STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — For SIHSL president Charlie Donohue and VP Danny Lee, an anxious week ended last night with a well-earned sigh of relief after they smoothed the way for the 32nd edition of the SIHSL Tournament.<\/p>\n
How they got it done \u2013 dates, times, gym availability, Plans B, C and D \u2013 will eventually be a topic for discussion over several rounds of milk shakes, and we\u2019ll get to all that.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, the tournament seeding committee was sorting through a season\u2019s worth of hoops intel to rank the teams and set up the varsity pairings. Those were announced during last night\u2019s Nobody Cares Sports webcast from Main Street Coffee in Richmond.<\/p>\n
Since the tourney\u2019s launch at the end of the 1992-93 season, only five of the 14 schools have lifted the John Singleton Trophy as Island boys\u2019 varsity basketball champ. None of those five are this year\u2019s No. 1 seed. That distinction went to Susan Wagner, which began the work day Saturday 8-5 in the PSAL\u2019s bruising 4A Conference and 15-7 overall.<\/p>\n
It has been an anybody-can-beat-anybody type season, so the scrum for seeds 2-10 probably didn\u2019t get settled until these last couple of days.<\/p>\n
No. 2 is St. Peter\u2019s, followed by Monsignor Farrell and St. Joseph by-the-Sea. Those three finished tied for first place in the CHSAA Staten Island Division with 4-2 records. The top four get byes to the SIHSL quarterfinals.<\/p>\n
Among the challenges for the committee in determining the seeds is that the 14 SIHSL teams play in five different leagues \u2014 PSAL 4A and 3A, CHSAA AA and A and the ACIS \u2014 so overall records, league records, head-to-head matchups, strength of schedule, momentum and competitiveness all get taken into account.<\/p>\n
However complicated that sounds, it was probably a lot easier than what Donohue and Lee had to do to cook up a schedule.<\/p>\n
![\"SIHSL](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/MX4LY6IDHJBITBWHIV3VTCJ5HI.jpg\")
SIHSL President Charlie Donohue speaks to the crowd before St. Peter\u2019s plays Monsignor Farrell in the SIHSL Championship game held at the College of Staten Island in Willowbrook on Thursday, Feb. 13, 2025. (Staten Island Advance\/Jason Paderon)Staten Island Advance<\/p>\n
\u201cThere were so many question marks, and they kept coming one after the other,\u201d Donohue said. \u201cDanny texted me \u2018It\u2019s almost becoming impossible.\u2019 As I read the text, I got nervous (and thought), \u2018There\u2019s no way we\u2019re not going to be able to pull this off.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd then, next thing you know Danny and I got back on the phone, he said \u2018You know, I was talking to (former Curtis coach Tim) Gannon, it just reminded me, we\u2019re never giving up. There\u2019s no chance we\u2019re letting this thing slip by.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
The stumbling blocks were numerous. They included the PSAL\u2019s JV city playoff schedule landing on the same dates as the SIHSL, and an accommodation for Staten Island Academy, whose ACIS league playoffs include a round the same day as the SIHSL semifinals. Throw in gym availabilities, JV and frosh tournaments and the like and the task is daunting.<\/p>\n
Nonetheless, the work got done and the city\u2019s only all-borough boys\u2019 hoop tournament was cleared for takeoff.<\/p>\n
The varsity tournament starts Wednesday with a new wrinkle as the bottom four seeds will play what the league, borrowing from the NCAA Tournament, is calling its \u201cFirst Four.\u201d The No. 11 seed CSI\/McCown will play No. 14 Port Richmond and No. 12 Eagle Academy of Staten Island will play No. 13 Petrides.<\/p>\n
Wednesday\u2019s winners play the next night in round two, which consists of doubleheaders at S.I. Tech and Port Richmond. Seeds five through 10 will see their first action that night. Staten Island Academy (5) plays the 12-13 winner. New Dorp (6) plays the 11-14 winner, both at Port Richmond. McKee\/S.I. Tech (7) faces Tottenville (10) and Curtis (8) opposes Moore Catholic (9) both at S.I. Tech.<\/p>\n
The top four seeds get byes to the quarterfinals Saturday at Petrides where they will meet the Thursday winners. Petrides will also host the semis on Feb. 9 and the standalone title game Feb. 12.<\/p>\n
Another difference this year is that the JV and frosh championship games will be played as a twinbill Feb. 10 at Petrides. As noted, an early start to the PSAL JV city playoffs created a conflict.<\/p>\n
Susan Wagner has been the No. 2 varsity seed the last two seasons. The Falcons have doled out a few lumps and taken a few in the Brooklyn-Staten Island II Division. Among their notable wins was a road victory at Lincoln, possibly the toughest home court in New York City.<\/p>\n
St. Peter\u2019s (9-9 overall), Sea (11-8 overall) and Farrell (11-7 overall) went 2-2 against each other.<\/p>\n
SIA received its highest seed ever at No. 5. The Tigers (17-2 overall) went 5-0 against Island PSAL teams including 3A Division leader New Dorp and rattled off 16 straight wins to start their season.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s going to be great.\u201d Donohue said. \u201cI can\u2019t wait to see how it unfolds. The reason this tournament is so great because of the community that comes out, the basketball that goes on, and the way people live it. And this year being really, across the board, anything goes. I can\u2019t wait.\u201d<\/p>\n
***<\/p>\n
NOTES: The tourney has been won by St. Peter\u2019s (15 times including the last seven), Curtis (10), Monsignor Farrell (three), New Dorp (two) and McKee\/S.I. Tech (one).<\/p>\n
VARSITY SCHEDULE<\/p>\n
Feb. 4<\/p>\n
Eagle-SI (12) vs. Petrides (13)<\/p>\n
Port Richmond (14) vs. CSI\/McCown (11)<\/p>\n
Feb. 5<\/p>\n
Second round<\/p>\n
At Port Richmond HS<\/p>\n
SIA (5) vs. 12-13 winner,430<\/p>\n
New Dorp (6) vs. 11-14 winner, 6<\/p>\n
At Staten Island Tech<\/p>\n
Curtis (8) vs. Moore (9), 4:30<\/p>\n
MSIT (7) vs. Tottenville (10), 6<\/p>\n
Feb. 7<\/p>\n
Quarterfinals<\/p>\n
At Petrides<\/p>\n
Game order TBA<\/p>\n
Susan Wagner vs. 8-9 winner<\/p>\n
St. Peter\u2019s vs. 7-10 winner<\/p>\n
Farrell vs. 6-11 winner<\/p>\n
Sea vs. 5-12 winner<\/p>\n
Feb. 9<\/p>\n
Semifinals<\/p>\n
At Petrides<\/p>\n
5 and 7 pm<\/p>\n
Feb. 12<\/p>\n
Championship game<\/p>\n
At Petrides, 7 p.m.<\/p>\n
JV SCHEDULE<\/p>\n
(Top 3 receive a bye)<\/p>\n
First round<\/p>\n
Feb. 3<\/p>\n
At SI Tech (game order TBA)<\/p>\n
Moore (4) vs. CSIM (13)<\/p>\n
Susan Wagner (5) vs. MSIT (12)<\/p>\n
Tottenville (6) vs. SIA (11)<\/p>\n
At Port Richmond (Game order TBA)<\/p>\n
New Dorp (8) vs. Port Richmond (9)<\/p>\n
Sea (7) vs. Petrides (10)<\/p>\n
Feb. 4<\/p>\n
Quarterfinals<\/p>\n
At SI Tech<\/p>\n
Curtis (1) vs. 8-9 winner<\/p>\n
4-13 winner vs. 5-12 winner<\/p>\n
Farrell (2) vs. 7-10 winner<\/p>\n
St. Peter\u2019s (3) vs. 6-11 winner<\/p>\n
Feb. 6<\/p>\n
Semifinals<\/p>\n
At Curtis<\/p>\n
Feb. 10<\/p>\n
Championship<\/p>\n
At Petrides<\/p>\n
FROSH SCHEDULE<\/p>\n
(Top 2 get byes)<\/p>\n
Feb. 3<\/p>\n
Quarterfinals<\/p>\n
Moore (3) vs. Petrides (6), 4:30 p.m.<\/p>\n
Curtis (4) vs. Sea (5), 6 p.m.<\/p>\n
Feb. 8<\/p>\n
Semifinals (1 and 2:30 p.m.)<\/p>\n
At S.I. Tech<\/p>\n
St. Peter\u2019s vs. 4-5 winner<\/p>\n
Farrell vs. 3-6 winner<\/p>\n
Feb. 10<\/p>\n
Championship<\/p>\n
At Petrides<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — For SIHSL president Charlie Donohue and VP Danny Lee, an anxious week ended last…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":119001,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[9,24,63,134,136,135],"class_list":{"0":"post-119000","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-staten-island","8":"tag-new-york","9":"tag-new-york-city","10":"tag-nyc","11":"tag-staten-island","12":"tag-staten-island-headlines","13":"tag-staten-island-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119000","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=119000"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119000\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/119001"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=119000"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=119000"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=119000"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}