{"id":124550,"date":"2025-02-04T13:04:56","date_gmt":"2025-02-04T18:04:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/riverheadnewsreview.timesreview.com\/?p=124550"},"modified":"2025-02-04T13:09:56","modified_gmt":"2025-02-04T18:09:56","slug":"blue-waves-sports-revival-picking-up-steam","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/riverheadnewsreview.timesreview.com\/2025\/02\/124550\/blue-waves-sports-revival-picking-up-steam\/","title":{"rendered":"Blue Waves sports revival picking up steam"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

It takes a village to turn a high school sports program around. It takes parents, community members, coaches, administrators \u2014 all working together. It takes kids buying in. It takes commitment, sacrifice and belief. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Riverhead High School athletic director Brian Sacks is doing whatever it takes to right the ship and return the Blue Waves to a level of competitiveness they\u2019ve been striving to achieve since the school board decided to cut sports after two failed budget votes<\/a> amid the COVID-19 pandemic. With uncertainty in the air and no sports to play, many of the school\u2019s best, most experienced athletes transferred out of the district and Sacks has been picking up the pieces ever since.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many of the varsity teams wound up fielding underclassmen \u2014 and some programs barely had enough participation <\/a>to field a team at all. It was the lowest of the low for Riverhead sports, but things have started to look up lately and it\u2019s because the right people have stepped up to the plate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNo matter what anyone wants to say, when it comes down to it, winning is important,\u201d Sacks said. \u201cI think because of the losing we were doing, the past couple years maybe deterred kids from playing sports, I\u2019m not totally sure. But our participation numbers were so bad and they\u2019re finally picking back up again all across the board.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The boys lacrosse team had their best-ever season last year and won a playoff game<\/a>. The softball team made school history, going a perfect 18-0<\/a> in league play before losing in the Suffolk County semifinals. The boys basketball team just made the playoffs<\/a> for the first time since 2019. It\u2019s a testament of those who stuck around and believed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A rebuild always starts from the ground up. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen you build a high school program it is truly predicated on [area] youth programs and how their numbers are and how their coaching is and how they\u2019re influencing students at those levels,\u201d Sacks said. \u201cIt starts there before they even think about participating in a school sport.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Police Athletic League, which offers football, lacrosse, cheerleading and soccer, introduces kids to sports as young as age 5. Football found success at the PAL level this season with both the 10-and-under and 11-and-under teams winning championships thanks to strong leadership<\/a>. Riverhead Little League is a pillar in the community and churns out district champions every year. There are also travel baseball programs like the Riverhead Waves that put local kids in elite competition. Boys varsity basketball head coach Patrick Fabian brought youth basketball back to Riverhead by getting membership in the Hampton\u2019s Youth Athletic League and currently coaches third- through sixth-grade girls and boys in his off-time. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAnyone that wants to get involved in our youth programs I have been all ears,\u201d Sacks said. \u201cI\u2019ve offered our facilities, whatever people need, I will do my best to help with what I have to offer.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A big change in the middle school ranks is to use coaches with varsity-level experience to better prepare players for the next level. Leif Shay along with Scott Hackal, former high school coaches who led Riverhead to multiple Suffolk County championships, coach the middle school football team now. John Rossetti, who coached Riverhead\u2019s boys basketball team to a league title when he was in charge, has returned to coach the middle school cagers. Cherese Foster, who was most recently the varsity girls basketball coach, has also chosen to move down and coach middle school.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI can\u2019t have girls coming up to varsity not knowing how to make a layup,\u201d Foster said a few months ago. \u201cWe have to do everything we can to get to these athletes as early as possible. We shouldn\u2019t still be teaching the basics at the varsity level.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To spread awareness and try to increase interest and participation, Erica Murphy and Quinn Alexander recently formed a new booster program called the Riverhead Athletic Club<\/a> \u2014 a 501-C not-for-profit organization.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPersonally I\u2019ve always been an avid sports fan,\u201d Alexander said in a phone interview. \u201cI grew up around athletics. I\u2019ve been a teacher and a coach in Three Village. I\u2019ve been a coach at Ward Melville. I came up through Shoreham athletics. All those places had a booster club and we felt like that\u2019s something Riverhead has lacked. I have three little kids in the district and everyone that has joined the organization bleeds blue.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When Murphy and Alexander approached Sacks with the idea, he welcomed it with open arms. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOur biggest problem has been attracting kids to try sports at an early age,\u201d Sacks said. \u201cI think the booster club can help get the word out to the community. Show them there\u2019s opportunity here and give the parents a place to go for information.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alexander has short-term and long-term goals with the club. The first step is to simply get the word out and start fundraising. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI know there are clubs that help out certain sports but we want to be there for every sport across the board,\u201d Alexander said. \u201cI want to do youth sports camps eventually. I want to be able to hand out scholarships to our best athletes. I want to have a hall of fame. Everyone here is committed to bringing Riverhead sports back. We all want to help.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It takes a village to turn a high school sports program around. It takes parents, community members, coaches, administrators \u2014 all working together. It takes kids buying in. It takes commitment, sacrifice and belief.  Riverhead High School athletic director Brian Sacks is doing whatever it takes to right the ship and return the Blue Waves…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":331,"featured_media":124554,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1743,4,37],"tags":[1517,10365,124,2332,2480],"coauthors":[16616],"class_list":["post-124550","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured-story","category-riverhead-school-district","category-sports","tag-blue-waves","tag-brian-sacks","tag-high-school-sports","tag-riverhead-blue-waves","tag-sports-3"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nBlue Waves sports revival picking up steam - Riverhead News Review<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Athletic director Brian Sacks is trying to revive the Blue Waves after two failed budget votes during the pandemic gutted the sports program.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/riverheadnewsreview.timesreview.com\/2025\/02\/124550\/blue-waves-sports-revival-picking-up-steam\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Blue Waves sports revival picking up steam - 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