPEAKER_02 54:33

4,000 points in basketball? Would be like 1,500 points. Um yeah, it it's hard to it's hard to quantify um because like I would think 100 goals would be like a thousand points, 200 goals would be points and a thousand points.

SPEAKER_00 54:47

2,000 points.

SPEAKER_02 54:48

Well, so two, it's remember, it's points, so it's goals and assists. Sure. Um, so it's a little different. It's it's 200, it's 200 career points. I think it's its own thing, right? I think it's um I think milestones when you look at um, you know, whether it's 500 strikeouts and softball as a softball pitcher, um, they're all they're all kind of significant. But Amelia, to me, 200 career points at Brewster is it's pretty impressive. Well, I'll put it this way, Coach.

SPEAKER_04 55:11

I don't I don't know what the girls' record is, right? But for the boys' record in uh section one public schools, it's uh 398 points to break the section record for the boys. So I'm not sure. I mean, so 200 is a lot.

SPEAKER_00 55:24

Yeah, that's a tremendous amount of points.

SPEAKER_04 55:27

That's the whole section record. So in that case, 200, I think is phenomenal. Yep. Uh and she she's a beast out there. So yeah, it's absolutely insane. Uh coach, uh, let's uh stay here with our lovely young ladies. Haley Avertson.

SPEAKER_00 55:40

Haley Artson, Tappen Z softball, two wins, 18 strikeouts, zero and runs versus Pearl River, winning pitcher, eight K's for one win. Albertus Magnus, winning pitcher, um, 10K's, zero uh earned runs, 10 to 1 win. The the stats are incredible. 63 innings pitched, nine wins, 85 strikeouts, 0.78 ERA, 0.79 whip, and opponent's batting average versus Haley Arvidson, 170. Yeah. You know, a buck 70. And then at the plate, 424, 513 OBP, 576 uh slugging, and 14 hits, six RBIs. So and I'm gonna go back to the OPS on base percentage plus slugging, Johnny Kevin. She's well over one point, whatever, one point one. Um a phenomenal OPS as well.

SPEAKER_02 56:37

Yeah. She, I mean, Alexis T from White Plains, Katie Atwood from Tuckahoe, Haley Harverson, they're kind of on their own level in terms of pitchers and hitters. Dual dual purpose, dual threat. I mean, it's it's pretty incredible. And uh Tappensey's right there, nine and one of the season, and uh Haley's a big reason why.

SPEAKER_04 56:53

Listen, uh, before we go to the tech player, just looking at these stats, she basically strikes out every other batter. Yeah. Every other batter gets struck out by her. That's absolutely insane. Out of 189 uh possible outs, she strikes out 85 of those. That's insane. So uh let's stay with softball, actually, uh, Kevin. So let's go with Kylie Reardon.

SPEAKER_02 57:11

So I uh I'm the Eastchester beat reporter now for uh softball um because I watched this. You still don't have enough jobs to do that. No, yeah, no, but I've watched them, I've watched Eastchester softball over the years. Um uh coach Reardon, her father, is uh you know, helped lead the the youth program and the and the uh softball travel program from Little League and uh through the section through the section tournaments in the summer. Um and Eddie is uh has quite a player in Kylie. Kylie is has been phenomenal. She's this week she led them to a win over Harrison. She had to go ahead home run, two home runs in the game, five RBIs, go ahead home run, three run shot in the seventh inning to beat the defending champions for Harrison. Um they beat Urslin. Urslin just beat by planes. Uh she comes back, she has a triple and three RBI in that game. She had a homer, four RBIs, two runs scored against New Rochelle. These are all quality wins for Eastchester. Um, and Kylie Reardon, just phenomenal. I mean, and um, you know, one thing I've always I've watched her play a lot over the years is she's just very chill. Like she's as calm and like softball has a lot of um a lot of like rah-rah to it. Yeah. Um, and a lot of it is just the emotional, and you kind of like it's mental. You're wrapped up into it. And she's always kind of been very even keeled, and I've always admired that watching uh her play. She's uh older than the teams I've been watching, but um, yeah, she is she's she's made for this. I mean, she's she's ready to be one of the top players in the section.

SPEAKER_00 58:30

I love it when they're in the dugout and they've got all those chants.

SPEAKER_02 58:33

You love it?

SPEAKER_00 58:34

Yeah, I love it. They do all those chants in the dugout, they do all those chants. What kind of chance are you talking about, Coach? I don't think what's one at the back of your biggest. No, I can't. But I mean, because I don't know them. But I just hear him chanting. They're always doing the little song for the kid coming up the bat or whoever. It's it's really cool. I love I love I love girls. I love the soft.

SPEAKER_04 58:57

Send us a chant. Send us a chant, ladies, please. We want to uh put it on the show. Yeah, put it on the highlights. So uh yeah, switching gears. Uh we ran very, very fast from Coach doing uh his own chant on the show. Uh let's go, coach, with the Jane Hickey.

SPEAKER_00 59:12

Jane Hickey from Mercil and track and field, first of all. Um, committed to go to University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She's one of the top middle distance recruits in the country. Okay. She's been the New York State Public High School Athletic Association state champion, 600 meters, federation champ. That's every classification in our state. Dominated the field by nearly four seconds when she won this championship. Low hunt track athlete of the year, fourth place in the nationals, 800 uh meters, New Balance Outdoor Nationals, number three all time in New York State history in the 800 meters. She just ran a 206 to open up the season. Last year she was at 212. She's dropped to 203 by dropped to 203 by year's end. For her to open up at 206 after being 2020, well, 203 last year, uh 203.61, she's gonna probably come pretty close to going to a two me um a two-minute 800.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:18

She's somebody that we should bring on the show. And I'm telling you why. Because she has one of the great stories of any athlete I could ever remember. She wasn't a runner her whole life. So all we've we've been lucky over the years in this area to have phenomenal runners, Bronx Funners, Rock and different runner. Um, she played soccer, and her junior year she said, I really want to stay in shape over the winter. I'm gonna run track. Wow. Could you imagine? Wow, it's almost like never playing golf and putting the ball on the T and shooting a 65 and be like, oh, I must be pretty good at golf. So she has just a certain skill set that is just like it's it's it's like uncovered. And now, I mean, a lot of it has to do with their coaching. Dom Zanat, who who uh was one of the people that recommended her, he is he has on multiple occasions has like I've seen him out there. He's a great guy. He used to be the former Harrison coach, now he works on a prep, uh, Harrison football coach. And he's like, no, no, you don't understand how how how like we've we've like like struck oil in this. Like this is unheard of. And she truly is. She's the Loh uh last year's uh athlete of the year. Um, and she and the crazy thing is, okay, fine. She's great, she was great. The the the strides that she's made in learning how to read this, you're right, right?

SPEAKER_00 1:01:29

John, Kevin, nine seconds off of a time in in your event is astounding. And and for her to get down to 203, we're talking about a young lady that could go sub two minute in the 800 meters. Yeah, sub as a high school track athlete. Little known fact, Coach Ward was an assistant track coach on the Fort Dorchester uh high school state championship 3A team back in the day. So I have familiarity with I know that's shocking. Where was that with track? What year was it? This was 98, okay. 1998. And so I know about track. Okay, and this young lady, for what she's done, it's absolutely astounding. No, she's not even scratching the surface. Wait till she goes to a college.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:19

Like, I hear I read things where it's like Jane Hickey does this. Only the only person, Caitlin Tooie. Caitlin Tooy is considered like the greatest runner that come to New York State. Like, and like here we are, we're talking about this girl who, I mean, discovered plutonium basically, uh in your basement. And this girl's skill.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:36

And this is the race of death, by the way. The 800 meters is the race of death. You talk to any track coach. It's it's not it's not a it's not it's not a it's a sprint, basically, with 800 meters, because it's not a long distance event, but it's not a full sprint event. So you have to have the stamina to run 800 meters, but the speed of a 400 meter uh sprinter uh uh runner to to run this event because it is a a grueling race.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:06

We should have put her last because I feel bad for all that.

SPEAKER_04 1:03:08

I think I think I think right now, I listen, but but I think uh you think if we gave coach a tricycle and had him race her at 800 meters around the court, you think coach will win? No. No, no, no, no, there's no chance. There's no chance. Well, coach, listen, since you are since now we all know that you are a world-famous track coach. I'm not world famous to say I just world famous track. You're world famous to me, buddy.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:30

I mean, she's one of the greatest 800 meter runners in New York State history.

SPEAKER_04 1:03:33

Well, I'm gonna throw back this this this next player, uh, this next honoree here, uh, Dariel Letera Pichardo.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:39

Pichardo at a sleepy hollow track in field. I mean, for a young lady.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:44

Young man.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:45

Young man, excuse me. For a young man, your brain's still on Jake. No, my bad. Sorry. I challenged the bicycle racing. I want to say this to Dariel. Dariel, I'm gonna look at one of the cameras. For you to jump 24 feet this early in the track season, uh, and and he's the number he's got the number one jump in New York State this spring. This is another, this young man has got a chance to go at least 25 and a half, maybe. 25, 25 and a half. We're talking about you're coming out of this cold weather, and Dariel is has popped a 24-foot jump already. Yeah, he's got a chance to win a state championship in New York State.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:25

Also a 200 meter star. I mean, he's so he's a he's a sprinter as well.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:28

So runner and I'm sure that he wasn't brought up in track.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:32

No, you know, he was probably in another sport. Well, to show just to kind of validate what at what level of athleticism that Darriel has, um, he finished first, fourth in list was Braden Richardson, who's Division I uh college running back gonna URI out of Sleepy Hollow, also. So he beat him. So it goes to show you're kind of like you're like, oh wow, well, Braden Richardson's down the list here. Um and Brady's been doing this for a while. He was a track star. People thought maybe Braden would be, would, would run track in college, uh not play football, but um, because of health. But uh Darielle is uh Is he is he a senior this year?

SPEAKER_00 1:05:04

Yeah, yeah. So I mean, if if I see this, if I'm a college track coach and I see this kid pop the 24-foot jump this early in the season, number one in the state this thus far, I have to have him on my radar. I have to have him on my radar for our track and feeling.

SPEAKER_04 1:05:21

I mean, listen, this this this this kid jumped, think of like like two basketball hoops, two basketball hoops, and another four inches? Another four feet, another four feet. It's it's absolutely insanity that that how we could do that. Okay. So listen, uh coach, thank you for your 1998 track and field expertise. Yeah. And uh moving right along to the city. Gil Krause.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:40

Gil Krause, Krause. It's a baseball player's here now. Here we go. Gil Gil is um a player who kind of broke out last year, uh, became class triple A's pitcher of the year in a very obviously very competitive class out of Scarsdale, lefty pitcher, uh, you know, throws fastball, mid 80s. Um, but the command and the control was something that. People would, you know, like you listen, every every baseball team gets on the top step of the dugout, leans up against the fence and watches, and you think one thing, and then you get the box and you you see something else. Um, because of just how he could throw all of his pitches for strikes. And um, he has been a main reason why Scarsdale's been able to turn this thing around. They could beat anybody now. So they are, you know, when you look at the Section One baseball tournament, it's always about, well, we got to avoid this kid, you gotta avoid this kid. He's number one list of player pitches you have to avoid uh for Scarsdale. And he is he has continued um to shine, just beat Mamarick. Uh, seven innings, three hits, ten strikeouts, one walk, no runs, uh, and a win over my number one team. Um, so Gil Gil's ERA for the season is at um under one, 0.82. He got a little fortunate. So he gave up, he had really one bad start, which a pitcher is allowed to have out of five um against Clarkstown South, where he gave up 10 hits, uh, but there were a lot of unearned runs because it's American. So um it didn't it didn't kill his numbers, but um, you know, when he's locked in and he's he's dealing 25 innings on the season, 44 strikeouts, and five appearances, only three earned runs allowed. So um he's been excellent, and he's also good to hit her 3079, 379 batting average, eight RBI. So um Scarsdale is a threat. Beating Mamarinick this week on Thursday, of course, Mike Chaparelli, the Mamarinick coach, always sends me updates and he goes, he gayly goes, lost three nothing, lost the best pitcher in second in class triple A. Sound crazy.

SPEAKER_00 1:07:23

A little, a little, a little Dragmatics-esque, it sounds like uh uh Tommy John when Tommy John after surgery where he had to was in the mid 80s, so the lefty version kind of got Tommy John. That's a tough guy. No, mixed it up speeds, locations, has enough pop on the fastball to sneak it by you.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:41

Yep, lefty uh lefty pitcher and just uh has has a chance. He's gonna go pitch Colby next year and has a chance to kind of extend his career. That's fantastic. Love it. Let's move on.

SPEAKER_04 1:07:51

Let's let's move on to the name of baseball, Kevin. Back to you, Julian Guzman.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:54

So another player, another athlete from Sleepy Hollow, and uh another someone who's uh guys college mapped out is uh going to Maryland, University of Maryland. He's committed there. Uh Julian Guzman has a really good chance to get drafted. Um now the baseball draft is different than it was. He's like 60 rounds. It's much shorter draft now than it is, than it was in the past. Uh it's harder to get drafted out of high school. They sort of want the kind of the more two or three-year college players, but Julian has a chance because of his skill set. Um, great glove, great arm, obviously a quarterback of the football team. Um, and uh he's he is really, you know, there's so much anticipation uh for a guy like Julian Guzman at the plate. Um remember, I underprepped in the Catholic League, New York City, the play Woodbats. So numbers are kind of a little way down a little bit. Uh his numbers have been really good. Um this week, you know, six to nine at the plate, six runs scored, four RBIs, and wins over Stepanak, a little program called Stepanak, their rival 11-1 win, three for three, uh, three runs scored, just all over the place, double, triple. Um, he against Candy Catholic, another rival from Westchester, an A3 win, two RBI, they beat more Catholic 10-0, another RBI in that game, two hits. And talked to Coach Ryan Mahoney this week, and I'm like, hey, how's Julian doing? Because we talked about senioritis, and it's so hard in the Catholic League because first off, they're they're gonna fit seniors at Iona prep are gonna finish school like in two weeks. Correct. And then they continue playing their high school season. Julian obviously has his future mapped out, um, had a great career in in football, won a couple state championships. So I you know, not that you'd think he'd let up, but you know, sometimes it's so hard to keep them focused. But he has been so locked in this season, hitting at the top of this lineup and um special, man. I mean, he is he is as special a two-sport athlete as I've been around in these last 30 years.

SPEAKER_00 1:09:33

Crazy that Julian Guzman, John and Kevin, and Cruz Davis in the same school at the same time.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:38

Yeah, well, well, it's funny because we talked about Cruz Davis, not Aona Prep now, but yeah. So those two, that's a a pair. You know, we talk about Henry Schumacher, Carson Miller. Davis and Guzman are right there. Right there with accomplishments and ability, and it's uh it's pretty special, man, just to just to get to watch them. And Cruz missed today on a prep. Um, you know, they've they've had a great season in lacrosse. He's obviously down in North Carolina starting early. Um they could have used him this week. They lost to St. Uh St. Anthony's 8-2. They just didn't couldn't have got any, they couldn't get possession. Never had the ball.

SPEAKER_04 1:10:06

You don't get the ball, you don't win. And rounding up, the top 10 here, honorees, we have Hunter Hamlet coaching.

SPEAKER_00 1:10:12

Hunter Hamlet. I've known their family for I've known Hunter for a long time, known the family for a long time. Hunter was in our camps in player development. He made the decision last year to really focus on baseball, and it was the right decision. Six foot one junior, well-built, put together kid, left-handed hitter, last three games. He's batting 9-09, 10 for 11, seven RBIs, yeah, six extra base hits versus Dobbs Ferry, Putnam Valley, Tuckahoe, two triples, four doubles, seven RBIs. He's got some stick. He really knows, he really drives the ball, got great power. You make a mistake, and he's gonna punish you uh uh for every mistake that you can make.

SPEAKER_04 1:11:00

I mean, 10 for 11 is like a like a free throw shooting. Correct.

SPEAKER_02 1:11:05

They had a rough season at Arsley, very rare uh, you know, kind of struggles for them, but uh Hamlet's been a major plus for them. Yes, yes.

SPEAKER_00 1:11:12

Playing a lot of young guys over there. Coach Caldera's got a a pretty young group, um, but he's been a bright spot with a real on a really young team that's played a very difficult schedule.

SPEAKER_04 1:11:24

It's amazing. Well, that's our uh that's our top ten. Our opinion uh doesn't really matter. Uh yours does. So let's make sure that we put this out there. You guys vote across social media to give us our player of the uh of the week for the top ten. All of these nominees are phenomenal. Some of these stats are not even real. I don't believe them if they weren't written on paper because like game based stats. But please put the vote out. We want to keep celebrating the kids. Highlights, we can't say it enough, guys. Highlights, we need more and more highlights. Please put the submissions at thewinningmoments.com. Or again, you can text the phone number 88500 and just put the word highlights. A link will pop up from your phone. You can upload pictures, videos. We want more content to celebrate all of your kids. And that is our show for today here at The Winning Moments. It's been a uh great wrap-up of this uh this day, and I want to thank everybody for watching. Please like and subscribe, share our Instagram handle, as well as X and YouTube, especially, where the video is played every Sunday. The more followers we can get, the more exposures that we can give to the kids. It's our joy and pleasure to do so. Thank you for following the winning moments.