Head Coach Keith Sachs guided the Wantagh Warriors to their second New York State Class A championship in his 24-year tenure. They also won the Long Island championship in 2010. He will be returning the reigning Class A Player of the Year in Jimmy Joyce, first-team All-State SS Anthony D’Onofrio, All-State catcher Trevor Fagan and Furman-commit Anthony Fontana. He spoke with Vinny Messana and their championship run and what it will be like to have the targets on their back entering the season.
With the calendar turning to January, all eyes are on 2017 and baseball players are preparing to get back on the diamond. 7. What does West Islip do for an encore? They are coming off their second Long Island championship in three years. They return Jake Guercio (Fordham-commit), Greg Tsouprakos (Pace-commit), Joe Valentino along with a talented crop of freshman and sophomores such as Anthony Cinquemani. Still, it will be difficult for them to replace the production and consistency that Lou Antos, Ray Weber, Nick Valenti and James Kory provided over the past three seasons. There’s no doubt that they will be a playoff team, but it will be too tall of an order to expect another 20-win season. What Coach Shawn Rush has built has been pretty spectacular, but losing all those high-caliber...