It was the start of a new era in Northport last season. Legendary Head Coach John DeMartini, who had been at the helm for 32 seasons, stepped down as Head Coach due to health complications.
His incumbent, Sean Lynch, who had been with the program for 20 seasons since graduating from the University of South Florida.
“For him, it’s about the love of the game,” said Lynch in regards to DeMartini. “He has so much love for his players and this community. He has taught me so much,” he added.
Lynch has known DeMartini for over 20 years, dating back to high school when he played in the Empire State Games and he coached alongside Bill Batewell.
“My hope is that he continues to coach as long as he desires,” he added.
Lynch noted he and Jim DeRosa will be “Associate Head Coaches” this season, as they share the same vision with this team.
They will be looking to build on 2018, in which they finished with eight victories–two shy of qualifying for a postseason berth which would’ve made five postseason teams from League II alone.
“League II was a beast last year,” he said. “There were no easy games. With the exception of Central Islip, every team was loaded. It was the best League in Suffolk County, in my opinion,” he added.
The good news is they’re moving to League III, which in theory would make it easier.
The bad news is that the revamped League III is extremely dangerous; featuring one of the favorites to capture the Class AA championship in Smithtown East, their neighborhood brethren in Smithtown West, the perennial-playoff contending Hills East, the pitching-loaded Newfield and a Centereach team that is the best it’s been since 2010.
Additionally, while the Tigers featured three All-League players last season, they all were seniors.Those players were Jack Corrigan, Chris Carouvanos and Owen McNally.
This presents another challenge, as they are an extremely young team. Lynch added that Trent Mayer and Ben Stola are two seniors that will be counted on to produce. Mayer is the starting third baseman and Stola is an outfielder whose brother, Frank, was a key member of the 2016 team that made a Cinderella run to the Class AA Finals against West Islip.
Speaking of which, that could wind up playing a factor this season in a roundabout way.
That team featured three players, Brian Herrmann, Nicholas Palmerini and Jacob McCarthy, that were All-County players that come back to visit the team during winter workouts. Lynch is hoping that their experience and ability to relate to the players could have a positive impact on the younger players.
Brian Herrmann posing with the Axcess Baseball Rookie of the Year Award at Villa Lombardi’s on January 6, 2018
“We will be counting on a lot of younger guys this season,” he said. “We are bringing back no experience from the past. It will be an open competition to see who will get us back to the playoffs,” he added.
He also spoke about the premium he put on the winter workouts this offseason.
“We’ve been working hard, trying to get everyone from 9th to 12th grade to buy into this being a 12-month thing. We’re continuing to work as much as possible. We’ve been getting that going since the fall,” he added.
They will open up their season on April 1 in a non-league match against Brentwood, and open up their league schedule against Centereach on the 8th.
