Emily Sammis Returns
When Emily Sammis stepped into the Huntington High School gym for the first time in many years, she found it hard to recognize. That’s because since the Blue Devil sports star graduated in June 2004, the facility has received a complete makeover, from new gym bleachers and a paint job to refinished floors.
Sammis stopped by before a recent girls’ basketball game, visiting with coaches Brad Reminick and Kim Gilroy and saying hello to various teachers, coaches and friends who just happened to be there that day.
During her Blue Devil career, Sammis was an exceptional athlete, playing on the soccer, basketball and lacrosse teams and winning a long list of honors. She went on to a fine four-year varsity career with the Univ. of Delaware women’s soccer team. Today she lives in Baltimore, MD where she is employed in a marketing position by Under Armour, the originator of performance apparel.
“I really like my job and the company,” said Sammis, who graduated from Delaware last spring with a major in finance. “Everything is going well and I’m happy.” The former Blue Devil great will always be remembered fondly by Reminick, since she was a on the basketball team during his rookie season as head coach.
“Emily was the first player who picked up the torch when our program was a doormat,” Reminick said. The coach said that Sammis blazed a path before she handed off the torch to later captains such as Jill Beck, Erin Turner, Allison Steele, Kailene Abt, Morgan Hughes and Casey Scully, who each played key roles in the sport’s resurgence at Huntington before they, too, joined the alumni ranks.
“She passed it on to all of those former players,” Reminick said. “Emily was a basketball player who hated to lose. To see her still come back and check up is a great thing. She was, and still is, a class act. Because of all of these girls, our program has turned the corner. Emily was my first captain.”
As a senior at Delaware, Sammis capped off a fine collegiate soccer career by starting all 18 games, scoring six goals from her midfield position and compiling four assists. She scored one game-winner and managed to get off 33 shots in all. She was co-captain of the team and earned 3rd team All-Colonial Athletic Conference honors, was on the CAA Academic Honor Roll and won a CAA Co-Player of the Week award.
Since Sammis had last visited Huntington, the original gym bleachers had been removed and replaced with modern blue and gray ones, the walls were repainted white and the gym floor was stripped of more than 50 years of wax build-up, refinished and striped with freshly painted lines and logos. “It looks so different,” Sammis said about the gym. “I hardly recognized it.”
As a Huntington senior, Sammis earned All-State and All-Eastern Regional soccer honors, helping the Blue Devils win the 2003 Suffolk crown. She also won All-State honors as a high school sophomore and junior. She was a three-year starter on the Huntington basketball team, grabbing All-League recognition in that sport and was a four-starter on the lacrosse team, winning All-County Honorable Mention status.
While visiting in the Huntington gym, Sammis said hello to as many people as she could before dashing off to meet her parents for dinner. “It was really nice to see her,” Gilroy said.
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