MANHATTAN BEACH — Success usually reaps rewards – and there’s no better success story than last season’s women’s basketball team at Kingsborough Community College.
The Wave finished with a 26-4 record – 15-2 in the Region – and 11-1 in conference play. They went 10-2 at home and the Brendon Bain-coached squad was a perfect 13-0 away from their Manhattan Beach home.
The women dropped an 80-79 heartbreaker to Hostos CC in the City University of New York championships; and in the National Junior College Athletic Association DIII Championships, fell to Joliet JC 67-58, but came back to defeat Montgomery County Community College, 85-80 in the consolation game.
The success – several players moving on in their academic and basketball careers: Arta Gljeloshi (James Madison) and Chamiya Foy (Village Academy), headed to York College; Kayla Wilson (Frederick Douglass Academy) and Kiana Rojas (High School for Construction Trades), SUNY Poly; Cierra Grant (Sunset Park), SUNY Purchase; MacKenzie Allison (Ragsdale High School), University of Buffalo; Endya Greene, Farmingdale; and Tionna Davis, St. John’s University.
Greene is a graduate of Brooklyn’s Law and Tech High School. She averaged 26.8 points-per-game last season along with 8.5 rebounds. Williams, a Victory Collegiate alum hit for 21.4 points-per-game for the Wave last season.
A Brooklyn School for Human Rights grad, Davis averaged 12.2 points-per-game and is headed to St., John’s.
As a team, The Wave averaged 89.1 points-per-game last season.
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Forty-nine seasons and 7,000 games – those are the numbers – so far – for Brooklyn-born Howard Kellman, who has called Indianapolis Indians Baseball (AAA) on radio.
The grad of Sheepshead Bay High School broadcast his 7,000th game Friday, July 11th when the Indians hosted the Gwinnett Stripers at Victory Field, Indianapolis.
“The first Indianapolis Indians game I broadcast was April 17, 1974, when the Indians played the Evansville Triplets, in Evansville, Indiana. Three days later, Saturday, April 20th, I broadcast my first Indians’ game in Indianapolis,” he said via e-mail.
“That game was at Bush Stadium and the Indians played the Omaha Royals who had a young third baseman named George Brett.”
Kellman got his start behind a microphone as a student at Brooklyn College. “I did their basketball games on the student station, WBCR,” he wrote. In his junior year, Kellman was calling play-by-play for St. John’s University basketball on WRVR (106.7 FM).
He has also done fill-in play-by-play for both the Yankees and Mets.
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Hubie Brown and the late Frank Layden both had several things in common – both played basketball collegiately at Niagara University – and both later coached in the NBA.
Layden, who recently passed, was a grad of Fort Hamilton High School where he was an All-City basketball performer. “Performer was the right word,” Brown said by phone the other day. “Frank was always on.”
Brown called Layden a great dinner speaker – ever. “Frank, along with former Fordham Athletic Director Peter A. Carlesimo and Dodger manager, Tommy Lasorda were the best,” Brown said.
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The New Utrecht High School football Hall of Fame induction is adding another — Billy Wade, 1961-63, a fullback and linebacker who was a bull of a runner at six-foot, 205 pounds.
“Wade mastered the art of combining high-stepping and hard running,” writes Tom Ferrante, a Utrecht grad and member of the Hall of Fame committee. “He averaged 6.3 yards per-carry his senior year and set the all-time New Utrecht scoring record in 1963 – breaking Fred Fuchs’ record set in 1960.”
Wade fell just four points short of the 1963 national scoring title to Calvin Hill – the same Hill who later played for the Dallas Cowboys. In his three-year varsity career, Wade rushed for 1,810 yards and scored 23 touchdowns. “As a senior, Billy spent part of his spare time teaching Sunday school,” Ferrante said.
The New Utrecht High School Hall of Fame ceremonies are set for Saturday, September 20th at 10 a.m. in the school auditorium, following a breakfast in the walk-in cafeteria at 9 a.m. The public is welcome.
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The City University of New York Athletic Conference handed out 445 citations for academic excellence for its Scholar-Athlete Honor Roll for the 2025 Spring semester.
Fifteen student-athletes from Medgar Evers College were among the honorees, including women’s track and field’s Maritza Argueta, Aaliyah Bartholomew, Thenica Thompson and Kinnik Timothy, men’s track and field’s Reco Griffith, Kayshaun Higgs, and Rupert Luard-Charles, men’s basketball’s Zachary Bussey, Boiubacar Mbaye, Trevonne Tcha, and Ahmed Toure, women’s basketball’s Anamaria Dzagnidze, Aaliyah Lyons and Sheily Quezada and men’s volleyball’s Kimahil Reid.
The CUNYAC Scholar-Athlete Honor Roll is comprised of student-athletes across all 13 member institutions who participated in a varsity-level sport who own a cumulative grade-point-average of 3.2 or-better on a 4.0 scale.
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Bri Eid of the Long Island University women’s hockey team has signed a contract to play professionally for HC Davos of the Swiss Women’s Hockey League. Eid played four years for the Sharks and became the fourth player to sign a professional contract in the program’s six-year history.
In those four years, Eid made 135 total appearances, scoring 12 goals and compiling 345 assists. As a junior in 2023-24, Eid was named New England Women’s Hockey Alliance Defender of the Year and a first-team all-conference selection, recording a +13 rating. She followed her breakout season with a second-team all-conference nod a +15 total as a senior in 2024-25.
A native of Belle River, Ontario, Canada, she helped lead LIU to conference and regular season and tournament titles in 2023, clinching the program’s first-ever berth in the NCAA tournament. Eid capped her career with a NEWHA regular season crown in 2025.
In each of her four years with the Sharks, Eid earned a spot on the NEWHA All-Academic Team. She completed her bachelor’s degree in sport management with a 3.55 cumulative GPA.
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Nine members of Long Island University’s women’s water polo team were honored with All-Academic Awards from the Association of Collegiate Water Polo Coaches –including four Sharks receiving Outstanding honors.
Awards are divided into three categories, all based on the student-athlete’s GPA. Outstanding marks are between a 4.0 and a 3.71, Superior honors are between 3.7 and 3.41 and Excellent awards are between 3.4 and 3.2.
Graduate student Elena Camarena, freshman Victoria Feliciano, graduate student Martina Giannoni and senior Emma Sardo all received Outstanding honors.
Freshman Olivia Booth, senior Sydney deVroedt, freshman Maya Mouderres, freshman Greta Tadday, and freshman Maci Rippo all received Superior honors.
LIU finished the 2025 season with an 18-12 overall record, qualifying for the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference after finishing second in the Red Division standings. The Sharks had three all-conference selections in deVroedt, who was also named the MAAC co-Offensive Player of the Year, Camarena and Giannoni.
Andy Furman is a Fox Sports Radio national talk show host. Previously, he was a scholastic sports columnist for the Brooklyn Eagle. He may be reached at: [email protected] X: @AndyFurmanFSR
