Scholastic Roundup: They dig pink at St. Edmund Prep

November 17, 2023 Andy Furman

Scholastic Roundup logo

Share this:

It’s called “Dig Pink” — and back in 2016, St. Edmund Prep joined forces with Side Out Foundation — a nonprofit charity aiding breast cancer victims to raise funds for cancer research.

And, a girls’ volleyball player is tabbed the Dig Pink Ambassador for a month-long fund-raising effort.

Avangeline Greco, a senior captain and outside hitter on the team, was this year’s Dig Pink Ambassador.

Throughout the month of October — National Breast Cancer Awareness Month — the volleyball girls at St. Edmund sold T-shirts, bracelets, pins, hosted two bake sales and raised monies for their $7,000 target goal.

For every $2,000 raised through Dig Pink; Side Out is able to conduct research for patients with metastatic breast cancer – an advanced form of the disease.

Both the varsity and jayvee volleyball units at St. Edmund staged their varsity Dig Pink match against Christ the King High School — and, by the way, both teams wore special Dig Pink T-shirts.

* *

Alan Balkan ended his 25-year run as New Utrecht High School’s football coach with a 36-24 win over James Madison High School last Friday as the Green and White finished the season at 4-4.

The playoffs, albeit a longshot, were missed as the Utes didn’t get the help they needed. Coach Balkan concludes his career with the Utes — 24 years as head coach, and one as jayvee coach.

* *

Fort Hamilton High School pushed its PSAL football record to 5-3 with their 22-0 blanking of Stuyvesant, Friday. and the playoffs are next.

“We should be hosting McKee Tech in the first-round Saturday,” said Tigers coach Daniel Perez.

That Tiger defense was led by Sebastien Zamy with nine tackles, a blocked punt and a forced fumble. Timothy Tan had 10 tackles.

* *

Nga Warren, the first and only football coach at Brooklyn’s Transit Tech High School, has led his team to the PSAL playoffs for a second-consecutive year. “We went 5-3 this season,” the coach said, “our second season playing varsity football.”

Senior Eddie Crishom II was the team’s leading rusher, 670 yards — 14th in New York PSAL. He plays all divisions (1A, 2A, 3A and 3rd in 1A). The leading passer was freshman Devin Smith; 350 yards, 26 completions — fourth in Division 1A. The leading defensive player, Raynell Ferreras, a senior defensive back, had 34 tackles, two interceptions, one defensive score.
Tech was scheduled to face William C. Bryant High School in its playoff test on Saturday.

* *

Xaverian High’s boys’ cross country team placed sixth in the Catholic State Intersectional Champs last weekend, qualifying for this weekend’s State Federation meet. This is the second year in a row the team qualified.

The seven boys — Justin Schwartz, Shane Sullivan, Phil Hamdan, Mike Abayev, Luke Dembinski, Marcello Graffeo and John Curley —will be wearing their state qualifier shirts.

The girls’ cross country team was led by Grace Lanier, who qualified for the State Federation Championship meet for a third consecutive year. Close on her heels were Emily Artega, who ran a personal-best for the course and Marietta Ayala-Dominguez.

Xaverian’s varsity football team defeated Holy Cross, 21-14, last week and advanced to the CHSFL AA 2 Championship. Antonio Herrnandez had a touchdown reception from Jude Van Ooyen. Chris Duffy rushed for two scores, and Spiros Drossos made several spectacular receptions to help set-up the scoring.

On defense, Finbar McGuinness had two interceptions.

The Clippers’ jayvee and varsity volleyballers completed undefeated City Championship seasons last week. The varsity topped Kellenberg in the semi-finals and split with St. Mary’s in pool play to capture back-to-back state titles.

* *

Bishop Loughlin’s jayvee girls’ volleyball team won the Intersectional Championship last week.

Barry Kreisberg was my classmate at Lafayette High as well as a neighbor on 80th Street in Bensonhurst. Today he’s living in Israel, and he just sent a text: “As you are probably aware of what’s going on in Israel, life has been interesting in Jerusalem. Thank G-d I’m OK. living my life and doing my daily activities.”

* *
Brooklyn College sophomore defender Dionisia Payamps has been named a City University of New York Athletic Conference Women’s Soccer All-Star as well as earning the conference’s Sportsmanship Award. She anchored a Brooklyn defense that pulled out three shutouts in the season and only yielded one goal on two other occasions.

Brooklyn’s women’s swim and diving team was picked to finish fifth with the release of the 2023-24 Preseason Coaches Poll. BC sophomore Anastasia Kutuzov was selected as a Swimmer to Watch during the season.

The men’s swimming and diving team was picked to finish third in the Preseason Coaches Poll and Max Bratkovsky was named a Swimmer to Watch for the upcoming season.

Brooklyn College was picked sixth with the release of the CUNYAC men’s basketball Preseason Coaches Poll. Junior guard Malik Dale was selected as a Player to Watch during the season. The women were picked to four-peat as conference champions in the poll. Senior guard Ericka James was selected as Player to Watch.

* *
The Pratt Institute women’s volleyball team saw their 2023 campaign come to a close with a fifth-place finish in the Coast-to-Coast Athletic Conference Women’s Volleyball Championship dropping a straight-set quarterfinal match to University of California, Santa Cruz, last Friday. The Cannoneers finish the season 10-13. Junior Olivia Julich was named to the Coast-to-Coast Athletic Conference All-Conference Second Team.

The Pratt Institute men’s soccer team finished their 2023 campaign on a two-match unbeaten streak as Paxton Lyman’s 73rd-minute equalizer pushed the Cannoneers to a 1-1 draw with York. Pratt finished the season with a 1-12-3 record.

Pratt’s men’s basketball team started their season a perfect 2-0. They defeated the University of Valley Forge, 66-63, last Friday. First-year Cameron Windt led the Cannoneers with 20 points and Patrick O’Gorman had 19 points and 12 rebounds.

* *
Victor Naci (Bordeaux, France) and Matthew Kieblesz of the St. Joseph’s University, Brooklyn, men’s soccer team were both selected as All-Skyline Conference Men’s Soccer First Team honorees. Naci finished the year with 10 goals; good for fourth in the Skyline — four were game-winners, topping the league. Kieblesz provided a pair of highlight-reel goals this season; a bicycle-kick finish against Sarah Lawrence and a towering header against Mount Saint Mary. The Bears concluded the season at 4-6-1 and 5-9-1 overall.

The St. Joseph University’s women’s basketball team picked up a 77-50 win over Pratt Institute in the program’s first game under first-year coach Joe Giacchi last week.

Setter Rachel Meltsin, a James Madison High School grad, logged a double-double in back-to-back matches for St. Joseph’s University, Brooklyn, for the third-time this season, but the Lady Bears dropped a straight-set volleyball decision to Sara Lawrence College last week — their final match at The Hill Center this season.

The Lady Bears had as three-set defeat to Mount Saint Mary College to conclude their 2023 season with a 6-12 overall record and 4-7 in the Skyline Conference.
Meltsin had 17 assists, four digs and as many service aces in the defeat to Mount Saint Mary. Carol Melo (St. Edmund Prep) brought up eight digs.

* *

The LIU women’s volleyball team took care of business on Senior Night last Friday. The Sharks defeated Le Moyne in three straight sets. Captain Allie Merz had herself quite the senior day, leading the Sharks with 27 assists while also adding four digs and two kills.

The LIU wrestling team could not have scripted a better start to the season. The Sharks defeated Buffalo 19-15 and Sacred Heart 28-10, Saturday in dual matches at Wranglemania.

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