A total of 17 Public School Athletic League baseball student-athletes competed in The Exceptional Senior Game, staged at Staten Island University Hospital Community Hospital on Sunday.
The Brooklyn squad was molded with athletes from Staten Island and Manhattan. The Bronx and Queens were the other entrants.
Lafayette High’s John Nagiub was a coach on the Brooklyn, Manhattan, Staten Island squad.
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The Brooklyn members were:
Pitchers:
Jake Rapoport, Brooklyn Technical High School
Justin Angel Rivera, A-Tech
Micah Woolever, Brooklyn Prospect
Catcher:
Reid Weinstein, Brooklyn Prospect Charter School
Infielders:
Michael Venturelli, New Utrecht High School
Elijah Clemente, Bushwick Campus
Silas Hubbell, Brooklyn Technical High School
Charles Wilhelmi, Boerum Hill
Outfielders:
Orion Ruck, Brooklyn Technical High School
Kostas Stoupakis, New Utrecht
Michael Giacoppo, Grady High School
Adrian Mendoza, Grand Street Campus
Gavin Spector, Brooklyn Prospect
Kailen Scott, Grand Street Campus
Jovanny Frias Arias, A-Tech
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For Brooklyn’s Long Island University, it was a combination of the good — and, well, not so good. But first, the good: The Sharks claimed their second consecutive Brenda Weare Commissioner’s Cup, and they also repeated as champions of the Northeast Conference Men’s Commissioner’s Cup.
The NEC’s Commissioner’s Cup program rewards the all-around performance of an athletic department in NEC-sponsored sports. The Sharks captured their fifth Brenda Weare Commissioner’s Cup overall, adding to a recent run of success that now includes four Cup titles in six years.
LIU outlasted both Fairleigh Dickinson University and Wagner College in the Cup battle. LIU collected 197 points, topping the Knights (174) and Seahawks (170).
The point formula awards five bonus points to the NEC regular season champions in sports with round-robin formats and eight bonus points to NEC Tournament champions in all sports.
The scoring also has a bottom-up model, in which the last-place team in each sport earns one point, the second-to-last earns two points, and so on.
LIU claimed NEC Tournament championships in baseball, men’s basketball and women’s volleyball, adding regular season titles in those three sports as well as softball.
Highlighting the program’s depth, LIU earned top-three NEC finishes in baseball, men’s and women’s basketball, men’s cross-country, men’s golf, men’s and women’s lacrosse, men’s soccer, softball and women’s volleyball.
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LIU captured the inaugural Commissioner’s Cup in 1986-87, then added consecutive titles in 2020-21 and 2021-22 prior to their current back-to-back run. The Sharks have finished in the top five of the Cup standings in each of the last 11 seasons, cracking the top three, six times-in-a-row.
LIU’s strong all-around year included the program’s seventh NEC men’s basketball and fourth baseball title, along with tournament runner-up finishes in men’s golf and men’s lacrosse. The Sharks have now logged top-three finishes in the Men’s Cup standings in each of the last six seasons.
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Weare, who passed away in June, 2009, made a lasting impact in her three years as Commissioner of the NEC. In that time, she introduced a number of new programs aimed at upgrading the caliber of the league’s championship sports and enhancing the opportunities and experiences for the more than 4,000 student-athletes that compete in the conference.
In addition to securing Bryant as an NEC full-time member, Weare was instrumental in the NEC gaining automatic access to the NCAA Division I Football Championship beginning in 2010. The Commissioner’s Cup was renamed in her honor in May of 2009.
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Now for the not-so-good news: LIU is serving a three-year NCAA probation following an investigation that found widespread certification and eligibility failures across 35 of its athletic programs, including men’s basketball. The violations occurred between the 2020-21 and 2023-24 academic years.
The men’s basketball program – and other affected sports – must vacate team and individual records from games in which ineligible athletes competed between 2020 and 2024.
LIU is required to pay a $30,000 fine, plus 3% of the budgets for its four highest-budgeted sports programs.
Affected programs face a two-week recruiting ban during their first-year of probation. The current and future basketball rosters are unaffected; there are no postseason tournament bans or television bans placed on the Sharks.
The school must participate in external reviews and implement volunteer NCAA Academic Performance Program reviews.
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The NCAA investigation uncovered that over 1,000 student-athletes competed or practiced without being properly certified, without completing necessary NCAA paperwork, or while otherwise ineligible. The massive administrative failure stemmed from the 2019-20 merger of LIU’s Brooklyn and Long Island (C.W. Post) athletic departments. The consolidation resulted in a severely understaffed compliance department, leading to significant administrative breakdowns and unverified amateurism certifications.
In total, initial eligibility certifications for 240 student-athletes were not completed before they practiced, according to the negotiated resolution released by the NCAA. Of those 240, 176 competed impermissibly and/or received actual and necessary expenses while ineligible or not certified. An additional 658 student-athletes competed and 111 practiced without having required forms completed.
The penalties will not have any impact on the records or titles of the 2024-25 or 2025-26 seasons since there were no eligibility compliance issues at that point.
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High School Basketball Weekly named the New York City All-Decade Team of the 1950s:
Connie Hawkins, Boys High
Bob Cousy, Andrew Jackson
Dick McGuire, LaSalle Academy
Dolph Schayes, DeWitt Clinton
Tony Jackson, Thomas Jefferson
Norlin Tarrant, Thomas Jefferson
Ed Warner, DeWitt Clinton
Irwin Dambrot, Seward Park
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Vincent Proscia, founder and owner of Pros Performance Systems, has been hired as the Strength and Conditioning Coach at Brooklyn College. Proscia has built a reputation for helping athletes and adults maximize their performance through sound programming, proper technique, and progressive training methods.
Proscia played football at Xaverian High School and continued his career at Division III William Paterson University, where he earned a BA Degree in Exercise Science. After graduating, he gained valuable experience through internships with the strength and conditioning programs at Fordham and Iona University, as well with the New York Giants organization.
He spent a decade coaching varsity football with the Clippers of Xaverian High School. In 2021, Proscia founded Pros Performance Systems, where he continues to train athletes and adults with a focus on athletic performance and long-term development.
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] X: @AndyFurmanFSR