The Carle Place Frogs are leaping into states for the primary time in 20 years.
It’s been an extremely particular 12 months for the 15-8 Nassau County boys group, which not too long ago topped Mattituck 53-36 for the LI Class B title and can tackle Woodlands Excessive Faculty of Westchester on Saturday morning at Binghampton’s Visions Veterans Memorial Area.
“We’ve created a bond, like were this little family,” junior guard Ryan Leary informed The Publish. “We don’t want to lose now.”
The primary good omen for his or her greatest season since 2005 got here in late December, when Leary notched his 1,000th profession level — following all three of his sisters and even his mother within the elite feat.
“We tried to keep feeding off of that. Once he got to that point, we just knew we could just keep winning,” senior Matthew Babino informed The Publish.
For him and Leary, this isn’t their first time in main video games, nevertheless.
Final November they have been on Carle Place’s state championship soccer group and are carrying over some classes on longevity.
“We really didn’t need to talk about it,” Babino mentioned. “We knew we were just going to put our heads back down and keep working for basketball.”
Sophomore Mario Dalessandro, who has taken a number one position on varsity, is taking in each second forward of the ultimate 4.
“It’s kind of crazy, I’ve never been in the playoffs before in any sports, really,” he mentioned. “This is just my first experience of playing meaningful basketball.”
Saving the day
It’s been fairly just a few days at Wantagh Excessive Faculty.
The ladies basketball group gained its first A category Lengthy Island title with a 54-30 victory over Mount Sinai Monday.
It got here simply hours after athletic director Jennifer Keane helped resuscitate referee and longtime buddy Joe Gaskin at a boys title recreation on Saturday.
The awe-inspiring second isn’t misplaced on anybody, however coach Stan Bujacich mentioned the 22-2 group is targeted on the job at hand — a matchup with Albany Academy Friday afternoon at Troy’s Hudson Valley Group School.
“This is not your regular week … it’s all fun, but we’re preparing and are in a good mode right now,” he informed The Publish.
“I just think us as continuing to get battle tested and winning close games and beating good teams. I think we’re just getting better and better.”
