Scholastic Roundup: A baseball blast from the past

October 21, 2022 Andy Furman

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Len Schroeder was the basketball coach at FDR High School when Jay Rokeach was the team manager.

“He truly treated me like his son,” Rokeach, a member of FDR’s first graduating class (’68) told Scholastic Roundup.

Fast forward – Jay Rokeach will enter his 55th season as PA announcer for the University of Miami (Fla.) baseball team next season.

“Harvard comes to play baseball at Miami’s Mark Light Stadium,” he says, “And I see the name Schroeder in their lineup. It is not an uncommon name by any means.”

Then, Rokeach continues, a gentleman approaches him and introduces himself as the dad of the Harvard pitcher.

“And before he could say anything else, I said, ‘Your name is Scott Schroeder,’ realizing that he was the dad of the Harvard player and also the son of the FDR coach.”

Rokeach says he immediately remembered his name as being Scott, and he was able to recollect that his mom’s name was Marge.

“He was amazed that I could remember any of this as I was not that close to the sons of Len (Schroeder) back in the day – but it was all just a great memory to me.”

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Senior goal-keeper Kara Wehner had back-to-back shutouts for Xaverian’s girls’ soccer team last week when the blanked Mari Regina, 1-0 and Msg. McClancy, 8-0. Junior Kyra Sienkiewicz tallied the lone goal in the Maria Regina win.

Freshman Julianna Puca, sophomore Julianna Javier – two goals; sophomore Lucia Schrippa, junior Kyra Sienkiewicz, senior Ella Trigiani and two were scored by junior Stacey Baranov in the rout.

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Rob Parker, who was recently was inducted into the Van Buren High School Hall of Fame recently announced he’s establishing two annual journalism scholarships at his college alma mater, Southern Connecticut State University.

Parker, who does a nightly national sports talk show with Chris Broussard on Fox Sports Radio, previously wrote sports for the New York Daily News, Newsday, The Cincinnati Enquirer and was the first African-American sports columnist for the Detroit Free-Press.

“I hope I can inspire the next generation of sportswriters,” he said.

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The month of October is National Breast Cancer Awareness Month, and student-athletes at St. Edmund Prep are raising awareness.

The Prep teamed-up with the Side Out Foundation, a non-profit breast cancer charity organization, to raise funds for breast cancer research. Every season, since 2016, a girls’ varsity volleyball player gets named the Dig Pink Ambassador and coordinates the charitable activities.

“My teammates and I did lots of research on breast cancer,” said senior Anna Morris, the Dig Pink Ambassador. Money raised for the Side Out Foundation during the fundraiser goes toward research specifically for patients with metastatic breast cancer, the most advanced form of the disease and the least-funded area of research. Every $2,000 raised through Dig Pink allows Side Out to provide an unprecedented analysis to metastatic breast cancer patients and their oncologists.

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Curtis Samuel, the Erasmus Hall High School grad –and present receiver for the NFL’s Washington Commanders caught two of five targets for six yards in Washington’s 12-7 win over the Chicago Bears last Thursday night.

Samuel, the 5-11, 195-pounder and a former Ohio State standout, led the Commanders in targets for a sixth consecutive game to start the season, but this was his third in-a-row without a carry and fourth in-a-row without a touchdown and fewer than 65 total yards. He faces a tough Green Bay secondary in Week Seven.

He was a second-round draft pick out of college – the 40th pick in the draft.

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When LIU’s field hockey team defeated Merrimack, 6-3 last Friday it marked the largest scoring output of the season. Kaitlyn Olton had a pair of goals – her first two scores of the season – and Mailen Albertinazzi, Sarah Olton, Meilin Liotard and Maddie Leitner also scored in the victory.

Albertinazzi is a freshman from Argentina.

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The football alumni came back – but left on a sad note – as LIU dropped a 57-7 Homecoming decision to St. Francis University last week at Bethpage Federal Credit Union Stadium. Jeremiah Pope, Peter Lazare and Jon Isopo – members of the 2002 championship team were welcomed back to campus along with fellow alums Bob Jahelka and Vin Salamone – serving as honorary captains.

Tight end Owen Glacoe scored the lone touchdown for the Sharks who travel to Wagner tonight (Friday) for a 7 pm kickoff.

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For the second time in as many matches, Victor Naci bagged a hat-trick as he led St. Joseph’s University’s men’s soccer team to a 5-0 win over SUNY College at Old Westbury, Saturday. With 19 goals, the 5-9 sophomore from Bordeaux, France broke the single-season scoring record that was previously set by Kenneth Garcia in 2018.

Naci is the first Bear to record multiple hat tricks—and his 41 points is a school record as well.

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Pratt Institute’s women’s tennis team remained unbeaten (6-0) with an 8-1 triumph over Brooklyn College, Saturday. Sophie Bischoff and Nastazja Cancellaro took their No. 1 match, 8-3, and Julia Ognibene and Victoria Delgado teamed up for an 8-1 win in the No. 3 position.

Pratt’s women’s tennis team rolled to their seventh-straight victory, a day later – Sunday — when they swept Sarah Lawrence College 9-0. Pratt won all three doubles matches at love with Bischoff and Cancellaro teaming up at No. 1, Ariana Castro and Shannon Bollin at No. 2 and Ognibene and Delgado pairing up at No. 3.

The women’s volleyball team hit a combined .361 with seven different Cannoneers recording a kill as they cruised past Medgar Evers, 3-0 Saturday. Olivia Julich led all attackers with nine kills against just one miscue for a blistering .667 hitting percentage. Rose Moon logged seven kills and Emily Sontag and Alison Fagan chipped in with six kills apiece.

Christina Sancho-Spore and Bruce Westgate were top finishers for Pratt’s cross-country teams in the St. Joseph’s University Invitational at Sunken Meadow State Park last weekend.

Sancho-Spore registered a top 10 finish to lead the women’s team to fourth overall out of 27 teams. She ran a personal best 20:57.67 in the 5K event – to claim ninth in the field of 145 runners. Brianna Martinez-Burns was second across the line for Pratt in 24th at 23:07.61. Sarah Cawley finished in 24:29.59 for 33rd and Andrea Santos and Kathleen Chen rounded out the scoring five in 47th and 58th, respectively.

Westgate also cracked the top 10, with his 8K time of 28:43,57 – good for 10th overall against a field of 17 and Thomas Perrone followed closely in 15th in 29:30.43 to pace the team to a seventh-place finish out of 29 teams. Dominic Paolini was third in 37th with a time of 30:51.66. Daniel Bhopaul and Ian Chen completed the team in 66th and 79th place.

Pratt travels to Maryland for the Coast-to-Coast Conference Championships hosted by Salisbury University, Saturday, October 29th.

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The St. Francis College men’s and women’s cross-country teams competed in the ECAC/IC4A Championships last week in Van Cortlandt Park in The Bronx. The men’s team clocked in 30th place with the women taking 34th.

The women were paced by Viola Alisch, 26:14.3 and Carol Nieves, 26:22.5.

Coming off his first recognition as a Northeast Conference Prime Performer, Lance Hubert led the men’s team with his 28:29.2 finish. Willard Parker was the next closest Terrier to finish, clocking in at 31:55.6.

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] Twitter: @AndyFurmanFSR