High School Football

BY BOB HERZOG

With Floyd’s second offensive unit on the field for the final two minutes of Saturday’s 27-9 victory over Connetquot, a chant rang out from the overflow Homecoming Day crowd. “Forty-and-oh! Forty-and-oh!” thousands of shouted from the home bleachers. It’s something you won’t see or hear any time soon at a Long Island high school football game -- unless the same crowd is chanting “Fifty-and-oh! Fifty-and-oh!” next October.

“What Paul has done is unprecedented,” said Mike Hansen, the Connetquot coach who is an admitted admirer of Floyd coach Paul Longo. “He’s built this thing from the bottom up with a tremendous youth program and a tremendous high school program. They’re a football force.”

The 40 consecutive victories broke the Suffolk-record unbeaten streak of Central Islip (37-0-2) and continued to extend the county’s all-time winning streak, which the Colonials shattered last year with a Long Island-championship victory that was their record-setting 33rd in a row.

One of the reason’s Longo is respected by opposing coaches -- despite the fact that he wallops their teams week after week -- is that besides being an excellent coach, he is humble about his success, respectful of his opponents and sees the big picture. “It’s very exciting to hear the crowd,” Longo said Saturday. “It’s exciting for this community and for all of Long Island football. Every week, somebody takes a whack at us and that’s great. It [the winning streak] will end eventually, but until then, it’s great for the game and great for Long Island.”

He’s right about that. Even if you root against Floyd, the winning streak generates interest from all over the Island. Whenever I cover games in Nassau County, I’m asked, “What do you think of Floyd? When will they lose?”

Some college basketball historians believe that the current popularity of that sport – and the phenomenon that is March Madness – had its roots in the late 1960s and early ‘70s when UCLA was winning seven straight NCAA titles and putting together an 88-game winning streak. Until then, college basketball primarily was a niche sport popular in specific regions, but lacking nationwide appeal. Then UCLA became a dynasty and everyone started paying attention, even if it was just to root for the Bruins to finally lose.

Check out the crowds, home and away, for every Floyd game and you’ll see a similar trend. It’s the Floyd Phenomenon and, for L.I. high school football fans, it truly is phenomenal.