by Andy Smith
Longtime Wheatley head coach, Paul Paino, stepped down after 38 seasons in which he led the Wildcats to:
⚾️ 10 Nassau County Championships
⚾️ 3 Long Island Championships
⚾️ 434 career winsDavid Burke is the new head coach pic.twitter.com/bzPqh0nruc
— Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) October 27, 2022
Wheatley High School is coming off another fantastic season with a 19-3-1 record and winning the Nassau County B Championship. However, they fell to Center Moriches in the Long Island Championship. First year Head Coach, David Burke, is prepared for the challenges ahead, and hopes to continue the success of this program. He is taking over for legendary Paul Paino who retired with 434 career wins and 10 Nassau County Championships.
Burke, a former Diamond Award winner (1993) at West Hempstead, pitched at George Washington University from 1993-1997. Burke suffered an elbow injury and needed surgery which impeded his hopes on pitching professionally. Instead, Burke shifted his focus to coaching, and began his career at New Hyde Park in 1999.
Burke expressed his eagerness and excitement to begin his first season as the skipper. “As a first year coach, I’d like to use my knowledge and experience to work with our young pitching staff. Our guys are really eager to get going.”
Burke continued by explaining how his offseason training program has been implemented. “Our winter workouts have roughly 25 guys in attendance each session. Our practice sessions will help develop the entire player, offensively and defensively, and hopefully prepare them for game play.”
Burke noted, “Our practice sessions will cover all facets of the game.”
In addition, Burke discussed his goals and what he plans to focus on in his first season. “One of my primary goals as the new coach is to focus on player development. Data driven analytics will help us create development plans for all our players in order to see significant growth by the time they graduate.”
Wheatley enters this upcoming season losing nine graduating seniors who played a major role in the team’s successes last year. That talented class included All-County Pitcher of the Year Kyle Rosenberg, and All-County award-winning arms Will Karikas and Kevin Barrett. Rosenberg finished with a stellar 8-0 record and a 2.39 ERA. Karikas dominated on the mound with a 5-0 record and also finished with a .406 AVG at the plate. Barrett compiled a minuscule ERA of 1.56 in 53 innings pitched.
In addition to the domination on the mound, Wheatley lost two very strong impact bats. All-Conference Costa Koutsoftas and All-League Jacob Meirowitz were a major force in the offense last season. Koutsoftas had a .413 AVG and Meirowitz, who is playing college baseball at Muhlenberg College, had a .329 AVG with 3 home runs.
Burke also mentioned other alumni who he has kept in contact with. “I have a strong network of alumni who I have still connected with like John Ryan (Hofstra), Billy McLean (Queens), Nick Sampogna (University of West Florida), and Frank Asaro (Mercy College) to name a few.”
While the graduating class was a crucial part of the team’s success last season, the next core of Wildcats is prepared to carry on the winning reputation of the program. Coach Burke highlighted two seniors who will serve as team captains.
Dylan Rosenberg (Wheatley 2023) pic.twitter.com/zqV6Th7BBc
— Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) June 22, 2022
SUNY Oswego commit Dylan Rosenberg (shortstop) possesses “smooth hands, high baseball IQ, tough out at the plate, uses the entire field well.” Rosenberg finished with a strong .388 AVG last season. In addition, Adelphi University-commit Bryan McCleary will serve as the primary backstop.
Juniors Danny Gillette (first base) and Connor Quinn (pitcher) will have major roles in the 2023 season as well. Quinn is the one returning pitcher with experience. Quinn tallied four saves for the Wildcats and threw 20 innings to the tune of a 1.72 ERA.
Danny Gillette comes through with a 2-R single up the middle and Wheatley leads 3-0 in the fourth pic.twitter.com/kwRkjFXhIh
— Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) April 11, 2022
Burke, who served as the middle school coach for many years already has previous experiences with players currently on the roster. However, Burke noted how he did not have the opportunity to truly meet the current junior class due to the COVID-19 Pandemic. “Since I did not get a chance to coach the junior class due to COVID, I’m still trying to figure out who will be a key contributor out of that class.”
Burke commented on the possibility of having underclassmen potentially receiving the call to play for the varsity team. “At the present time, there are no plans for any freshman starting on varsity, but the pipeline is strong in the sophomore/freshman group and I expect them to compete for a possible spot on the varsity roster down the road.”
There are new teams and new people to meet in this season’s conference lineup. Burke expressed his interest in playing against Seaford, who recently joined their conference. “With a lot of new faces to the head coaching positions in our conference, I’m looking forward to meeting them and competing against them.”
Lastly, in looking at the conference’s strength, Burke believes his Wheatley squad matches up with any of their opponents. “I think we will definitely compete with the teams in the conference.”
