STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. \u2014 I\u2019ve heard the chatter through the years and it always makes me chuckle.<\/p>\n
The real league playoffs are the only things that count, I\u2019ve been told. That includes the CHSAA, the PSAL and PSAA\/ACIS where Staten Island Academy is concerned.<\/p>\n
Hey, nobody is denying the importance of league playoffs. Of course you want to qualify for the post-season and \u2014 dare we dream \u2014 win a city championship. It\u2019s common sense.<\/p>\n
I cringe at quoting Herman Edwards but, yes, you do play to win the games.<\/p>\n
And this is equally true when discussing the ever-so-popular Borough President Vito Fossella SIHSL Tournament, which is now in its 32nd year.<\/p>\n
The tournament is overrated, I\u2019ve heard. It\u2019s really not a big deal. Winning off the Island is the only thing coaches care about. Etc., Etc., Etc.<\/p>\n
Poppycock! Those who truly believe people don\u2019t care, including the coaches, players, alumni and parents \u2014 my goodness, especially the parents – are only kidding themselves.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s plenty important. And don\u2019t let anyone ever tell you any different.<\/p>\n
I\u2019ve been lucky enough to cover the first 31 tourneys in some way, shape or form through the years. I was at the first tournament championship game in 1992-93, when rivals St. Peter\u2019s and Curtis slugged it out before the Eagles emerged with a 54-53 victory.<\/p>\n
I saw the Warriors win six of the first eight tournaments.<\/p>\n
I was present when bigs O.D. Anosike of St. Peter\u2019s and Halil Kanacevic of Curtis \u2014 both of which found themselves at Division I colleges \u2014 battle for all the marbles at the College of Staten Island.<\/p>\n
My jaw dropped several times watching Monsignor Farrell point guard Nick Corbett will his Lions to the 2015-16 crown with a ridiculous 45-point performance that included overtime.<\/p>\n
![\"Ten-time](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/XOVXS5OB7RAHVHJTXAKQDEARJA.jpg\")
Former St. Peter’s varsity basketball coach Charlie Driscoll, center left, is joined by former players, left to right, Glenn Sanabria, Timmy Quinlan and Latrell Curtis after capturing the 2013-14 SIHSL Tournament crown. Driscoll is the SIHSL Tournament’s all-time winningest coach with 10 varsity crowns.(Advance\/SILive.com)<\/p>\n
One year later, I returned to Wagner College and still remember the buzz of the crowd when Jordan Fox buried a top-of-the-key three-pointer with about a minute to go as St. Peter\u2019s stunned heavily favored Curtis.<\/p>\n
The list goes on and on and on because, let\u2019s face it, the championship games aren\u2019t the only contests that produce eye-popping results.<\/p>\n
The quarterfinals for the 32nd annual tourney are set in stone. Those four games will take place at Petrides on Saturday and, after the winners emerge, the semifinals will take place at the same site Monday.<\/p>\n
Storylines? There\u2019s plenty of them.<\/p>\n
The second-seeded Eagles are attempting to win their unprecedented eighth consecutive title.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s safe to say top-seeded Susan Wagner and No. 4 St. Joseph by-the-Sea are two of the favorites this year and, boy, would both schools love to become only the sixth program to win the coveted John Singleton Trophy.<\/p>\n
Farrell rookie coach Danny Fisher? His Lions are the No. 3 seed and don\u2019t you think he\u2019d love to join Rich LaGrotta, Tim Gannon, Charlie Driscoll and Ryan Woods as one of the only coaches to win it all in their first varsity season?<\/p>\n
SIA and 22nd-year head coach Mike Mazella will join New Dorp, MSIT and Curtis\u2019 coaching staffs as they attempt to sell the \u2018why not us?\u2019 mantra to their respective teams as we speak.<\/p>\n
So yes, the SIHSL is a paper league. It no longer has a regular season to determine the seeds, but it\u2019s alive and kicking in year 32. <\/p>\n
In less than a week, the 2025-26 champion will be crowd. Pictures will be taken. The net will be cut down and the Singleton will either return to St. Peter\u2019s or find itself at a new home for the first time in 10 years.<\/p>\n
Believe me, it\u2019s important. And to a lot of people, to boot. <\/p>\n
Don\u2019t let anyone tell you anything different.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. \u2014 I\u2019ve heard the chatter through the years and it always makes me chuckle. The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":125234,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[9,24,63,134,136,135],"class_list":{"0":"post-125233","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\/125233","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=125233"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125233\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/125234"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=125233"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=125233"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=125233"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}