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Horace Greeley High School Quakers beat the Poughkeepsie Pioneers 28–20 on October 30th in a highly competitive rematch to become champions of the Independent League with a 7-1 record; last time Quakers were league champs was back in 2010. This year’s team motto was TRUST THE PROCESS and it certainly worked. Congratulations to Coach Kearns, his staff, players and families. — Ron Wohl
On November 2, the Horace Greeley field hockey team clinched its first Section 1 championship since 1984 with a 1-0 win over Mamaroneck.
It was a late goal by senior captain Isabelle Klein that sealed the win at Nyack High School last Fall. But building a championship team–one that lost two straight sectional final games before breaking through–took years, both for the program and the girls who finally ended the drought.
The upwards trek towards the top of Class A began 11 years ago, when Sukhvindar Singh Sandhu–recently named New York State Coach of the Year–joined the coaching staff. Sandhu, who played pro field hockey in India, found a middling program that posed little threat to Section 1 Class A juggernaut Mamaroneck. Sandhu saw that many of the girls were relatively new to the game, and realized he needed to get a stick in their hands at a younger age.
“I talked to a couple of the parents, and we started a youth program,” he recalls. This helped grow the number of players coming out for the team, but it was not enough. “The next step was getting the travel team” established, Sandhu says. “You need the kids playing year-round.”
Sandhu became head coach of the varsity team in 2009 after a year coaching JV.
His first four years at the varsity level produced just one winning record and no playoff wins. In 2013 the Quakers began showing signs of life, making it to the Section 1 quarterfinals. The next year, Greeley reached the semi-finals, followed by three trips to the sectional championship game in four years.
The Quakers fell one game short of a Section 1 title in 2015, 2017 and 2018, losing to Mamaroneck each time. In November, the girls found themselves as the only team standing in the way of a Tigers threepeat.
“Seeing the seniors lose in that final game [the previous two years], I did not want to feel that as a senior,” midfielder Sofia Rutman says. “We just knew that couldn’t be our last game with the underclassmen.”
Klein’s goal, along with a dominant Quaker defense which did not allow a goal throughout the Section 1 playoffs, were enough to finally lift Greeley past the Tigers. Greeley won two more games to make it to the state championship. There, the season ended with a 2-1 loss to Maine-Endwell. “Most of the girls on our team who are juniors now were playing in that youth group with me,” says junior forward Lily Schoonmaker, who started playing the sport in fifth grade and has verbally committed to play for Colgate. “We’ve been going through the New Castle program through modified and now to varsity.”
Rutnam also pointed to the team chemistry as an important factor in their success. “I’ve been playing with these girls for six or seven years now, and it makes a huge difference just to know them and know their playing styles,” she explains. “We got along off the field really well, and that translated to passing and connections on the field. It let us score a lot of goals.”
Schoonmaker, who led the team with 20 goals, and Rutman, who was named the Quakers’ MVP, both cited Sandhu and assistant coach Brittany Paulus as key to the team’s success. “If you have a foot in the wrong place as you’re approaching somebody with the ball, he knows exactly where you should be and how to fix it,” Rutman says of Sandhu. “He knows every aspect of the game.”
Following their 18-1-4 season, the Quakers will be favored to vie for the championship again next season. The team is graduating nine seniors, including Rutman, who was All State, All League midfielder Talia Belowich and forward Klein, and All League Honorable Mention forward Kristen Graham and midfielder Paige Dalrymple. Defender Mia Warshaw, forwards Tess Fuqua and Sophie Dorst, and midfielder Mia Handler will also graduate.
But three All State players will be returning –Schoonmaker along with defender Caroline Flannery and midfielder Natalie Laskowski. All Section defender Stephanie Kasulka will be back, as will Emma Terjesen, Grace Arrese, Hannah Lane and goaltender Siena Jarrin, who were all named All League or All League Honorable Mention.
With a Section 1 title crossed off the checklist, the next goal is to win one more game and take home the state championship. “We are going to come back strong,” says Schoonmaker. “Now that we’ve been there, we have to do it.”
Competing in wrestling meets across the region, the composition of Horace Greeley’s team is like no other.
For the last four years, the Greeley wrestling team has been inclusive where the Quakers have students with special needs practicing and competing with the team. The three students this year aren’t just managers simply helping out, but athletes that put the same work and dedication into their craft just like every other wrestler on the team. Their addition has been both incredibly rare among local wrestling circles and undeniably beneficial.
“I think it changed the culture of our team in a positive way,” head coach Mike DeBellis said. “It seemed like the kids had more compassion for each other and tried to help each other more.” DeBellis has been coaching wrestling in the district for the past 16 years and currently teaches Introduction to Engineering, Robotics and Technology, and Design Integration classes at Greeley. He was this year’s recipient of the Ed Habermann Award from the Horace Greeley Scholarship Fund’s annual gala last month for being an exemplary role model for students in the district.
While more compassion seems to be counterintuitive in a sport where a moment of mercy could spell disaster, the results for Greeley can’t be questioned. The past two seasons, senior Nicholas Ng, junior Ho Jin Lee, and sophomore Brady McCarthy, who all are special needs students, have been part of a team that has finished in the top ten both years in all of New York State.
Captain and senior Aaron Wolk was crowned state champion for his weight class at 172 pounds. He is the third Greeley wrestler to win the state championship. Previous state championship titles by a Greeley wrestler were won in 1978 and 1995. Wolk will continue wrestling next year at Brown University. Captain and senior Matt Schreiber took fifth overall for his weight class and captain and sophomore Isabella Garcia finished second in the New York girls state championship this year.
Lee, who has Down syndrome, joined the team four years ago. McCarthy, who also has Down syndrome and Ng, who is autistic, both joined the team two years ago. The three students are able to participate because assistant coach Anthony Tortora is certified to instruct students with disabilities. (He works as a physical education teacher in the Bronx with special needs students.)
The three boys are at practice daily, going through the same grind as everyone else and occasionally compete at meets in exhibitions matches against grapplers from other schools. All three boys are also certified to wrestle.
Brady’s father, Kevin, said wrestling has given Brady a boost in confidence and allowed him to meet more classmates he wouldn’t normally get to know. When Brady performed in a school play this year, many of his teammates attended the show.
Physically, it’s been great for him, and allowed him to be part of something bigger than himself. While Brady has played other sports, a certain temperament is needed to wrestle.
“He likes competing,” Kevin said of his son. “It made him a more complete person.”
DeBellis has made it clear anyone that wants to join the team is more than welcome. DeBellis has been known to recruit students in the hallway to join the team.
“Wrestling is a unique sport in that when you do it, you’re a wrestler for the rest of your life,” DeBellis said. “No matter what happens, you’re a wrestler and it’s a totally different sport than any other sport out there.”
“Wrestling really is the only sport where it is all-inclusive,” he added.
Tortora said the inclusion of McCarthy, Lee and Ng in the program lights up the day for every other wrestler in the room.
McCarthy has even become known for his pep talks at meets and being the most passionate person cheering for teammates. He’ll sit right next to the coaches while a teammate is on the mat and repeatedly tell him, “You can do it, you can do it.” His father encourages his son to, “be there, be vocal.”
And it certainty doesn’t go unnoticed. His teammates love watching him wrestle because there’s no denying how passionate he is. When Brady gets the opportunity to shine, he puts all his effort into it.
Schreiber said he’s learned to be more patient and pay attention to every minute aspect during practice. Wrestling can be a very detailed oriented sport, he noted, which requires his three disabled teammates to focus intensely. Garcia added while wrestling can be incredibly arduous, anyone with the right mindset and desire, like McCarthy, Lee and Ng, can participate. And Wolk said he’s learned to never give up. While it might take his three disabled teammates more time to grasp a new wrestling move, their attitude is only positive and optimistic.
There are no excuses for another wrestler who’s been given the gift of able body and mind to get frustrated or complain when there are three teammates with disabilities who refuse to settle. “They always have so much energy at every practice and it is great to see,” Wolk said. “It shows the rest of the team, don’t give up.”
