On the gridiron, William Floyd sets the standard for football excellence in Suffolk County. So it would be unfair to expect one school to have two elite-level programs. On the diamond, the Colonials success comes in waves as talented graduating classes will ebb & flow depending on the year.
2019 was a particularly strong graduating class as they comprised seven of the eight positions on the field and all three rotation spots. LHP AJ Verga and RHP Anthony Currao were both All-League pitchers and were responsible for a bulk of the team’s wins. Last year, they were attempting to fill those innings by shifting All-County SS Tommy Verga to the mound and transitioning closer Anthony Basich to the rotation. With the cancelation of 2020, they lost Verga, Basich, Johnny Robinson and Chris Homan – all set to be key pieces.
Chris Homan rips an RBI single to get William Floyd on the board in the first pic.twitter.com/tebbdq0xal
— Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) April 1, 2019
This year head coach Keith Kobasiuk is looking for someone to step up.
“We have about four or five guys in the mix to pitch,” he said. “It’s going to be tough with four games per week and in the first week we’re going to need five starters,” he added. Kobasiuk noted that many teams across the island will be in similar predicaments relying on pitchers that only have JV or sparse varsity experience to navigate an 18-game season condensed into only one month. Additionally, they’ll have to do it in Conference 1 against the likes of Commack, Longwood, Ward Melville, Pat-Med among others.
Kobasiuk coaches on the varsity football team which has won County Championships three times just in the past five years alone. The only downside to coaching two sports – especially during this unprecedented season – is that he is still learning what he has. And as far as his main competition, there’s just no way to fully prepare.
“My assistant coach asked me, ‘what does Longwood have this year?’ and I said ‘I have no idea – I don’t know if they even know what they have,” he said in regards to preparing for this season. The positive for them is that the district “has been pretty good” letting them prepare for the season. They practiced on their field as recently as Monday this week so they have been able to get some semblance of a preseason workout.
As far as their actual roster, Kobasiuk noted they will be a “young, inexperienced team.” They are returning one player, senior OF Kyle Dobrie (New England College-commit) who had 12 at bats in 2019. He stated that the team will be comprised of “mainly juniors with two or three sophomores as well.”
One familiar last name will be firmly in the mix and that’s Joe LoMonaco, whos brother was a Preseason All-Long Island player in 2019. He will likely be starting in one of the outfield spots.
Austin Tracy is a pitcher that will also “play somewhere in the infield and be a key piece to our puzzle.” Unlike most teams in this era, they have very few pitcher-only (P.Os), so they will be juggling guys between pitching, infield and outfield.
Three more players that Kobasiuk mentioned specifically were OF Colin Ross, OF/C Will Winter and SS Kevin Ohlsen and called them “big parts of what we put together.” All are juniors so they should be benefitting from the playing time they accrue this year.
“This year – and League I is always difficult – I think that there will be some wild card teams nobody is expecting. Some so-so teams may sneak up. Teams may know what they have on the roster, but as far as game experience goes, it’ll be interesting. With no series, it could come down to who wants to beat who,” he said referencing how teams utilize their ace pitcher – a strategy that never really needed to be tinkered with until the postseason. “It will be fun because it is different. We’re playing all nine teams then we play them all again,” he added.
They open up on May 7 against Commack at 8 pm, noting that they will be tested right away. They will also face Longwood, Brentwood, Pat-Med, Central Islip, Sachem East, Ward Melville, Sachem North and Riverhead before restarting that rotation against Commack on May 25.
