Scholastic Roundup: The stars came out at St. Edmund’s Prep

May 13, 2023 Andy Furman

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Anthony Oglesby is considered the top male-athlete in St. Edmund Prep school history – and he is the first CHSAA All-League basketball performer in the school’s history.

A member of both the class of 1998, and the St. Edmund Prep Board of Trustees, he played basketball at the University of New Hampshire and latter at Plymouth State University.

Oglesby is one of six new members entering the fifth-ever group of St. Edmund Prep Hall of Famers.

Jalilissa Marcus, Class of 2013 was a New York State finalist in both indoor and outdoor track as a junior and a senior. The long-jump was her top event, Marcus qualified for all major invitationals meet during her high school career.

A 10-time finalist in the Colgate Women’s Games, she still holds the GCHSAA indoor long-jump record. She competed at the Nike Indoor Nationals and was a long-jump All-American, while attending Bethune-Cookman University.

Currently, Marcus is head track coach at Port Orange Atlantic High School, Florida, and was recently named Gatorade Coach of the Year.

Diane Buono-Haslacher, a 2002 graduate was a four-year member of the Eagles’ varsity basketball team – serving as team captain — and led them to the 2002 GCHSAA Brooklyn-Queens Division I championship.

A career 1,000-plus-point-scorer, she weas named St. Edmund’s Female Athlete of the Year as a senior.

She received a full scholarship to St. Thomas Aquinas College – the very first for a St. Edmund Prep student-athlete in some 12 years.

Joseph Burke was a baseball star for St. Edmund Prep. The 2001 graduate still holds two offensive records for the school – hitting four home-runs in a single-game and garnering six hits in a game.

He was an All-American performer at Nassau Community College and earned a scholarship to St. John’s University, where he won back-to-back All-Big East Conference honors. St. John’s won the Big East tournament in 2005 and appeared in the NCAA Tournament. The New York Yankees selected Burke in the 18th round of the Major League Baseball draft that year.

Burke played seven professional seasons and finished with a batting average of .280. He won two titles with the Somerset Patriots of the Atlantic League and was named to the league’s All-Decade Team.

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The 2003 boys’ varsity basketball team, with a 20-8 record winning the CHSAA ‘A’ Division regular season and the intersectional ‘A’ city title over Cardinal Hayes High School, is now a member of the St. Edmund Prep Hall of Fame.

Matt Irwin and Chris Bernard were backcourt running mates, with Barry Brown, Shane Gauvard and Joe Romano the other starters. Matthew DeCostanzo and Andy Louison rounded out the Brian Mullen-coached squad. Irwin and Bernard were tabbed All-CHSAA.

St. Edmund Prep athletic director Dan Wiatre also doubles as the Eagles’ basketball coach and has time to teach math at the school. With 218 wins, the new Hall of Famer is one of the longest tenured and winningest coaches in the CHSAA.

Wiatre, a 27-year St. Edmund staffer, attended Nazareth High School where he was a three-sport varsity athlete in football, basketball and baseball., He played collegiate basketball at Concordia College and Adelphi University.

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She’s still the best thief in the nation.

For the second-straight year, Brooklyn College senior guard Gianna Gotti has been crowned the NCAA Division III Women’s Basketball steals-per-game champion. Finishing the ‘22-’23 campaign with 5.59 steals-per-contest, Gotti upped her title number from 4.54 last year.

Brooklyn finished ninth nationally as a team in the statistical category, averaging 15.3 steals-per-game as a team.

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Junior Patrick O’Gorman, men’s basketball and first-year Katherine Thomsen, women’s soccer were named the Pratt Institute Student-Athletes of the Year.

O’Gorman earned All-Conference honors for the second-straight season as a second-team selection leading the Coast-to-Coast Conference in assists (4.52) and finishing fourth in scoring (16.6). Thomsen is the lone Cannoneer to be honored to the All-C2C First Team and finished second in the nation in scoring with 28 goals.

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Senior shortstop Nicole Trani became the 19th player in St. Joseph’s University softball history to accumulate 100 career hits, doing so in the second-game of their doubleheader against Sarah Lawrence last Saturday.

The Bears picked-up 14-0 and 16-0 wins over the Gryphons.

Trani along with four others – including Kristen Oddo (James Madison High School) were honored prior to the start of the doubleheader in Senior Day ceremonies.

In his final game with the St. Joseph’s University baseball team, St. Edmund Prep grad Louis Lombardi delivered an impressive performance against Mount Saint Mary on the mound, pitching four scoreless innings and allowing just two hits.

James Madison High School grad Justin Conaty struck out five in 3.2 relief innings for the Bears.

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LIU baseball welcomed back alumni from multiple generations, Saturday, while the Sharks hosted Coppin State.

The alumni attendees included Edward Fitzgerald, who flew in from Orlando. He started in right field for LIU Post during the first-ever game at the stadium’s current site in 1967.

The returnees also included Jackson Svete, who tossed the ceremonial first-pitch to former teammate and current Shark James Steindl . Svete was the starter and winning pitcher in the NEC Championship game, 2018.

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Ximena Cano of the St. Francis Brooklyn women’s tennis team, was named to the Northeast Conference All-Rookie team.

Cano, primarily slotted in the No. 3 and No. 2 singles slot during the dual match season made the most of her first collegiate campaign. The Monterrey, Mexico native reeled in five individual victories and six doubles wins moving up to No. 2 singles by season’s end.

Sydney DeVroedt, a member of the Terriers’ women’s water polo team was named First-Team All-MAAC.

DeVroedt finished third in the conference with 99 total goals, including a career-high eight goals in a win over Villanova, where she scored one less goal than the entire Wildcat team.

The Hollywood, Florida native added 35 assists.

In St. Francis Brooklyn’s final season, the team finished with a program-best 14 wins, including multiple wins over programs for the first-=time.

The Terriers concluded the season with a 14-9 overall record with five conference victories.

Four members of the Terriers’ men’s and women’s track and field team have been recognized by the Northeast Conference following the indoor season.

Malachi Aiken of the men’s team and Tolulope Atolagbe, Olivia Miller and Angel Okafor of the women’s team, were all honored.

Aiken earned his way to the All-NEC Second Team in the long jump. His best leap of 7.23 meters was second-best in the conference.

Atolagbe is also an All-NEC Second Team member in the long jump. Her distance of 5.44 meters edged Sacred Heart’s Kaylee Stenderowicz (5.38 meters). The junior also took fifth in the Triple Jump at the conference championships.

Two members of the women’s team, Olivia Miller and Angel Okafor are members of the All-Rookie Team. Miller, who won back-to-back NEC Rookie of the Week awards in early January, had the top distance of all rookies in the Triple jump (11.51 meters). Okafor’s time of 2:20.20 in the 800-meter was also tops amongst rookies.

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