One of the realities of being a college recruiting coordinator is that there’s only a finite amount of time to recruit. Sure, there’s an 18-game regular season but they can only make it to high school games when they don’t have their own games!
The thing that I’ve noticed since I have followed the Long Island baseball community is that certain schools have produced impact college players that a much higher rate than other programs.
Obviously, there are external factors that give certain schools advantages such as the socio-economics of the city, the average income of the parents, demographics, the quality of the school’s head coach/athletic director. There’s about 20 schools that have ran laps around the rest of the island in terms of producing talent. If you are a college recruiting coordinator, I will attempt to save you some time and you can form a pretty good team just hanging around these schools.
Obviously, you can hangout at Baseball Heaven on any weekend from June to Halloween and find a collection of great talent, but for purposes of this article, we will stick to the high schools themselves.
Here is my best effort to compile a list of the best high schools to recruit from in alphabetical order.
Bay Shore
They have really flown under-the-radar, but Bay Shore has been responsible for two of the best Class AA players over the past two seasons. Brian Weissert (Fordham) and Hermes Abreu (Concordia) were statistically two of the dominant players on Long Island. Coach Herbst has done a great job with the program. It would be unfair to omit them from this list after that two-year run.
Bayport-Blue Point
Just like their League VII rival SWR, they are a small-school that consistently churns out quality ballplayers. While they have not had the same fortunes of Yaz Award winners, there’s a reason they won three straight Suffolk Class A titles–including back-to-back Long Island Championships. They had the Paul Gibson Award winner in Jack Piekos in 2014, All-State P.J. Weeks in 2015 and last year had All-State Dylan Rooney. It has been a great run for BBP, they have been producing diamonds in the rough for several years now.
Commack
The Cougars had arguably the best pitching staff on Long Island in 2017 with Brian Morrisey, Peter Theodorellis, James Cardinale and Johnny Pohlman. They also have TCU-commit Tim McHugh and a number of other high-ceiling players coming up. They have always had a good reputation when it comes to developing Div-I players. Players like Rick Riccobono, Charles Galiano and Jesse Berardi have helped pave the way for this new-era for the Cougars. They seized a golden opportunity this past year by winning their first Class AA title since 1997. They still have a window to excel this year and they will have plenty of scouts at their games with McHugh the next two years.
Connetquot
Coach Bob Ambrosini did quite a bit of winning during his tenure. He eclipsed 600 wins and we awarded him with the Lifetime Achievement Award at our Awards Banquet in 2016. They have won two Suffolk Championships in the past six years. They had a down year–by their standards in 2016 and ’17–but they fielded a very young team. The talent is always there, Connetquot is a baseball school through-and-through. Their class of ’15 was pretty extraordinary with players like Dave Brehm, Brandon Morse and Travis Bruinsma, while they graduated Marc Wagenstein and Christian Nissen in 2016. Now they have up-and-comers like the Ungar brothers, Matt Brown-Eiring, Joe Savino, Trevor Adamo, the Yalon twins, among others. Things are always looking up for Connetquot. They have produced a few professional players in the past two decades in the Ambrosini brothers and James Lomangino.
Division
Growing up in Suffolk County, I only heard stories of the dominance of Division HS. Once I began doing this, I started to realize what kind of machine they really are. They won the Long Island Championship in 2015 and followed that up with an 18-win season in 2016 but was upset by Garden City in the postseason. They produced James Varela, Anthony Papa, James Piscitelli, Kieran McLaughlin, Ronmel Ocampo and Joe Spitaleri from those teams and also had the Diamond Award winners in ’15 (Papa), ’14 (Mark Martinez), ’09 (Kevin Chenicek) along with six times in the ’90s. Just a dominant program that will produces hard-nosed kids.
East Islip
They had an unprecedented run under Sal Ciampi Sr., when he guided the Redmen to 21 League titles, three Long Island Championshps and had seven (!) Carl Yastrzemski Award winners and made the playoffs 25 times in 31 years. They have produced Tony Graffanino and Brian Johnson. Although have not had the same level of dominance since he retired, they have produced some quality players like David Palmer, Brendan Dowd and Mike Demarest over the past few years.
Hauppauge
They have been very successful over the past few years, winning three consecutive League 5 titles. Beginning with Matt Reistetter and then Nick Fanti, they have produced two pro players in a brief period. They currently have 12 players on college rosters. Coach Gutes has done a great job of creating a winning atmosphere. They have a strong core of young players in place so they should maintain a high-level of play over the next few years at the least. They will now be re-classified into Class A which could help them but they also will be in a league that has other strong programs such as Sayville and Rocky Point.
Hills East
They have been producing legit players for over a decade and the lineage looks to be continuing. It really began with John Mincone in 2007, continued with Adam Brown in ’09, Stephen Woods in ’13, Brandon Bonomo (’15), Mike Palazzolo (’17) and Matt Hogan (’18). Coach Belz has been fortunate to have some big-time players in his program and he has gotten them to the next level. Their 2015 might have been the most loaded, as they also had Matt Schwartz (Vassar), Rich Villa (Lafayette) and Joey Marzouk (Hofstra).
Hills West
Coach Migliozzi gets rave reviews how he is able to get the best from his players–which makes them a no-brainer to be a part of this list as long as he is still there. This past year they had only one Div-I player in Brad Camarda, but the previous year they had Jon Faraci, Aaron Glickstein, Nick Lombardi and Owen McMenamy. They are another team that churns out 13+ win seasons and five or six college players per year. They have had one player drafted and that was T.J. Pecoraro in 2010. I had the fortune of matching up against him in a 2009 postseason game at Centereach HS. I left with the score tied 3-3 in the eighth inning and they beat us 5-4 in 11 innings–a classic game.
Longwood
They have flown under the radar, but if you look at their track record over the past decade–it is pretty staggering. They have produced JJ Bessell, Dan Parisi, Andruw Gazzola, Kristopher Killackey, Sean Rausch and Troy Simpson–just to name a few, that have– either already or are soon will have–an impact at the college level. Playing in the competitive League I brings out the best in players and they have certainly benefited from that. Coach McSherry has been able to foster a winning attitude and I think that will continue with high-ceiling players like Jonathan Holmstock, Kyle Rausch, James Myler and Jose Matos coming through the program now.
MacArthur
The Generals have been a powerhouse for decades. They won the Long Island Championship in 1987, 1989, 1990, 1995, 1996 (NYS), 1999, 2011 and 2015. They have been producing All-State, Conference MVPs and Div-I athletes for years. They have had five Diamond Award winners since 2008–Tyler Savin, Josh Barry, Jesse Tuozzo and Adam Heidenfelder (2x). They have a potential draft pick in Rob Andreoli playing at LIU Post right now. It has been a pretty incredible run. They just graduated Bobby Lewis who is at Quinnipiac, and they always seem to get their players to perform in the big moments.
Massapequa
The Chiefs have pretty much been the equivalent of a baseball factory since their inception. Let’s just talk about their 2012 team for a moment. Here’s a list of their players and the colleges they wound up attending:
- Andrew Camarda-Baruch
- Mike Cardino-Old Westbury
- Alex Cosenza-Hofstra
- Nick Fanneron-Northeastern
- Eric Hassell-Adelphi
- Pat Healy-Cortland
- Bobby Honeyman-Stony Brook
- Nick Garland-Central Connecticut
- Tommy Macri-Adelphi
- Ryan McCormick-St. John’s (Colorado Rockies)
- Jonathon Mulford-Adelphi (St. Louis Cardinals)
- James Nakashian-St. Joseph’s
- Billy Schlich-Holy Cross
- Ryan Smith-Baruch
They won the Nassau County title the next two years. In 2016, they lost in the Nassau County finals to East Meadow, but it was a 19-win season for a team that routinely puts up those figures. That team had an All-State pitcher in Pat Clyne, two Stony Brook-commits in Brandon Fanizza and Chris Keenan and LIU Post-commit Luke O’Mahony. They followed that up by winning the Class AA Long Island championship in 2017 thanks to a great pitching staff led by Nick Collins, Dan Gdanski and Dom Kriegel. They have UNC-commit Johnny Castagnozzi and Boston College-commit Travis Honeyman receiving plenty of attention now, LIU Post-commit Andrew Primm behind the plate plus Chris DeSousa on the horizon. You can do much worse than recruiting from Massapequa. They are probably my number one on this list.
Smithtown East/Smithtown West
I will include them together because the schools are so close together and they have both been winning tons of games and producing college players. West last one the Long Island in 1992 while East won in 1990, so either one of them is due for a breakthrough. They have both been knocking on the door for years. East has graduated some great players in the last three years–Patrick Lagravinese, Shawn Kelly, John Marti, Ryan Ingarozza, Dominic Savino and Mike Ruggiero as they have won 53 games over that time. West has won 50 games over the past three seasons while graduating number of quality players like Brandon Lamanna, John Craft, Nick Grande, Nick Trabacchi–to name a few.
Shoreham-Wading River
It’s been an astonishing run of excellence for the Wildcats ever since Sal Mignano took the job over 40 years ago. They’ve had four Carl Yastrzemski Award winners (Keith Osik, Mike O’Reilly, Brian Morrell twice). All three were drafted, but they’ve also been terrific at producing college athletes in general. Last year’s team featured players like Vinny Uzzi, Nick Manesis, Thomas Brady, Ryan Mullahey, among others. SWR has been the standard when it comes to Suffolk County baseball programs.
St. Dominic
Getting Kyle Young drafted is just the latest for the Bay Hawks. Every year, they produce multiple Div-I players. They also had Rob Galligan– a 2012 graduate–get drafted. Before that they had Kyle Hansen in 2009. Next up will most likely be Fordham junior Reiss Knehr, who is as polished of a side-arming pitcher as you will see at the college level. He was hitting 96 at the Hamptons League All-Star Game. They are well-represented on college teams across the island and along the east coast. Their current group features several high-end players such as Carlos Hidalgo, Mikey Florides and Sean Lane.
St. John the Baptist
During John Habyan’s tenure, they were arguably the premier team in the CHSAA. They won consecutive titles and produced players like Kevin Courtney, Brian Hunter and Joe Palumbo–the latter two both have been drafted. Habyan established a winning culture by instituting him experience as a Major League pitcher. They routinely sent seven or eight players from each team to play at the college level. They were highly-regarded for their pitching and defense over the years. Now Casey McKay has taken over and they have continued their success. This year, they have a chance to have a draft pick in Logan O’Hoppe, who is the premier catching prospect on Long Island.
Pat-Med
Since the graduation of Marcus Stroman, every baseball fan has now heard of Pat-Med. But, it’s not fair just to judge the program based on one exceptional player. Not often is a player of that ilk going to come around. Oh wait, they also had another player drafted four years later! People tend to forget about Vogel’s level of dominance in high school because he is not in the big leagues yet but he has a chance to be in the near future. They consistently produce high-end players. From 2015’s playoff team they produced Matt Codispoti, Brett Malm, Rich Ciufo, Tristan Amone, Ronnie Linsalato and Andrew Garcia that are playing in college. Their 2008 rotation of Stroman, Chris Phelan and Mike Smith was one of the best in Long Island history. Now, they have Brad Malm and Josh Rovner playing in college from last year’s team.
Wantagh
They are the two-time reigning Class A Long Island champs. They probably could’ve won some games against college teams the past two years. They have had five All-State players in the past three years. They have had a good run of producing college players. They have a chance to continue their tremendous run this year as they are returning Anthony D’Onofrio (Hofstra), Anthony Fontana (Furman), Pat Willix (Molloy). Fontana has a chance to get drafted–he is the premier power-hitting prep prospect on Long Island. Additionally, 2014 grad Lou Doria has a chance to get drafted from St. Joseph’s.
There have been three Diamond Award winners from their school since 1998–Jimmy Joyce in 2017, Greg Voegler in 2001 and Chris Smith in 1998.
Ward Melville
Steven Matz. Anthony Kay. Ben Brown That is enough of a reason to head down and catch a Ward Melville game if you’re in the business of identifying top players. They have produced dozens of other impact Div-I players in the past decade under Coach Petrucci. They also had A.J. Nunziato win the Yaz Award in 2007. They also have Max Nielsen and Logan Doran right now as high-end players, but they just graduated Joey Rosselli, Mike Sepe, Troy Daverne, Joe Barbieri, Nick Vitale and Joe Flynn in the past three years that went on to play in college. They win over 15 games every season and make a run in the postseason. They are one of the elite programs on the island.
West Islip
They have won two Long Island Championships in the past four years. They graduated a tremendous class in 2016 but that didn’t really hinder them at all as they still made it to the Suffolk County finals against Commack. The class of 2017 saw the likes of Greg Tsouprakos, Kyle O’Neill and Joe Valentino graduate–who are all scholarship players.
Coach Rush likes what he sees from the current freshman and sophomores, which includes a pitcher like Anthony Cinquemani, who will is a 6’5″ prototypical power pitcher that can be scary good in a year. They have Jake Guercio, who is committed to Fordham and is one of the best pure hitters on Long Island.
