High School Football

BY GREGG SARRA

This was no way to start a Wednesday morning. Fax machines were backed up, phones were busy and there was a bit of an edge surrounding high school football. It was National Signing Day and I vowed to see as many happy faces as possible. Of course, I wasn't going to drive all over the Island again, like I did for the Super Bowl picks. But I'll admit that was fun.

Oh yeah, Floyd's Joe Sidaras and Alex Rivas of East Meadow, you were wrong, Giants Baby. Shout out to East Islip's Rob Calabrese, Larry Cohen, Tim Moller, Floyd's Brock Jackolski and Islip's Malcolm Brown and Edgar Cesar, you all picked the Giants to win. As Borat would say, "Very Nice".

Back to signing day. The East Islip people did it right. They honored Calabrese and Moller with a special signing get together. Two great kids, proud parents and lots of smiles at EI.

Same kudos at Floyd where the administration also thought enough of what the football team has produced in the district and proudly announced the big signings of Jackolski and Sidaras. Very professional and a class act all the way from the top to the bottom. By the way that WILLIAM FLOYD banner with the Colonial in the middle is ridiculously huge.

Congrats to all of Long Island's football players, who will continue to play the sport they love at the next level. Check out Andy Slawson's list of college signings. If we missed you, we apologize, and please contact me and we'll update the list.

For the underclassmen, follow your dreams, get great grades, train hard, listen to your coaches and get ready to hit next fall as our Mark LaMonica would say, because Big Suffolk is making his way into the 516!!!!

BY GREGG SARRA

One of the things Hofstra football coach Dave Cohen said when he signed on at the University was to recruit heavy on Long Island. He's held true on that promise, especially this year, where the Pride landed four of Long Island's top seniors.

Cohen made great strides in Mastic Beach when he got in early on the Colonials dynamic duo of halfback Brock Jackolski and quarterback Joe Sidaras during their junior year in 2007. He so impressed both players that they may have taken themselves off the market too early when they verbally committed to stay home and play for the Pride. Not that it's a bad thing. It's actually a great thing -- if you're a Hofstra fan -- because these two are special players.

He also grabbed Farmingdale's blue-chipper in quarterback Steve Probst, who garnered serious attention after leading the Dalers to the Nassau Conference I championship. Probst is your protoypical quarterback and the battle for starting time with Sidaras in 2009 should be interesting. Both guys are highly-regarded and made this the Year of the Quarterback on Long Island.

Hofstra will also bring in Brentwood's two-way lineman Jordy Paulemon, a wrecking ball of a defensive player. Paulemon, who can also block with the best of them, is another top prospect in the Class of 2008.

Nice job by Cohen and his staff!

BY RODERICK BOONE

In case you were under a rock and didn't know, Wednesday was national signing day. I was over at St. Anthony's for Scott Vallone's ceremony. The super talented defensive lineman is headed to Rutgers and his family members were extremely happy. In fact, he had half a dozen family members there, including cousin George Vallone. An offensive guard for Auburn from 2002-05, he made the trip all the way up from Auburn, Alabama to be there.

"It's great," said George, who was sporting his Capitol One Bowl ring. "It's good to see the family succeed. I'm stepping down from my chair and passing on the reins."

Scott Vallone's teammate James Brady was also on hand and the two celebrated their accomplishments. Brady is bound to play quarterback at Georgetown. All around, it was an exciting day for the people at St. Anthony's.

I, of course, am no Gregg Sarra. But he racked up some serious miles today and was all over the place. To take a peek at his signing day story, you can do that right here.

I also authored a piece for our recruiting package about how Vallone was one of select talented players from the Island to get recruited. It has a few interesting things from some people regarding the notion that Strong Island isn't a major player in the college football recruiting wars. You can check that out here.

There's tons of other good stuff on Newsday.com. Give it a gander.