Season 2 Finale | The Moments We’ll Never Forget

A season we'll never forget.

From state championships and record-breaking performances to unforgettable interviews and inspiring stories, Season 2 of The Winning Moments Show celebrated the very best of Section One athletics.

In our Season 2 Finale, we look back at the biggest moments, greatest teams, most memorable athletes, and the stories that made this year special. From football under the lights to championship baseball, lacrosse dynasties, girls flag football growth, and historic basketball runs, this episode is a celebration of the athletes, coaches, parents, and communities who make high school sports so special.

Featured Topics

🏈 Rye Football's historic championship season
🏀 Mamaroneck's unforgettable basketball run
⚾ Championship Baseball Weekend and the 16-inning classic
🥍 State titles, dynasties, and lacrosse dominance
🏈 The explosion of Girls Flag Football
🏃 Future stars like Jane Hickey and Claudell Cherry
🎙️ Behind-the-scenes stories from Season 2
❤️ The people and moments that made this season unforgettable

Most importantly, this episode is about gratitude—for the athletes, families, coaches, schools, and fans who helped make The Winning Moments Show part of the Section One sports community.

📲 Follow us on Instagram: @thewinningmoments

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#WinningMoments #SectionOne #HighSchoolSports #SeasonFinale #StudentAthletes #ChampionshipSeason #YouthSports #WinningMomentsShow

⏱️ YouTube Chapters

0:00 – Kevin Returns & Knicks Talk
7:13 – Section One's Historic Private School Vote
29:46 – Season 2 Reflection Begins
32:25 – Football's Greatest Moments
35:30 – The Year of Rye Sports
45:00 – Basketball Season Highlights
57:09 – Championship Baseball Weekend
1:00:50 – Girls Lacrosse & Flag Football Growth
1:07:27 – Spring Sports Standouts
1:10:00 – Building The Winning Moments Show
1:12:37 – Gratitude & Season Finale

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:26

So uh Kevin. It's good to have you back here in the studio with the case.

SPEAKER_04 0:30

Are you gonna not gonna make fun of me for for taking some time off like you guys are doing? I mean, we didn't we didn't make fun of it.

SPEAKER_00 0:36

Just for the fact that you played 200 rounds of golf and didn't invite us to at least come watch or be at the 18th, 19th hole with you. I mean, listen, we we understand that we my golf game and coach's golf game combined can't touch your elitist golf game handicapped.

SPEAKER_04 0:52

I'm gonna tell you this it was a lot of golf. It was probably too much golf in a short amount of time. Is there ever too much golf? It was good. Um I look forward to the end of the spring season, get a little time away, and then uh I always kind of you know, it's like ordering hungry, you know, like so you make these golf trips um in March when it's freezing cold, and you're like, we gotta play as much golf as possible. And a very then you're like, all right, I didn't do too much. I'm good. I did too much. But we're good. We're good now, and I'm excited to be back because there's a lot to talk about. And you know, like so I had the I had a four-hour drive, five hour drive to uh to Maryland for my trip, and uh I thought about a lot of stuff, and then I had to drive home alone because I went came home to uh be leave early and uh got to think about some things for the year, and I was like, I got I'm already for this show. Let's go.

SPEAKER_00 1:39

We got a lot for this show, and right now we got uh we got Coach Ward over there uh remotely, okay, down in uh where where is he?

SPEAKER_02 1:47

I think it's beautiful, scenic Somerville, South Carolina, Flowertown, the birthplace of sweet tea. Oh my goodness.

SPEAKER_04 1:59

We questioned that we didn't ring the bell when he said something.

SPEAKER_00 2:01

Yeah, we didn't ring the bell. We gotta get into our sound clips here, Claudia.

SPEAKER_01 2:04

But listen, Coach.

SPEAKER_00 2:07

I love it. And listen, we want to everyone knows why you're down in Somerville, okay? You had to leave New York before the parade, okay? Because you this show is when you were gonna wear your Spurs jersey, okay? Your Spurs jersey for the fact that you didn't believe in our beloved New York Knicks, okay? Just like the rest of the league didn't believe in Jalen Brunson, the worst hundred million dollar offer ever, yada yada, yada. Yeah, and you had to run down to Somerville, so you didn't wear a Spurs jersey. Coach, I never thought you'd be that cowardly, but I have to admit that. I don't know, coach.

SPEAKER_02 2:38

I don't know. My two brothers are here, and my mom's here, so it was a chance for us to get together before my craziness starts uh this summer.

SPEAKER_00 2:50

He brought back the nostalgia. I was about to hit him with the USA signal. Right, right. So that was good. We're gonna talk about the fact that he was a USA soccer believer.

SPEAKER_04 2:58

So obviously we the game four Nick comeback was incredible. I don't know about anybody else. I didn't I didn't really enjoy game five as much as I thought I would because I spent 44 minutes just fully expecting the referees to take the game away from the Knicks. Oh, okay. Because they were so bad in the first half. Um and I was just like, there's no way they're gonna win this game. There's no way they're gonna let them win this game. You know, I'm like, you know, NBA is an entertainment um entity. This is five games is is not enough entertainment for what they can, you know. And uh I was like, there's no way this is gonna work out. And then I look up and I'm like, ah, maybe they they do have a chance to win, and then they're gonna hand it the trophy, and I'm like, wow.

SPEAKER_00 3:37

That just makes it even better. I mean, the refs were so bad. I was but I was so frustrated by the end of the game.

SPEAKER_04 3:42

I was so frustrated, and I'm not usually this person who like blames referees in in any way. Yeah um, but man, I was just like, this is just it was tough to watch. The the the stepping of the foot under Jalen Brunson was the most blatant, and then they no-called it, and then they reviewed it and didn't. I mean, I was just like, I'm out. What about the I was just so face to the ground? Oh yeah, that was a early in the season. Early in the season. The league's got to really look at what they're letting their star players do. And that this guy, he's not Wemby, and I know we're not talking about Wemby here, but Wemby's like there's something about him that I just something's not right. Like, Fondue? Mr. Fondue? Yeah, Mr.

SPEAKER_00 4:20

Fondue now became the enemy. No one's gone down in history from being like, hey, beloved, this guy could be the face of the league. It's amazing. Could be Jordan, yeah. Right to uh yeah.

SPEAKER_04 4:30

I don't want to see this guy anymore. Yeah, I just and I I think I'd feel the same way if he did all those things to Jason Tatum or Taler Talibur, like because you know I just feel like that was just it was there's no place in a game for this. But we got a parade and we got a you know we got a parade. I didn't go. Did you go to the parade?

SPEAKER_00 4:46

No. No. We watched the parade.

SPEAKER_04 4:47

Did your did your son's boys' kids go to the parade?

SPEAKER_00 4:49

No. No, no, no. Uh actually, my my brother and his two kids went down to the parade. Uh we had the parade here on on in the studio. It was uh it was amazing. They actually had a parade, uh watch party in my daughter's school where the kids got to watch the parade. My yeah.

SPEAKER_04 5:04

Devin, uh my daughter Devin, uh fifth grade moving up ceremony started at 9 30 yesterday morning. The parade started.

SPEAKER_02 5:11

Congratulations, Kevin.

SPEAKER_04 5:12

Thank you. And um What did she do? I didn't do anything.

SPEAKER_02 5:15

And she really already tonight.

SPEAKER_04 5:23

But the what's they had the uh they had the parade streaming in the uh during the ceremony, and there's a lot of dads who were looking off to the sides, and I was like, this wasn't a good idea. It was cool, probably in theory, but it distracted from the children receiving their uh their their pass to the next to the next grade.

SPEAKER_00 5:40

So by the way, before we move on, if you if you look up like things that happened at the parade, if you Google basically like give me the clips that happened at the parade, no, there are so many wild fancy.

SPEAKER_04 5:51

It's better than it was way better than the parade. The the the fan stuff was way better than the parade itself. The parade itself was kind of, I don't know, a little bit of a dud.

SPEAKER_00 5:59

But I mean for the fan stuff, there's one clip, I just gotta say, there's one clip where where this guy basically is on the ground like he's dead, and a woman comes in and she narcans him.

SPEAKER_04 6:07

That's not even that's not even one of the three.

SPEAKER_00 6:09

It's not even one of the craziest ones.

SPEAKER_03 6:10

She wasn't on the floor, she was on the roof of a something. A bus, I think. And they were jumping up to save this dude.

SPEAKER_00 6:16

And she narcanned him, and then he tried to make out with her.

SPEAKER_04 6:19

There's there's also the guy who tried to climb up on something and fell back and like almost killed himself. Yeah, there's a lot. There's a lot. There's a lot a lot of stuff.

SPEAKER_00 6:28

There's a lot of stuff. Okay, listen, professional sports are great. Coach Wars will also wear a Spurs jersey. Uh, maybe we'll do it at his basketball camp one day, make him wear the Spurs jersey.

SPEAKER_02 6:38

One of the biggest World Cup matches in our US history today at 3 o'clock against the Sakaroos out of Australia. Yeah, coach.

SPEAKER_00 6:48

Tell everybody, tell everybody that you think Australia's gonna win. Go ahead. Go. No, I don't now. Call our USA men team soft. Soft and code. Yep. I did. They came in. I had no expectations. They most certainly did. They smacked the taste out of my mouth. Well, speaking about getting punched right in the mouth, we have some real important news to talk about here. Yes, we do. It's a good segue, yes. Great segue. Really talk about some important news here in uh in section one in our our area here, where it is official from a 6973 vote, which basically is 690. Yeah. Uh in that scenario, vote that we are now going to take the private schools, and they're no longer going to be able to have a postseason run here in Section One. No more Section 1 games. Yes.

SPEAKER_04 7:35

Against the Publix.

SPEAKER_00 7:36

Yeah. Yeah, but there's no way they'll have a Section 1.

SPEAKER_04 7:38

Well, they will. They'll have a so yes. So starting in 2027-28, Section One will have a specific class for non-public schools. So the four being Albertus Magnus, Urslin, Lafell School, and KO. So those four teams will be able to compete for a Section One championship. They will receive a gold volleyball, a gold ball basketball, whatever their sport it is. Um, but it will not be part of Section One. Um, you know, it'll be its own division in Section One, its own class. So there's no state tournament now for these teams. And, you know, so this comes out, it came out, it was uh posted on um Section One's Athletics Twitter page and on the Instagram, and it was just the release, and it says very clearly Section One announced that teams from its non-public schools will be ineligible to participate in the postseason competition with with public schools beginning in 27, 28 school year. Um not this upcoming year. Yeah. The following year is where Yeah. So credit to Mark Bayaco, the um Clarkstown school superintendent, uh Lou Wool from Harrison, um, and Putnam Valley, Jeremy Luft. They were kind of the ones who spearheaded it from the superintendent side, because nothing gets done at this high level. We're talking about amending the constitution of Sexual One, nothing gets done at that high level without superintendent drive. Uh athletic directors and coaches and regular everyday people like us. We only have so much to say. Superintendents are the ones who make this stuff happen. So they do this, and the fact I don't ever remember any vote ever being unanimous. 69 So it wasn't. No, so 69, so 69 to 4, those four schools being the four schools that are the ones impacted. So if you remove their votes, which obviously they're gonna vote to keep, you got 69 districts to all bond together for one thing. And the other the other part of this type of thing.

SPEAKER_00 9:36

That is pretty that is pretty insane.

SPEAKER_04 9:37

That you couldn't even get them to decide if they want plain pizza or pepperoni at the next lunch. Like you couldn't get everyone to decide on everything. They correct they did an amazing job of uh putting together the information, uh presenting the pros and cons of why we're doing this decision, and also just that they got um a unified plan. So like the thing about the state, so the state had like option A, option B, option C. We've we talked about this, and they're all kind of like little some gray area, some overlap, and something so like the fact they were able to say, This is what we're gonna do, this is it, and everyone got together on it is uh pretty amazing. And uh credit to them because you can't get everyone to everybody wants to work together until it doesn't benefit them directly, and then they work on their own. Um so I think uh I think what they did was pretty remarkable. And then think about this too. Superintendents don't uh make decisions, put their name to things, sign things, and cast votes without being very thorough. Um this is uh very serious. Um when they put their name on something, they vote. So thoroughness means uh they consulted legal on their side about because that the legal the opposition to this has always been you can't do something like this because uh the private schools will sue and there's a fear of lawsuits. And superintendents I assume, if not all 69 of them, at least 60 of them, 50 of them did their diligence of of information about what happens if we get sued or what and they got clearance unanimously to do this. So all this time that there's been talk about lawsuits and well I think it's all I think it was the biggest bluff maybe in Section 1 history. I don't think it's gonna happen. I don't think they I think I think everyone's just gonna kind of make their decisions on this. Coach Ward, what do you think?

SPEAKER_02 11:37

Uh so my take on this, I don't want the kids to suffer, which always they seem to be the victims in any decisions that adults make. Yes. However, um I don't have an issue with it as long as we have a non-public A state championship and a non-public B state championship.

SPEAKER_00 12:10

Well, let's talk about that for a second then.

SPEAKER_04 12:12

Well, they're not we're not close to having those any state championship for non-public schools yet. I mean, that's not a good thing. So right now, yeah, that's the planning. That's my that's my issue. I agree.

SPEAKER_00 12:22

So we have school for the state. Does this put pressure on the state to not leave these young kids out to dry and give them a state championship?

SPEAKER_04 12:30

Well, uh sex New York State uh director, uh executive director Robert Sayas, he always says his default line is always this is a membership-driven organization, and he he operates, think of it like the president and like he wants the states to dis they want the states to determine a lot of the laws, and that's what he wants the sections to determine their and you know does he feel I think every section's different, but I think if you polled the the everyday person in every section, they would say, yeah, there should be a separation of these two uh these two public schools and private schools. Like things have changed. And you know, the the one of the biggest arguments against this is longtime athletic directors, longtime uh administrators have said, well, it's always been this way. This is the way it's been forever. That's a cop out. I agree. And you know, what's changed in a lot of ways is people's ability to get their voices heard. In 1980, you couldn't go on Twitter and you couldn't go on Instagram. Those things weren't invented. So, like, I asked someone yesterday, uh a uh friend of our family.

SPEAKER_00 13:39

Most of our staff wasn't invented in 1980.

SPEAKER_04 13:41

She coached Easy seeing Barm Hills basketball. She coached Barnum Hills basketball and they lost the Lords. And I said, Was this ever talked about then? She's like, of course it was. It was always she's like, but it's not the way it is now with social media and and you know, uh media in general has just completely changed. So like we used to complain about it, but we used to complain about the people on the bus ride home and sitting around when we go out to eat after. Like, we didn't have this platform that we have now, and so things are just so much different now. And uh, so that's why we're at this point where like, yeah, there's a lot of people that feel the same way. And apparently it's unanimous.

SPEAKER_00 14:18

Well, here's the thing I think I think the unanimous vote to me is the most important, not for the fact that yes, we had we have everyone to agree, and and that's a great thing for section one, but I think now for the sections that have been watching, yeah, it gives them the confidence to say, hey, let's let's roll it down. If these guys can get 69 to basically zero, yeah, all right, uh, which by the way, if I was one of the schools that was uh getting kicked out, I would have just voted, yeah, kick us out anyway, just for that fact.

SPEAKER_04 14:45

Yeah, they're not getting kicked out, so they can still stay.

SPEAKER_02 14:47

So I'm gonna play if they're gonna play a schedule in Section One regular season, they're gonna still have their conference, their their own. So they're getting kicked out of the state ability.

SPEAKER_04 14:56

Yeah. That that's really what's happening. Section one is not the section one like playoffs. So like their own. It'll be a one, it'll be a two games at most tournament. So let's just say you're you play soccer and you know there's three teams because Skato doesn't have a girl soccer team. So it's Albertus Girl Soccer will play uh the winner of Ursulin and Lafelle for the Section One non-public championship. Is that enough? I don't know. I I have a um a friend whose daughter is in eighth grade and they have already taken the test to go to Ursulin for next year. Um they're into they're they're athletes. They have two daughters are athletes. And he said to me, he goes, What are your thoughts on this? I said, I don't think it would change my decision about enrolling at Ursulin school because they're not in a state, they're not state tournament eligible. I said, first off, I I'd hope we're making decisions on education, not on athletics. Um that's not the way everyone would be able to do that. Student student athletes. Yeah, and students athletics. And he said, no, no, he is. He's he said, like, listen, it's it's a he likes the environment, he likes the culture there, um, the school culture. It's a great, you know, uh, and it's a great education. And so, but he said it does, it does kind of put a little bit of a cloud over things. I don't think it's impossible that Albertus and Ursulin and s and you know go to the New York Catholic League. I think Albertus could easily go to Section 9 and play in Section 9 and do the travel and play against, you know, Kingston, Newburgh and just go up 87. Yeah, I I can see them doing that. If they if they're if their main initiative is to stay on a path to win a New York State championship, they could just do it through Section 9 now. And section nine doesn't seem like they're anywhere close to having a a similar vote to Section 1 or at least proposing that because their executive, their Todd Santa Barbara of Section 9 is Greg Ransom, he's not going to entertain this at all.

SPEAKER_00 16:44

So let me I was gonna ask you that question. So we have eleven there's 11 sections. Yeah, right. We're 11 sections in New York State. Who's the next section? What are you in your opinion, what are you who who's the next one?

SPEAKER_04 16:56

Section three, which is Syracuse. Okay. And it's I'm just thinking of sections so section six is Buffalo, they already don't have any private schools, but they have charter schools, so it's a little different. So they have a lot of charter schools in the Buffalo and Rochester section. And there's people that say, well, the charter schools are schools without boundaries, also. Um so that's different, that's a different argument. Um I can see Syracuse being the next one, specifically just for Syracuse CBA football. Uh Christian Brothers Academy football. Um the next one I think I would say would be Albany, but I don't I don't know if Albany will be able to go through with it because it just seems like Albany is where New York State public office is, and it seems like there's a lot of influence in that region from the Catholic schools and the private schools in that area, and that I don't know if there would be a lot of barriers put up, and there might be lawsuits in Albany.

SPEAKER_00 17:48

They'll probably be the last ones.

SPEAKER_04 17:49

Well, and yeah, and the and the the other, I mean, this is like a little anecdotal. I don't know if this is totally true, but there's a belief that, well, in Albany, you have state politicians that live in the area and they send their kids to private schools, and they're the ones who make laws and they could be the ones. Correct. So I don't I just don't I don't know if there's any proof of that. Um it makes a lot of sense. It would be it does make sense, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 18:10

It does, but like you said, the power of the people and their voice here in social media changes.

SPEAKER_04 18:14

Well, it's just there's there's a there's a level of inaction from New York State Public and Robert Zayas and the office there. And I love them and I respect them, and I have nothing but great things to say about the way they run their all their tournaments, they're great. This specific topic, I just feel like they are, as we said, kicking the can down the road and they're gonna have to take the lead on this. Yeah, they want they'll they'll let the next regime that takes over New York State public, because he's not gonna do this forever. Um let the next regime handle this one because I don't know.

SPEAKER_02 18:40

What is that, Kevin? What's that? I mean, how long does Robert have there? I don't know.

SPEAKER_04 18:44

He's you know, he's a young guy. You know he's yeah, no, he does if he does it for ten more years, I'd be really surprised. If he does it for five, I think maybe reasonable, but we can't wait that long to create a non-parochial A and a non non-public A, non-public B.

SPEAKER_02 19:00

We can't wait that long.

SPEAKER_00 19:01

So here's the question. How many sections, in your opinion, how many sections have to be on this side of the fence? If this side of the fence is section one and ten or not, how many have to come before the snowball effect happens and it just becomes inevitable?

SPEAKER_04 19:14

The other thing is remember too is that most many sections are unaffected by this completely. Section seven and section ten, which is like Plattsburgh and upstate New York, um, they don't have private schools up there.

SPEAKER_00 19:23

Okay, so they don't they don't they don't count. So now we're down to to nine.

SPEAKER_04 19:26

Yep. Uh Long Island doesn't really have a private school problem. And Long Island's the biggest drive. So if Long Island wants something done just because of the population and the size of the schools, they have so many large schools out there and so much financial influence. If they want something done, it gets done. And they don't really have a problem. They don't really have uh they don't have, you know, you have friends in Nassau County, you have Friends Academy, and then in in Suffolk County, you have Stony Brook, but all the other private schools are like, I'm going to prep Steppenak, they're Shaman and St. Anthony's, they already have their own league. Okay. Um Lorraine Lutheran's not in anything. So like it's it's just they don't this is not like a um priority in their home, right? It's not like something that's uh it's not causing any problems.

SPEAKER_00 20:06

So you you believe that in this in this scenario, then section one might be the only one on this pool for years to come.

SPEAKER_04 20:14

Um I think section three could be the next. After that, maybe you'll get section five because they have Rochester has uh a fair share of of uh private schools, but Aquinas. Yeah, Aquinas McQuaid. Um they have some others, Bishop McUh McKenney. Uh so yeah, they're um they could be the next, but it's not gonna be I don't know if it'll ever be a statewide thing. I don't think it'll be enough for a statewide. They have they have given me nothing but excuses as to why they couldn't do this. And every time I hear an excuse, I think to myself, yeah, we could work around that. Like we could definitely work around all these things, but it doesn't seem like they want to.

SPEAKER_02 20:50

Just take New Jersey's um formula and what they did to restructure this.

SPEAKER_00 20:56

Coach, I know you've only been in New York for like 23 years, but as New York pride goes, we don't really take anything from New Jersey. This is the one time I would be all about to me. I agree with you. I don't disagree that the format in Jersey is better than the format in New York. There's no disagreement there. Right. I think I think really what's what's sad about this entire slide, and you said it earlier, Coach, is the kids. Um not just the kids that play on the team sports, but like your track and field kids, like these individual sports that you go to and and you compete in, just imagine you were a state champion Imagine you were a state champion next year, because next year you could be a this school year you could be a state champion, and then you don't have a chance to be a state champion again the next year. The year following. Like that's that's that's where the suffer happens.

SPEAKER_04 21:38

It is it is something that I haven't really gotten the full answer on yet. Is I said, well, what happens in individual sports, right? So uh can you be an Urslin, could you be Jane Hickey and win the six hundred meter? You're an individual just because you wear a private school uniform, does that make you ineligible for a like so is she compared to what though. I think it obviously has to be obviously has to be. But I just I think there's a fair argument I guess if somebody said that. So you know if you had a if you had a a family that wanted to file lawsuit and say, what are we you know what's the difference if I wear the Irvington uniform or the Ursuline uniform on the same I'm one individual. But then they'll say well what about relays? You're part of a relay team. Right. Relays can't you can't so it's just four. I think they have to go across the board like this. Same thing with swimming, wrestling, I mean it's crazy.

SPEAKER_00 22:27

You you could you could break a state record, but you can't be a state champion. That that's going to be another thing that happens in the case.

SPEAKER_04 22:32

Yeah, no James Hickey would be a perfect example of that.

SPEAKER_01 22:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 22:35

Yeah. So she can go to the nationals but she can't be in New York State.

SPEAKER_00 22:37

She can so that that that's where I think the embarrassing side happens. I think when we talk about the four teams and you can be a section one champion in basketball and you're soccer as you mentioned you play three games. All that's fine. There's only four teams and whatever but when you think about all the track and field athletes, the wrestlers, you know, swimming, uh tennis, all the individual sport players, there's hundreds of of these kids. And the idea that you could break a state record but you can't be a state champ is to me a real embarrassment on the state of New York.

SPEAKER_04 23:07

Well yeah so that's that's where they have to figure out a way they have to figure out a way to say okay we need to and so they're forcing them. So there's other factors here too where Section One is very smart. They're getting some help in terms of putting pressure on New York State and they're doing it through some large I can't really say what it is, but large organizations in New York State that are very influential almost like lobbyists.

SPEAKER_00 23:30

Like like like the New York Knicks? You got Brunson out there.

SPEAKER_04 23:38

Bigger than Brunson. Oh come on come on Kevin right now to be date there's no one bigger than Brunson there's no one bigger than Brunson.

SPEAKER_02 23:45

So yeah so it's gonna be it's gonna be a little bit more of a fight in the I want to get back to the sectional championship situation. In New Jersey there there's no basic sectional champion for non public.

SPEAKER_00 24:06

Yeah just right go right to the playoff the state playoff there's they have four you know Southeast New York champion northeast New York South uh northwest and southwest yeah but coach I think that's where I that's where I think section one did it right where hey listen we are going to make sure that you you kids have sectional champions you know you could be a you could be a section one champion period end of story whether or not you had to play three games or or thirty games you're a section one champ you're part of section one you're a section one champ we did our job you'll have your medal you'll have your gold ball you'll have all of those things of course interactive uh where you can tap it but yes you'll have all of those things and you have it and now hey guys we did what we could in our section we're not responsible for for the state well my my thing too is so they break it up by class so like they they run uh for sectionals you could be the section one champion but you could be the section one class C champion you go to hand hood you can win the B championship in your event and be crowned a B champion so you could be I guess they're gonna be able to say you could run in the track meet if you're part of Section one and Jane Hickey could win and she could be the Section one independent school champion but I guess she'd have to be the overall champion I get there's like a little bit of a like a little bit of a question of like is she the overall individual champion?

SPEAKER_04 25:26

Could she be crowned and then not go on to states. So like that's where I don't know how that would all how that would all work.

SPEAKER_00 25:32

Because the team sport argument is the easiest one when you think about Jane I mean she's she's a perfect example where like she breaks state records but she couldn't be a state champion. Yeah she's gotta be yeah that they have to figure out they have to that's where New York State needs to not embarrass themselves and put something together that these kids don't suffer.

SPEAKER_02 25:48

Yeah right exactly that's what we have to figure out. Trevor Burrus Do the four schools that we are talking about become members of the New York private state interschelet athletic association for postseason Yeah so that that could definitely happen.

SPEAKER_04 26:06

So what I could see I would not be shocked if these Section 1 schools specifically Albertus and Ursulin the ones who compete for because like all respect to KO and the fellow they're not really competing for section championships they're not competing for state championships in any sport. So it's so it's just Albertus and Ursulin. I would not be shocked if there was a world where in 2027 28 they played in section one Rockland County schedule and then the playoffs started and they went into the Catholic League playoffs and that they were seated wherever the committee for the New York Catholic wanted them seated because they would just pay a fee and they would be a part of that championship satellite members. Yeah and be Sally members and it it's there is precedent with that other other schools and organizations have done that.

SPEAKER_02 26:58

And KO and Lafelle would go to the New York probably independent yeah the Nices yeah and they would do that and and listen it's it's they New York State has an out in that scenario because they can still be state champions.

SPEAKER_04 27:12

It's the illusion of winning a championship that you need to maintain. And I see that with football right so developmental league you know like if you look at the section one developmental league the whole thing is you know only one team at developmental league is set up where teams that can't really compete for championships play a regular season schedule they don't get beat up they could grow their numbers and then one team can go to the playoffs and be the last seed. And so like there's like this illusion that like yeah they technically could be in developmental and be that one team and win a championship. Unlikely but it's they have to maintain that because it's like a little bit of the integrity of what you're trying to build at your individual school.

SPEAKER_00 27:51

So yeah plus listen you you you you just want the opportunity that's why we I always say that that's why we play the game yep you know I mean like if the Knicks didn't play the Spurs coach would have just gave the Spurs the jersey and the championship trophy but yeah that's why we play the game to prove that uh real New Yorkers real New Yorkers know they know uh who was gonna win um but yeah I mean listen that we'll a lot more to come on that we will continue to to update across all our Instagram and Twitters yeah well I will say Chris keeps talking about the kids I was at the Rockland um Rockland athlete of the season breakfast so what they do is the 12 schools in Rockland they get together for a big breakfast they pick a male and female athlete of the fall spring uh winter and spring and they have a nice breakfast so you have six athletes per school all their parents their families it's a it's a really nice day it's it's strictly athletic base um there was definitely a vibe around the Albertus Magnus section and they won you know Tegan Canaan is a special uh soccer player she's gonna go play big time division one Julius Scott right um and there was definitely a feeling of like I was like you know my head up and I'm like are they are people clapping less for them?

SPEAKER_04 29:02

Like are they because like there's definitely it was definitely uncomfortableness because it was the decks day there was the day after that vote came out right um this vote came out so there's a uh you know I I think Albertus is I I think Albertus if you ask me my opinion right now what's gonna happen Albertus Magnus goes into the New York Catholic league and Ursulin stays and sees how it goes for a few years and then makes a decision volume. So that's just my thinking.

SPEAKER_00 29:29

Well that's why I love I love having the having the show because we'll yeah usually usually your opinion about things like this is accurate. Yeah uh your picks being Mr. Jinx this season has not been uh not not been the greatest not so yeah yeah which is a great way to segue into the rest of our show okay because this is our uh our summer last last show before the summer season here uh and it's a great way to talk about uh all these amazing moments that we're about to relive here on the winning moments uh since we started our show this year yeah okay uh late fall late fall late late fall took a long time football took a long time to get Kevin's contract uh uh figured out and signed out he was holding out he was holding out the last holdout okay took forever to get that contract signed so uh thank god we had uh good negotiations with his uh his manager Donna and uh we we started the show this year and no prediction of like did I wake up and say hey you know what we have this brand let's just build out some media uh show how this show actually started I did an interview for the Relive the Moments podcast with Coach Ward at the end of it recognizing that he knows basically everything the Encyclopedia Britannica right there and he was so comfortable talking uh on the on the camera I was like hey man if we ever did like a sports show would you want to do it? He's like yeah man I would do it I was like hey do you know Kevin Devaney Jr. He's like yeah I know him no chance he said my name right all right just no chance no he didn't misprint it that he didn't butcher it the first time I didn't butcher his name okay all right the story is something like that I am known for butchering names but yes I didn't butcher his name uh I practiced it 15 times before I said it and then he's like yeah I know I'm like hey man could you just like send a text message and get together and I text Kevin and we go back and forth in many contract negotiations and Kevin then agrees like you know what man I like the idea let's do a pilot and I'm like this is this is great we're gonna do a pilot hopefully it's better than the Seinfeld pilot yeah uh the worst pilot they ever did but the outcome was great and then all of a sudden we did one episode didn't have the segments all planned out yeah and we just just hit it off and yeah it took wildfire hit it off hit off is a word and um you know it's funny so I think about that so I the it was the state semifinal weekend and there's something about a show like this and a format like this we get to just talk to each other and and like I know Chris I've known Chris for so long and he's in it for the right reasons and he and he loves it.

SPEAKER_04 32:07

And there's things about like yeah you love watching a kid score I do 40 points and whatever but like you also like the story sometimes of the kid who's like off the bench like that that's better for people like us you know the lock the lock in yeah like that sort of thing comes off the bench hits a big shot absolutely that sort of stuff I live for that stuff right and um the week that we're doing the show was the week of the state semifinals football. So I'm honest like I'm there I'm obviously in Middletown four teams win to go to the state championships which is like it's been a long time since we had that many teams out of five you know and and I'm and I remember sitting there being like what it what a what a great time I got so much to talk about next week you know and um the best thing though is that so my first real like memory thing that I won't forget so like yeah I'm not gonna forget the games and and some of the big moments and stuff but thing I will never forget was Bronxville football plays their state uh playoff game state semifinal game they win they're going to the dome right they're they're pumped up sleepy hollow's coming out next to play their game and they're playing at like the night game and or the mid-afternoon game and they're coming out and the Bronxville kids who don't really they lost us they beastly beyond the regular season them and the Sleepy Hollow kids just got together and we're just like jumping on each other celebrating and all the Bronxville kids are like we want you guys like just like the it was like such team section one camaraderie and I was like right there and I caught it like the I videoed the whole thing and I was like man I feel like I just like captured like a moment you know and uh I was like that was just and then Sleepy Hollow goes and wins and I was like wow I can't wait I thought to myself I can't wait to come back and talk about this on the show the next week and it was like this is the perfect platform for something like that you know and I was like this was meant to be right so I felt I felt really good about that and then of course Sleepy Hollow so Sleepy Hollow winning we had two Rai and Bronx have won the state championship sleepy hollow lost the state championship but Sleepy Hollow winning their semifinal game to go to the dome Sleepy Hollow for so long has had they were like the sleeping giant of Section 1 football and uh someone was like well you know one year they they might you know they had Braden Richardson he was hurt gets healthy they go and he he has like this otherworldly game in the state semifinals the video I have of this kid was just off the charts great and uh it was just great it was like one of my favorite days of the year so that's my first like real moment and it kind of coincides with exactly what you're talking about us being here doing the show.

SPEAKER_00 34:36

Yeah I mean listen it's amazing I didn't think that our show I always knew that we'd have chemistry. It's very easy to we we talk off offline and we'd have chemistry but then when you put three people in the mic uh with no like hey I'm gonna cover this you're gonna cover that we just basically came together and said hey we're just gonna sit in front of this mic and talk and see how it goes and then like right away the chemistry hit um coach learns uh a lot about the media not to ask Kevin questions in the middle of the show um are these uh are these war are all these ward are all these wards related I love the plunket one are all these plunkets related uh is he exactly when you asked about Mustafa is it related to Mustafa and I was like I don't I don't I don't know man I had no idea it was but there there's I mean there's listen there's so many moments to talk about so let's start with that let's start with the football moments I mean the football first of all this has been a year of records if you've ever had to start something okay we've been we've been watching all the time year of records year of of of dynasties year of kids like the dynamic duo uh over in Rye that we'll talk about for year of Rye the year of Rye the year of Rai the year of Rye of thank you coach well we can have a little debate here because we've had it I've had some people ask me but go on you want to talk about uh starting with football so again you're right that was that was you going up to the you going up to the dome I remember I remember uh uh talking to uh my son's girlfriend goes to Rye and I was talking to her dad and he was so excited okay about going up to the to the dome basketball was just starting yeah and when you can when you came back to talk about yeah the throws this young man made the best play the best maybe the best individual throw I know what I know what Kevin's gonna say Carson Miller to Henry Schumacher across his body 50 yards in the air on the money.

SPEAKER_04 36:30

Yeah and like it was one of those things I I so I'm I love to film I like love the film and so he's rolling to his left and I'm thinking myself they're they're up like I think they're up like 21 nothing at this point. They're up they're up kind of and I remember thinking myself I'm like all right he's gonna throw this away and then I see him turn his shoulders and I'm like oh he's gonna try and throw this downfield and he unleashes the ball so immediately the ball just goes right up in the air and it's and you can tell it's going far. And I as I'm turning the camera following the ball I go I hope to God there's someone on the other side of this catch. Because this could be the greatest catch ever and there I turn and the ball comes down and there's shoemaker boom right here and then I'm like go go to the end zones go and he scores because I and it was like selfish because I knew I had like this great play this perfect angle perfect video of this throw and um after the game Carson uh who who by the way it was Carson Miller Day on Wednesday in uh in Westchester Westchester kind of legislative yeah he was the lion yeah he was the Lions club athlete of the year so uh the Rye Lions and so they made a Carson Miller day which is pretty cool that's fantastic and uh talking about these two young men you you've been doing this a very long time yeah when was the last time you saw two athletes together like a dynamic duo of these two have such a compelling year. Yeah so the only the only comparison and Chris will know this was Ray Rice and Jeff McDermott at Neuro Shell at Neurchell they're the only two now obviously they're a very very high profile duo Ray goes on to the NFL he was a division one player football Jeff McDermott was the quarterback of the football team he was fantastic and he was getting offered by to play football at Wisconsin um Nebraska like all these big time schools he ends up he wanted to play basketball Providence because he had a great connection with the Providence coaching staff but he got offered by Duke he turned down Duke to go to Providence and he started four years of Providence had a great career professionally in Europe too. Yeah those guys were great they were they were they were great basketball as much as the thing here's the problem those two kids senior year lost in the state championship in football they lost in the state championship in basketball and they didn't play a spring sport. Carson Miller and Andrew Schumacher won the state championship in football they lost in the state final four in basketball and they won the state championship on lacrosse resume wise it's hard to compare and they broke every record along the way I do want to interject this McDermott and Rice played in the greatest state high school football championship game ever in the history of New York.

SPEAKER_02 39:10

Yeah not even a against a guy against a guy named Greg Paulus big time who went on to point guard Duke Duke and quarterback at Syracuse.

SPEAKER_04 39:20

Yeah and and then they lost to uh uh do it all Paul Harris and put it in Johnny Flynn Johnny Flynn yeah Niagara Falls High School Niagara Falls High School these two were fantastic they were unbelievable yeah so now if you put Jeff McDermott and Ray Rice on this year's ride team I think they win football they win basketball and hell I think they might even win lacrosse figuring out that they were could you imagine facing off against Ray Rice no right there Kevin's right though that's the only the only time I can remember two players now the other thing is you know with all due respect to to Schumacher and uh and Miller like we did have a special really special duo in football at Iona with Julian Guzman and Crew Davis. But like again like Crew Davis he was a two sport athlete and so was Julian Guzman different sports. Julian Guzman won a Catholic championship in baseball which is his main sport. Crew Davis was so good at football that he graduated high school early and is already at University of North Carolina and didn't even play what did Lacrosse so correct but again you know like woulda coulda is should I think it's a three I think I think these two young men to to understand that they three sports three seasons three sports three sets of championships it's amazing it's historic.

SPEAKER_00 40:40

I I think it's historic and it's good for them. They're both going to Harvard uh for for different sports so they get to continue that reign over there up in uh up in Boston. Yeah you know so good for them. Yep exactly now I don't know coach you know as we kind of live relive some of these moments as Kevin says uh rye having the greatest year you know with the Rye is Rye over on that side yeah I don't know that uh I don't know that they get the the the vote of the year for the the the school district that some people might vote I mean is basically they have so many chips over there it's like it's like the Dorito factory they're just printing chips how many I think they ended up with eight section championships.

SPEAKER_04 41:18

So well Rye let's do let's do Rye first so Rye won just think about boys sports first okay we'll do with both so Rye won the state section and state football championship okay they won the section boys soccer championship they won the section and state girls soccer championship field hockey went to the finals volleyball won the section championship okay that's four we go to the winner um the winter they won the section championship in boys basketball okay they won the state championship in hockey they did not win the section because they lost to Barn Hills and they beat Barnes they were the at large yeah they were the at-large heart heart heart of the state champions that's six um I I I feel like I'm blank on something else but I I I don't know track and swing so um and then you go the spring they won the baseball championship section baseball championship what an insane game and they won the section boys uh and state boys lacrosse championship and they won the section girls lacrosse championship so that's nine it's nine it's nine it's more than eight yeah but it is more than eight but I don't okay but do you know the Marinack ones?

SPEAKER_00 42:24

Because I don't I I think it I think I've got to memaraging a little fuzzy because more girl sports right but we interviewed at girls flag football um I believe it was eight we interviewed Barry was six it was six at the time that we corrected us afterwards though I think it was seven already at the time okay seven we should know this but I don't know the problem is is that we don't um probably know cross country championships and track changes team sports yeah uh now listen memarinick did play in a in a in a harder harder division arguably well the large in the higher division enrollment I wouldn't say more kids yeah harder division I'd say larger enrollment yeah no that's fair so the memorinic thing larger makes it possibly harder to make it possible what's crazy is you could drive from Ryder Mamarinick pretty quickly you could drive through Ryanick and you're there you know I think they should have played listen if if I was the first of all in basketball okay and we used to do this when we were kids like I think uh Rye okay should have should have got five guys okay head over to Mamaranack play some street ball play those five guys and say listen man our own championship the Westchester championship right now here street ball five on five my five versus your five let me ask you this who's the real champs let me ask you this well so they did play in lacrosse and American beat them beat Rye yeah but the team was just they did not play in football and I don't think they played in basketball if they played in basketball early in the season I think memoricts the memoric tournament yeah I think Rye lost to Barham Hills in the American tournament and American beat Ardsley and then they didn't play

SPEAKER_04 44:00

I think Mamarinick boys basketball wins. As good as Rye was, even at the end of the year, I think they're better than Rye. I think football at Rye beats Mamarinick. That's my hot take of the year. Hot take side.

SPEAKER_00 44:13

I mean, listen, it's hard to bet against those two.

SPEAKER_04 44:16

And it wasn't just those two. Like we keep saying those two, but it's obviously so much more than those two.

SPEAKER_00 44:20

Well, there's more than two people that play a football game.

SPEAKER_04 44:22

Of course, yes. So they were uh their whole, I think Rye top to bottom was pretty darn good.

SPEAKER_00 44:28

Shout out to the offensive line who never gets much of the credit whatsoever. But for Carson to make those passes, that offensive line had to be pretty good. Shout out to you guys.

SPEAKER_02 44:36

They've always been great up front offensively.

SPEAKER_00 44:39

So listen, we we rolled right in. We thought we were gonna roll just to basketball. Yeah. Okay, but we we talked a lot about football because they kept winning and winning and winning. So we had a lot of basketball, a lot of basketball conversation, but a lot of football conversation because uh we had so many great Section One teams represent and Ana Prep won the state championship in football as well.

SPEAKER_02 44:58

Yes, we had that uh Tuco gave us a great shootout in the Class C final. Sure Bryce was amazing.

SPEAKER_00 45:05

I'm gonna go to you first, Coach. What was your favorite basketball moment during our basketball season on the show? Oh boy, I mean And it's on the show here, not in the county center where uh where we are now now TNT famous. Okay, Charles Barkley will come in for anybody.

SPEAKER_02 45:21

I had two. Can I have two? Yes. Yeah. Um, I think Anthony, fair go out.

SPEAKER_03 45:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 45:28

Breaking the uh section one score record, and uh Destiny over Dynasty, Mamerinick and Ty Carver winning the section championship.

SPEAKER_04 45:43

Fair?

SPEAKER_00 45:43

Those are two good ones. You you did quote that, by the way, and uh I that's from Kevin. Yeah, yeah, it was.

SPEAKER_04 45:50

It was from Kevin The best thing about Memarinick was that it was so much buildup, there was so much talk, so much pressure, so much pressure, and like everything was set up where they go into and it's still basketball, and it's still Mount Vernon, and it's still like uncharted territory. It's still the county. They left nothing, they left, no doubt. No doubt. By the way, no doubt at all.

SPEAKER_00 46:11

By the way, to to Coach Carver's uh a little quick story about Coach Carver. Um we, we, okay, I'm gonna say we because it's this is all of us at this point. Uh Kevin is the jinx of the show. Yep. Okay. But we were the jinx of interviewing any coach prior to them playing at the county center.

SPEAKER_01 46:30

In the slam dunk.

SPEAKER_00 46:31

In well, slam dunk was different, but in the county center, right? We we had this thing in the room. So we interviewed, okay, two coaches, which I apologize, coach, for us giving you guys the jinx, two coaches before they played, compared to the format that all of you guys saw. Because you didn't, no one saw that format. They only saw that we interviewed after the champion won. But we did do two interviews that never made it, in which we uh basically gave them the jinx and unfortunately they lost. Coach comes up to me. He's like, Listen, man, I'm not missing my opportunity this time to talk to you. I'm Rich Carver. Here we go. Coach Carver comes up to me. And I'm like, hey, coach, uh, before you walk into the ropes here that we had at the County Center, thank you for section one putting us in such a great spot. Before you walk into this, I just want to tell you what's happened over the last 24 hours. Anyone who's walked through these ropes before they played, they didn't get on the show after. He's like, enough said. See you later. See you later. He did.

SPEAKER_02 47:25

He took off. And then he got on the show. He got on the show for winning. I don't believe it.

SPEAKER_04 47:30

He won, he got his uh he got his Sexton championship, he got his Knicks champion. He's a huge, huge Knicks fan. Huge Knicks fan. That was uh that was great. So, Kevin, how about you? So, all right, obviously Ficorata um was so fun to watch. It was just so fun to have around. Jake Pampolina as well, and Julian Scott, those three just like breaking records and doing what they did, was pretty special. I think Tap and Z Girls winning the state championship and YMA girls winning the state championship um was pretty awesome. They did it, you know, and and for Tap and Z to do it by beating a couple of private schools in the final four. So they were the only uh public school in the New York State public final forum. They beat all the Academy with the major Division I player on it, and then they had to play the winner of Our Lady of Mercy Notre Dame. They beat Notre Dame with the reigning state player of the year, and they beat them in the final. And uh they did it in like very different ways, and they just played so well together, and uh just a lot of respect for what TZ did. Um, you know, they lost Division I player from last year. TZ Girls come back, and then YMA, of course. So YMA, the story of YMA is like the most ridiculous thing ever. They were they were a two-win team, new program, a coach just like desperately trying to text me and be like, could you tweet about this? And I was like, Yeah, sure. And then here he is winning a state championship. And it's like, you know, it's just it kind of just reminds you as like as a coach that this whole like starting from the ground up, you can actually get to the top. It takes time, it does, it can happen, you know. Like it's uh it's remarkable to see it, and and I was really happy for them. You know, the the the the crazy thing we just mentioned, the Rye Byram Hills thing. By the section championship hockey was a kind of an awesome thing. They've the way that that that was an unbelievable game. Um and uh it just to show you what an upset it was that Byron Hills did it and they found a way and um how well they played in that championship game and coming back, they were down a goal, they come back and win it. Just evidence of how big the talent disparity actually was was that they got crushed in the state final against the same team the second time around. Um but uh for the Barm Hills to win that was was uh was pretty great in the winter time. So that was like those are like one of my favorite winter moments.

SPEAKER_00 49:35

Yeah, we didn't really cover hockey. We did basically the basketball show before we got to the spring sports center-like show. I gotta tell you, uh we we here at the show, uh, Coach, me and Kevin are always talking pre-show, and we have a we have a nice group chat with the three of us and our executive producer, Claudio, and we're always talking about ideas for the show and things coming up. And I had pitched the idea of having Jake on the show interviewing him before he broke the record, the night he had a chance to break the record.

SPEAKER_01 50:05

Bringing a man out of school, taking this routine. We have a group chat going on, and Kevin Bright's back right away.

SPEAKER_00 50:10

I hate this idea. I hate this idea. He hated it. I hate this idea. This is the worst idea ever. Okay? John, you got some good ideas, but this one, this is the worst idea ever. No, I don't think we should do it. And I started texting him privately on the side, like, hey man, do you really think like it's the worst idea ever? Yes. Double it down. Worst idea ever you ever had. Worst idea. And I'm like, all right. So, like, would you would you really, really hate it? I really hate this idea. Don't do it. Great. Talk to his dad. Hey man, you think uh uh you can make a Friday? Because dad and I were going back and forth. Yeah, yeah, we can go there. We can make it happen. This young man comes on the show. Okay, so this line, this line to me was always great. Comes on the show, and I think it was Kevin. I think you asked him a question like uh, how are you gonna feel when you break the record? Okay, if you break the record tonight, how are you gonna feel? He's like, when I break the record tonight, it's gonna be amazing because I get to do it against one of my best friends. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 51:04

When I break the record 16 points against Jack McCone, who's the best defensive player in section one. It was a terrible idea. Captain Jack. I stand by my decision to say this is a bad thing.

SPEAKER_00 51:11

I understand Kevin. But during the game, so this is you know, this is like we do this in professional sports, but not in high school. During the game, I get a text message. Uh, end of the first quarter, I win six. End of the second half. Right, right? Basically, I was loving it. Ready to blame it, loving it, loving it, ready to ready to give it to me in the I can't uh I can't wait to stick it to John when this poor young man doesn't break it. And what is what does Jake do? What does he do? Yeah, my man. He comes through. Breaks the record. Breaks the record that night, bam.

SPEAKER_04 51:38

Did it at TZ, did it against Jack McCone. And and listen, like, so there's there's two more things. I give you the my girls' things first. Um I think Jack McCone losing his dad last year, um, very influential person on him. And just because he was the person who really shaped him into becoming this guy who was like the most unselfish, don't worry about scoring points, do what's best for the team guy, like everything you want your kid to be. Um yeah, you want your kid to be Jake Pampelin and break the record scoring, but like sometimes teams need players like Jack McCone to win. Yeah, and uh for him to do what he did all season after losing his dad was pretty amazing. So winning the section championship, and then getting the MVP while having four points in the final. Like, that is awesome. That is awesome.

SPEAKER_02 52:18

And Steve Stevens is getting themselves a true winner, and Stevens Coach Hurley has a great program there. He should have a fantastic career and playing a couple NCAA tournaments to figure out though.

SPEAKER_00 52:32

Speaking about speaking about girls' moments, interviewing Casey Cummings uh at the county center. First the coach. We did the coach first. Right. So talking to coach about the play. First of all, if you if you've never sat next to Coach Chris Ward during a basketball game, okay, you better make sure you have your phone and chat GPT ready to tell you what every play means. Cut the gap, do this, do that. Did you see that play, John? He he kept talking about this one play, okay, run by I don't know, Coach St. John's.

SPEAKER_02 53:01

St. John's.

SPEAKER_00 53:02

Yeah, okay. At least I remember St. John's. Okay, going down the whole play, he's he's telling me how it's been done every like decade that goes on, uh, the six decades that coach has been around since he's been watching basketball. And we interviewed we we interviewed we interviewed uh Casey's coach, and he's like, I didn't call that play. What do you mean you didn't call that play? No, Casey came in, she called the play. What? Yeah, she called the play in the huddle, then she executed the play to hit the game winning shot. She's special. She is special. She's speaking.

SPEAKER_04 53:34

And obviously, led into a lacrosse championship. She was so talented, man. She was so tough. She was so awesome. And, you know, for a girl, it wasn't even her main sport. And uh just the leader. It was just, you know, leadership, leadership matters in each sport, you know? Like, and if you're that type of player and you're the type you're not afraid of the moment, she didn't play great in the championship until she needed to be great. And then she did that.

SPEAKER_00 53:57

She gave us an amazing winning moment right there.

SPEAKER_04 53:58

Yeah, that was awesome. So she was fantastic. That weekend was pretty great. All the games were awesome. The Ficarada game against Woodlands in the finals. They go to over double overtime.

SPEAKER_00 54:06

Unbelievable.

SPEAKER_04 54:07

Yeah, that game.

SPEAKER_00 54:08

I mean, but you know, that one bothers me the most, though, guys. Bothers me the most. As a basketball player, right now, it bothers me the most. I just wanted him to have a shot, to take the last shot.

SPEAKER_04 54:19

In regulation or double overtime? Because he didn't get either one. He didn't get either one. No, I didn't get it.

SPEAKER_00 54:23

But that game, that game still bothers me. It'll bother me forever. Yeah. Because I would have given him the ball, right? Literally, like I I got it. Shout out to Woodlands for making sure they denied him the ball. But I would have gotten to you and taken the ball out of your hands just to see. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 54:40

See if I can take the historic season. In defense to the situation, the kid had uh Hertzberg, number 11. When that ball shot, he had a great shot. I'm not knocking, I'm not knocking his teammates or Woodlands. Back rimmed it at the buzzer who was all over the bottom.

SPEAKER_04 54:55

You know what, Kill, we great season so much basketball, so we think 4.2 seconds is a lot of time. Like you can make a pass and pump fake and drive. When you're a 17-year-old kid, it's not, it's just like, oh my God, I can't be holding the ball at the end of the buzz. You know, so I totally get it. Um, but this will be the year, 20 years from now, people are gonna say, do you remember the year Stepanak had three McDonald's Americans? Because it's gonna be something that's gonna last. It's gonna be stand the test of time.

SPEAKER_02 55:21

So, championship city championship.

SPEAKER_04 55:26

Five Division I starters um and a sixth off the bench. And uh this team that was nationally ranked number one and three McDonald's All-Americans, and a coach who's gonna sit us seven games to start next season. But like, no, like all the all the good things, that'll be the memory, I think, of basketball for for a very long time. I think people are gonna talk about this team. They're gonna and you know what? It it started now, but if Josiah Jervis makes the NBA and the Ratliff twins make the NBA, like it'll be talked about as that was the greatest team to ever play in Westchester. So like it's it's gonna be one that's gonna it's gonna last for a very long time.

SPEAKER_01 55:57

We had a hell of a basketball season. Yeah, boys and girls.

SPEAKER_00 56:01

It was a record-breaking year across the board. I can't even remember how many and we'll get his story. A thousand point scores, two thousand point scores. Yeah. You know, like Kendall. Yeah, Kendall uh uh scored two thousand points. Kendall Kenningsburg and then Kendall Kenneth Figuera. Um, uh Julius.

SPEAKER_02 56:22

Julius Scott. Right? 2005. She broke the record, yeah, Rocky.

SPEAKER_00 56:25

She broke the record. I mean it was amazing. It was amazing. You couldn't, you couldn't, you couldn't predict, nor could you create this storyline. It goes back to the other thing. Talking about Stepanek and Three World Americans. I don't know ever that someone can can have a show when we talk about our year anniversary of this show when we get there, to ever build a story like that again with all these record holders and record breakers. It's a historic year. Yeah, totally, totally.

SPEAKER_02 56:48

And then it's a spring that we started this show this year. Yeah, totally.

SPEAKER_00 56:53

It was all planned. All planned by you.

SPEAKER_04 56:55

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 56:55

Uh listen, listen, the universe and God is great.

SPEAKER_04 57:00

Well, we were we got um spring. Are we gonna are we gonna talk about the spring and then the longest two days of work any of us have ever had? Baseball. The people here the baseball. Baseball channel. I don't know why you bring it up. Why don't you bring it up? Okay.

SPEAKER_00 57:15

Okay, for those we we have our entire championship crew here in the studio with us today to celebrate the the championship in this episode. And sure, Kevin brings up, Kevin brings up, okay, the not only the longest championship baseball series ever, okay. I went home. Right, you went home more than once. More than once you went home. Okay. I almost had to do play by play. Imagine if I had to do play by play, it would have been horrendous. Oh my god.

SPEAKER_04 57:44

Lewis saved a day. Lewis, the people don't know this. Our man Lewis. Goo.

SPEAKER_02 57:49

Lewis. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_04 57:51

I had so there's like this whole I had this whole thing where it's, you know, the double elimination tournament. It's four games. We wrap it up on Saturday, and then if there's any teams losers, bracket teams win, they play on Sunday. Well, we had four games end up having to be played on Sunday. First of all, say it's Saturday. Saturday.

SPEAKER_00 58:09

Oh, Saturday was 10:30 start to the last game. Get to play it at one o'clock in the morning.

SPEAKER_02 58:15

Well, it's like the SEC tournament or the ACC tournament where they had a weather, you know, bad weather. Yeah. And you gotta get the games in. It's also basically.

SPEAKER_00 58:22

There was no bad weather. There was a 16 in the game and a 10 in a game. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 58:25

Well, I I mean as well.

SPEAKER_04 58:28

So I knew I couldn't be there on Sunday, and trying to get people to replace me on Sunday to announce broadcast games is really hard, especially at last minute. I I had a family event I had to go to.

SPEAKER_00 58:38

I'm sorry. I I want to I want to put I want to put Kev because Kevin normally is in the press box.

SPEAKER_03 58:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 58:42

Okay, when we did football, okay, me and Coach are out there in the rain, on the field, tents, water coming everywhere. Yeah. Kevin's in the press box with his little coffee. Hey, can you guys bring the pizza up for us while you're up there? Okay, my crew's a little hungry in this scenario. I asked you to bring the pizza from the gate to the table. I didn't bring it to the resin.

SPEAKER_01 59:00

So let's go to baseball. Go to baseball meat. Go to baseball. Kevin sets up for play by play on the top of the dugout. I did not set up anywhere. I was set up top of the dugout.

SPEAKER_00 59:13

This man is sitting there. By the way, it might The first day.

SPEAKER_01 59:17

Freezing.

SPEAKER_00 59:18

Freezing that first day. And raining. And raining, okay. For that. He's he's on the top. Yeah, we lost our tent, okay?

SPEAKER_01 59:26

Oh, I saw the whole thing.

SPEAKER_00 59:27

The whole thing going down, okay?

SPEAKER_01 59:29

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 59:29

He's up there, freezing, doing play-by-play. Yes, this is going on. That's Saturday. And then Sunday. Sunday, yeah. You have a family, you have a pre-planned family uh event going on, which is later in the afternoon.

SPEAKER_04 59:43

We've never had four games on Sunday.

SPEAKER_00 59:45

Never had four games. And Sunday you had to leave early.

SPEAKER_04 59:48

Yeah. And our man Lewis stepped in. Yeah. I gave the call of uh of the year twice. Yes, double pluck. Memoric at the Rye Gay. He was so good. Um actually Will Plunkett um came out to me at the Con Ed dinner and was like, you know, you didn't get to do our game. What happened? I said, I told him, I said, I you know, I and he goes, Oh, it's too bad. He goes, the kid, the guy who did it, he was awesome. His final call was awesome. We kept listening to it. Uh so that was uh I said it was great. I was really pumped for him.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:16

Mr. Goo, Louis Lafazia. He he he's been uh such a fun having him part of the winning moments. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_04 1:00:23

Is he listening to us? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, no, he's sleeping over there. But it's all good. So um no, it was it was fun um to to be there for baseball, even though it was an endless, endless event that I actually ended myself earlier for.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:39

Claudio still he still he still talks about it to me. He's like, hey, listen, we're gonna we're gonna do we're gonna do championships again. I'm like, yeah, we'll we'll be the championships. We did it, we did the medals this season. We have a lot of stuff to talk about. He's like, um I'm out for baseball. Yeah. That's it. I'm out for baseball. Find someone else for baseball.

SPEAKER_04 1:00:53

The best teams in Girls Across won. They all all season long, we talked about how there was no mystery in Girls Across. It was gonna be Pleasantville, Rye, Nyack, and Suffron. And they all won. They all won sort of convincingly. No real drama over it.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:07

Well, hold on a second, because I I gotta share where okay, so lacrosse championships was our first championship that we had to separate. Yeah. All right, so Kevin and Crew went up to the boys. Me and Coach took care of the girls. And if I were to tell you, you thought that like Chris Ward basketball or Coach Ward about basketball was that he was like a giddy little kid running around the lacrosse field for girls across, getting all the stats, going through it. His it was the longest notebook I've ever seen him take notes-wise for that. And when when we got to interview uh the postgame, I mean, I thought he was gonna cry. I literally thought he was gonna cry.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:46

I've never it was one of the most pleasant experiences that I've ever had in sports was covering that game and then interviewing uh Ella Ella Good Ella Gould and um Casey Cummings. And Ella Gould's emotional response was unbelievable.

SPEAKER_04 1:02:13

So anyone does know this. The Nyak lacrosse dynasty that's been built here now, it really started with the Gould family. Like it's it's it's unbelievable what a a mom and dad could do, like what a family can do. It's crazy. Um and and like influencing a community and influencing a culture of a sport. And then like I I've seen families and and you know, trying to help the youth program, and you know, they never have this level of success. And obviously, the you know, the winning the section again this year in class B was remarkable. So um it it is uh it's it's pretty impressive what they did. So on the girls' side, and then the boys' side we just saw we saw Ford, they're all were dominant games, right?

SPEAKER_02 1:02:54

There was no um I want to say that I want to just interject. I'm sorry, Captain. Yeah, go ahead. We thought that if Bronzeville boys made it a football game in the final, that could take a few. Yeah, and they had to be healthy.

SPEAKER_04 1:03:11

They had to have all their football players back. So those guys were pretty, pretty worn out uh from the football run through basketball season, those guys, and uh they made it to foot they made it to lacrosse and made it to the championship and did what they had to do. So I've it was great to see that. That it was a great year for Bronxville athletics as well. Um I think the flag to me though, when I look back on this school on the spring specifically, this season was such a major step forward for the sport of flag football. I know you guys have talked about it a ton. Yes, we are. It's not even just like like it's not just the numbers and the growth, and like I know we talk about, oh, there's 20 million. It's more it just uh this year, and maybe it's I I'm just gonna give too much credit to the or a lot to the coaches, but this is where I think this sport took a giant step forward in terms of game planning, uh, in-game adjustments, preparation. It felt more like the sport of football um than it ever did before. In the past, it was just like you had uh you had athletes, um, you had one dominant player, uh, you've had you had a great quarterback, and so I think the sport uh is evolving uh as you uh would you expect it would to in you know at this point, still in the infancy stages where it's becoming like it's an X's and O's sport now.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:24

Well, you're right, because when we did the post-game interviews there at the flag football championships for the girls, yeah, it was football coaches. They were planning. They talked about, hey, listen, what what was your game plan for this player? What was your game plan, right? Like I talk about Maranak and and and Sherman there in the middle. Like, what was your game plan? Hey, our game plan was to plan this way, and X's and O's. Yeah, and it was well planned. And you're totally right. We said it on the show the other day, our girls flat football show, that if we can if we could implore anyone to do anything, yeah, getting getting the the boys' coaches, the boys' football coaches, even if you don't want to coach the girls, help that generation of coaches, teach them what you know from the game planning to the warm-ups to everything.

SPEAKER_04 1:05:05

Like Yeah, I I don't think it's actually they don't want I think that what you're it's like that I don't know if they think that they can or it's hard though. It's hard to do that. It's hard. But Anthony Viddy, American, won the section football championship uh in the fall, and then he won it in the flag season. He's a great coach. He's a coach who knows how to just game plan his scheme. So Mike Rasigno, he won a section championship at Yorktown, um, went to section finals as a coordinator at Arlington, and then Lowell Robinson is a very good thing.

SPEAKER_00 1:05:30

If you brought a Euro records, if I ever created a record, okay, that I I had in a year, then it got broke 45 minutes later.

SPEAKER_04 1:05:37

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:05:38

Or tied 45 minutes later. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:05:40

So these guys are football coaches, they understand uh the value of film and preparation. So I think the sport for for a long time was learning how to pull the flag, learning how to throw the ball, learning how to catch the ball, learning how to get in space, um, you know, get in stances, get in, get in uh, you know, in sept. Position to pull the flag and and you know play as a team. The sport now evolved beyond that, which is it's no longer skills. It was like the most skilled team won, or the team that had Eve Girardi won, you know, like the type of Z. She was so phenomenal. And then, you know, they ran into a Yorktown team that just was a little bit better and a little bit crisper on defense. Sanchez. Sanchez. Yeah. And Westlake.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:21

Shut him down, shut him down, Sanchez.

SPEAKER_04 1:06:23

That's that's Deam Marine and LaCrosse. And Dean Reno in Westlake for uh the Flags.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:29

Laurel Robinson and Anthony Sardo did fantastic job. Yeah. So both tackle football coaches.

SPEAKER_04 1:06:36

I think if I'm an athletic director, I'm trying to get my football coach to coach girls. Or be a part of it, you know, as well.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:42

I think that'd be all right.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:43

To be a part of it, coach to be a part of it. Consult definitely matters.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:46

And a consultation, you know, guidance, mentor situation. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:50

All right, coach. Uh before we wrap up the show, let's talk about the spring. What is your favorite moment in the spring season here?

SPEAKER_02 1:06:58

My favorite moment was covering the NyAck Yorktown game. It was I I really was so impressed with the level of play, the young lady, the and the coaching on both sides, and the amount of Division I college prospects on that field, it felt more like a national level game.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:24

Yeah. I know it's gonna be this pick. How about you?

SPEAKER_04 1:07:27

So I think, you know, obviously, I'm I'm I'm gonna go a little off the regular path here. I I think I still think, and and then in maybe in five years, we're gonna hear more from Jane Hickey from Urslin. Um I think her story is really the most incredible thing is that she was a soccer player who went out to run track to get in shape for soccer and just discovered she might be the best in the country. And like it is still the most, it is like Marion, you hear the story about Arian Rivera when he found out that he had to throw the cutter. And like, it's almost like if I went to my backyard and started digging and found oil. You know? Like it's like, oh, I didn't know this was here. Yeah, I didn't know I had this ability. And uh she turning it into a scholarship to University of North Carolina. Is she is she could she be an Olympian one day or at least have a chance to be Olympic?

SPEAKER_02 1:08:13

I think so.

SPEAKER_04 1:08:13

I think she's such a raw, like people think talent, run running is or track is just running, and there's talents, there's skills, there's trainings, and there's diets, there's different. I think if she's committed to this, she has she has so much more to go that she can keep shaving off time. She's breaking records by just showing up.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:30

And uh every meet.

SPEAKER_04 1:08:32

I think her, um, and there's a young man from North Rock who we never talked about. His name is Claude El Cherry. Um, he's gonna go right at Georgetown. He was a Section One runner of the year, New York State runner of the year, broke all these records in North Rock on track. He's another one who, you know, down the road, we're gonna forget like some, you know, maybe uh some of these basketball players don't go to the NBA or play in a Nancy WA tournament. But uh some of these track athletes we have in this area are pretty special.

SPEAKER_00 1:08:53

So Yeah, it could be future to your point about future Olympians.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:57

Uh the key for long distance runners is staying away from the stress fractures.

SPEAKER_04 1:09:05

Yeah, yeah, of course, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:06

That's a really that's the issue that derails a lot of great promising middle to long distance runners.

SPEAKER_00 1:09:17

You know why coach knows that? Why is that? Because when he runs uh to go yell at the kids for making a bad play, he passes the scoreboard. He passes the scoring side where he's not supposed to go, but because you know he basically knows how sports, he gets to go across and come back. So like his steps, his steps are camp time, it's almost camp time. It's almost camp time. Number one camp in section one, Chris Ward basketball. 190 kids, we love it, whatever about it. Yeah, it's gonna be crazy, crazy time over there at House of Sports, okay? Listen, you know, speaking about these tri kids for a second, and we we did, as you guys know from watching the show, we changed it up. We did basketball as an in-depth show, and in the springtime we decided to be more of a variety show and try to cover as many sports as we can. And we were able to cover the five or six, five sports in every single week. And then we also got the top ten honorees that we did, which was a great segment that we put together, and we were able to expand that out to golf, to track, to all the plays. And thank you to the parents and coaches who kept sending the highlights in absolutely to us that helped us out a lot. We would love to do an in-depth track show. We would love to do an in-depth show for every single sport that we can. Uh and we're gonna try. We're gonna try. It just takes some commitment from the actual team, association, the sport itself, because contrary to common belief, uh, this is not Chris Ward's uh full-time job in what he's doing. But the whole point of the show when we started was to let these kids who create these amazing moments build the winning moments for us and allow us to talk about it. We just wanted to give them a platform where they can be showcased and get them exposure, let them have some fun, all the memories that they give us as parents. Uh, I had my son Sebastian this year, okay, as a senior, all right, win some awards in the section. All the memories I remember him giving me to be able to relive those moments now with all the videos that we were able to capture, all the comments we have here, individuals like Kevin on the sideline with this camera, all the reporters, Lonnie Webb, uh all the cameramen I mean, Lonnie Webb, uh Chris, who I'll butcher Chris's last name. Uh all you guys have helped us showcase the kids. It's all about the kids and taking the moments that they create for us and helping them relive that. So I want to thank you to all the parents. I want to thank you to all the people collaborating with us on Instagram, uh, TikTok, everywhere. That's this show could not have happened without you, the fans, you, the kids, and the parents. Uh, and of course, without these two uh amazing co-hosts here, I have Coach Chris Ward and Kevin Devaney Jr., the hardest working man here in Section One, and a big, big shout out to one you haven't seen. We're gonna try to get this man on the camera here and there, but to our executive producer, Claudio Valenzuela, who is a section one legend in his own right. Keep an eye out for the summer show. Uh, the locker room here with a couple of section one standouts. Okay, you'll see the locker room coming out. We got two section one studs, okay, coming out here for the summer show. I look forward to being part of that. Thank you, everybody, for being part of the winning moments. Before we close this show, coach, what's your last word?

SPEAKER_02 1:12:44

Um, gratitude. I'm grateful to be a part of this with you and Kevin. I appreciate the fact that you had the vision for us to do this. So I'm very grateful. I've enjoyed it.

SPEAKER_04 1:13:03

Kevin? I think gratitude is a great word. Um I think um the the the gratitude that that I receive publicly from from athletes and parents and families and coaches for all this. Um I probably get too much credit for it. Um and uh so it it is uh it is felt, it is it is here, and it's only gonna get bigger.

SPEAKER_01 1:13:25

You know, I really wanted to stick at a coach at the end of the show. No, you can't do that. It's too nice. We can't do it, man.

SPEAKER_00 1:13:30

Gratitude is such a great word, coach. Yes. And I appreciate you carrying that word here because gratitude is is what exudes out of all of us. And we want to thank all of you guys for participating in these two amazing seasons we had here in the school year. We are not going anywhere. We have a lot of summer content that we're going to put together. Again, keep an eye out for the locker room series, uh, a lot of reporting that we have to get done, and we're so excited to uh get back here in the studio uh live for the 2026-2027 season coming up. Make sure you like and subscribe, follow us, share this content. This way we can give as much exposure as we can to the kids. Thank you. That's a wrap.