(This is the first part of a 5-part series in which we take a deep dive into the best baseball towns on Long Island. First up is Massapequa.)
ERIK PAULSEN JR WALK-OFF GRAND SLAM TO WIN IT FOR MASSAPEQUA!!
ARE YOU KIDDING?! pic.twitter.com/XxVwkXrBMY
— Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) May 31, 2023
by Patrick Duryea
Nestled in between a few neighborhoods on the South Shore of Long Island, you’ll find Massapequa High School and its beloved baseball diamond. Looking out from the bleachers standing behind home plate you’ll see one of two things. One may be the Massapequa water tower looming over the neighborhood and trees, on the other side, you’ll see pennants all over the school buildings. Those pennants represent Massapequa High School’s long history of cross-sport dominance in Nassau County and Long Island. Baseball, though, may stand above the rest. Massapequa baseball is the pinnacle of excellence in baseball on Long Island. Six straight Nassau County Championships from 2017-2023.
How do they do it?
All that winning is no coincidence. In Massapequa baseball success runs up and down the ladder. From Coach Tom Sheedy at the helm, to the little leagues where it all starts. How is this culture built? It is all about the program. Sheedy and his staff will never do so much as keep player statistics, to them it is simply not relevant. As Sheedy said to me “The only stats, W and L. That’s the only stat that we keep.”
It all starts in house at Massapequa. The competition is fierce year after year during tryouts. There is never a depth chart posted and very few players will come back year to year with any type of guaranteed roster spot. The tryouts are uniquely designed to find the winning formula and to weed out the players who did not prepare enough in the offseason. Pitchers will throw two innings twice, once early and once late in the week. The theory is those who aren’t prepared will go flat by their second outing. In between pitching days they’ll test metrics and check out the weight room. It is no easy task to even make the team at Massapequa with over 50 kids trying out every year. As former Massapequa star Johnny Castagnozzi described it “you’re still fighting for a position because you always know there’s always that competition coming from behind you”. The talent pool runs so deep even the best of the best feel the heat on their backs.
By the start of the next week it is time for practice at Massapequa. The roster is set and it is time to get to work. Coach Sheedy and his staff sit in the press box and will allow any player who was cut to come and learn where they went wrong. The staff keeps extensive notes and metrics so they always have answers for players who were cut. For those who did make it, practice starts. Seniors run that first practice, which is a common theme throughout the season. At Massapequa the seniors run the show. Sheedy believes it’s tough for high schoolers to separate being on the team from leading the team. That’s why Massapequa doesn’t run their team through captains. But as far as Sheedy is concerned, any senior can call themselves a captain on their resume. It is their right to take ownership of their final season. There are no assigned jobs or forcing freshmen to clean up the field; that’s the seniors’ job. Without senior leadership nothing Massapequa has accomplished would be possible. Like Castagnozzi highlighted “if you don’t have good leaders, your team’s not going to be good”.
The senior leadership brought year after year at Massapequa is meant to last longer than the leaders themselves. This is all a part of the constant cycle of talent at Massapequa. Talented players come in, work hard, learn how to win and lead, graduate, and come back to help the next generation. A huge part of this, which Sheedy highlighted, is the number of players that go on to play at the next level. With such a large number of committed players in their lineup year after year, there is always room for improvement and nobody is ever satisfied. Castagnozzi, who recently graduated after playing four seasons at the University of North Carolina, was back this fall to help with Massapequa’s fall training. A team so generationally good doesn’t get there without one generation setting the tone for the next.
The high school baseball season is not a cakewalk, even for Massapequa. As previously explained these guys are put through a rigorous training sequence. They even ship off on a Spring trip to get up to 30 live at bats before having even more scrimmages back on the island. They understand the meaning and challenge that comes year after year to represent Nassau in the Long Island championship. As Sheedy explained, once you get deep into the playoffs, every team is good. There’s nobody that is going to roll over for you. He understands his team will be tested. But as far as they can help it, they are not often unseated from their throne.
It is hard to find many programs that will make people say “where are they getting these guys from?” Massapequa is the epitome of that statement on Long Island. Year after year you will see Massapequa in the playoffs and they will be feared. Sheedy and the administration have built a machine of baseball excellence and there are no signs of slowing down anytime soon. It is a source of pride to wear the blue Massapequa ‘M’ on your chest. Not just any player who tries out will earn the right to do it but once you don the uniform, you enter into a long tradition of winning, and the expectation is to add to that legacy.
