STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — Staten Island Sports Hall of Fame president Anthony Santo announced that the selection committee recently voted to induct seven new members into the Hall.
Players and coaches from baseball, basketball and football dominated the class of 2025.
“After a well-researched process, and three voting rounds, the selection committee has again done a fine job in showcasing the extraordinary wealth of athletic talent in our beloved borough,” Santo said.
The class includes Nick Doscher, a standout in both baseball and football at Moore Catholic and Wagner College, as well as a professional career in the Kansas City Royals’ organization.
Also among the new honorees is K.C. Comerford, who became a basketball legend at Notre Dame Academy before a stellar career at Georgetown University and the Swedish National team.
Next up is Jordon Oliver, a football standout at Villanova University, followed by an outstanding coaching career at Villanova, Loyola and Yale.
Evan Pickman follows. He coached the College of Staten Island (previously Staten Island Community College) to its greatest heights, including a National No. 1 selection by the CBS Division III poll.
Also in the Class of 2025 is Zack Granite, who was a baseball star at both Tottenville HS and Seton Hall University. Granite was drafted by the Minnesota Twins and after a stellar minor league career, he played in the majors before his career was cut short by injuries.
Kevin Tucker starred at Curtis HS and was the winner of the 1974 Jaques Award. He went on to set all-time scoring records at Staten Island Community College before finishing his extraordinary career at Stetson University
The final member of the class of 2025 is Jeff Henry, a member of the Staten Island Advance All-Century HS football team. He was a Port Richmond HS standout before starring at the University of Louisville and in the Canadian Football League.
Staten Island Sports Hall of Fame induction ceremony committee chairman, Robert Scamardella, noted that the ceremony for the class of 2025, will take place at the CYO-MIV Center in Pleasant Plains on March 28, 2026. Doors will open at 11 a.m. and the ceremony will start at noon.
For more on the Class of 2025, please scroll down:
K.C. COMERFORD
When K.C. Comerford (10) ended her four-year varsity career at Notre Dame Academy, she scored a then-record 1,729 points.(Advance/SILive.com)
Girls’ HS basketball was undergoing a revolution in the middle of last century when Sheila Tighe showed up with her broad-shouldered game, honed on the playgrounds of New Brighton in games against the boys; so maybe it was inevitable that the next rising star of the “modern era” of the girls’ game would be somebody like K.C. Comerford, Tighe’s polar opposite; a quicksilver, fearless guard and relentless scorer.
Their rivalry — and the rivalry between St. Peter’s and Notre Dame Academy — made the girls’ games appointment viewing in the old neighborhood, and inspired the generation of young girls who came after them.
Comerford scored a then Island-record 1,729 points, 500 more than the nearest boy or girl at the time, and led NDA to four Island CHSAA titles during her high school career.
She went on to score 1,208 points in three seasons at Georgetown, before joining the Swedish National team and playing pro ball in Europe and Asia.
NICK DOSCHER
Nick Doscher was best known for his catching ability during his high school baseball career at Moore Catholic, but he pitched five innings of no-hit ball en route to a 1-0 victory in the CHSAA city championship during his senior year in 2005.(Advance/SILive.com)
The back of Nick Doscher’s baseball card would read like the script from a Hallmark movie, including the part where he jogs in from the bullpen in the middle of a CHSAA city championship game, peels off the shin guards and chest protector he’s been wearing all day and throws five innings of no-hit relief to keep Moore Catholic in the game. Then, of course, he hits the game-winning home run.
Doscher, the 2004 Al Fabbri Award winner as the Island’s best high school football player, led Moore to a CHSFL Class A championship. He also lifted the baseball team to three Island CHSAA titles and a city crown.
Drafted by the Kansas City Royals, he played three minor-league seasons before coming home to play football at Wagner College. He was a four-year starter for the Seahawks and an All-Conference quarterback; led Wagner to a Northeast Conference championship and the NEC’s first-ever FCS playoff victory; and left as Wagner’s all-time leader in total offense.
ZACK GRANITE
Zack Granite batted a whopping .583 during his senior year as he led Tottenville to the PSAL city championship in 2010.(Advance/SILive.com)
Zack Granite, a decorated player at every level of baseball from high school to the pros, hit .583 in the 2010 PSAL playoffs, to lead Tottenville to a PSAL city championship.
He was an All-East, two-time All-Big East, All-New Jersey collegiate outfielder at Seton Hall, where he twice led the Pirates in hits, walks, stolen bases and runs scored.
Drafted by the Minnesota Twins in the 14th round of the MLB draft, Granite was a minor-league all-star in Single-A, Double-A, and Triple-A and the Twins’ Minor League Player of the Year in 2016, when he led the minors with 56 stolen bases.
Granite hit .237 in 40 major league games in 2017; he started and got a hit in a AL Wild-Card game against the Yankees and hit .277 in 8 minor-league seasons with the Angels, Rangers, Yankees and White Sox before his career was cut short by injuries.
JEFF HENRY
Jeff Henry, a member of the Staten Island Advance All-Century HS football team, was a two-time Advance All-Star nose tackle in 1974-75 and the centerpiece of a Port Richmond HS defense that was among the best of that era.
Eventually, he moved on to the University of Louisville, where he was a four-year letterman and record-setting defender with 408 career tackles (247 solo, sixth best all-time) and a school-record 35 tackles for loss.
He played one professional season with the Winnipeg Blue Bombers of the Canadian Football League in 1980.
JORDAN OLIVER
As an offensive lineman at Villanova, Jordan Oliver called all the offensive plays and was co-MVP for the 1937 team that went 18-0-1 while outscoring opponents 185-7.
After graduating from Villanova, he transitioned to a legendary coaching career. First, he guided his alma mater to a 33-20-2 record and two Bowl games; He then led Loyola of Los Angeles to its first-ever national ranking and built a career record of 111-63-6 at Villaova, Loyola, and Yale. At Yale, his 1956 team won the first formal Ivy League crown and his perfect 1960 team shared the Lambert Trophy — awarded to the best college football team in the East — with a powerful Navy team.
Oliver is a Hall of Fame inductee at every school he coached, with the exception of Yale, which doesn’t have an athletic Hall of Fame. But his legacy lives on in New Haven, where the football team’s most prestigious award is given each year in his name.
EVAN PICKMAN
Evan Pickman, left, led Staten Island Community College to six straight Junior College national tournaments during his impressive coaching career.(Advance/SILive.com | Steve Zaffarano)
Evan Pickman won 75% of his games as the basketball coach at the College of Staten Island, where he took the Dolphins to four CUNY championships and four NCAA Tournaments, beat Division I Wagner in a duel for neighborhood bragging rights and, before any of that, led Staten Island Community College to six straight Junior College national tournaments. His 1983-84 CSI team was ranked No. 1 in the CBS Division III poll.
A one-time captain of the basketball team at Brooklyn College, Pickman has been a basketball lifer. He coached at Tottenville HS and the Staten Island Unity Games, which is devoted to building better people through sports and using the game to draw an audience of young men and women. He also served long-time stints as a scout for the NBA’s Cleveland Cavaliers and Los Angeles Clippers.
KEVIN TUCKER
Kevin Tucker scored 922 points in two seasons at Curtis High School, averaging 20 ppg as a junior and 25 ppg as a senior on a star-laden team.
Tucker was the winner of the 1974 Jaques Award as Staten Island’s most outstanding high school player. He went on to set all-time scoring records — 48 points in a single game, 680 points in a season and 1,345 points in his two-year junior college career — at Staten Island Community College.
At Stetson University, where Tucker was a team captain and 62% shooter from the field, he averaged 10 and 13 ppg in two injury-plagued seasons, and threw in 37 points against nationally ranked South Carolina, before going on to a career as a much-admired educator and principal in Florida’s public schools.
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