The future of the Blue Devil boys’ basketball program was on the court last Friday night at halftime of Huntington’s varsity game against Copiague.
Teams from Woodhull Intermediate School and Jack Abrams STEM Magnet School squared off against each other in fierce half court games to the delight of the crowd. Blue Devil coaches manned the sidelines and refereed the contests.
Woodhull’s players included Shamell Sprately, William Donaghy, Kevin Flores, Jordan Jones, Jeremiah Miller, Shates Miller, Devante Mooney, Andrew Guillen, Jesse Perez, Pierce Homer, Dominic Muccia, Jhony Moreira-Natavi, Colby Curran, Giankarlos Bracero, Alex Arvelo, Jonathan Salguero Morales, Charlie Cirlincione, Shelby “Dash” Gillenwater and Zach Chery.
STEM’s team featured Shariff Penalo, Frank Algieri, Braid Martin, Max Carino, Nick Normoyle, Ronan Sosnowski, Austin Krywak, Christopher Cabal, Jack Kamenstein, Christian Luca, Kingsley Evans, Christian Mitchell, Carlos Espinal Garcia and Elijah Carrion.
The players wore white and blue Huntington Basketball tee-shirts during their games. “It was an absolutely great night,” said Jordan Ioviero, the varsity team’s first year head coach. “Everyone had so much fun. These kids are our future. They played with energy, enthusiasm, determination and skill. They were dynamite.”
The teams wasted little time getting down to business and went right into their games, playing hard for the duration. Fans loved every second of it. Parents smiled with pride.
Huntington coaches James McCabe, Jim Byrnes, Andrew White and Patrick Reilly helped coach the young players and referee the games. Local youth coach Tim Carr organized the youngsters upon their arrival to the high school gym.
Once the varsity teams came out of their locker rooms for the second half, the Woodhull and STEM players assembled for a commemorative group photo and then enjoyed pizza and Gatorade in the corner of Louis D. Giani Gymnasium where tables had been set-up for the occasion.
“I want to play for the Huntington Blue Devils when I grow up,” said one of the players as he headed for home once the festivities had wrapped up.
