March Madness at Sachem

It's that time of year again at Sachem and around the nation. For the last two weeks students and faculty members have participated in the March Madness Tournament with hopes of playing in front of the entire school.

Friday is notoriously known in both Sachem High Schools East and North as March Madness Day, and the events took place throughout periods three through seven.

Both schools have different basketball events throughout the day, but the ultimate contests revolve about the faculty-student game, the overall championship event and the slam-dunk showdown.

At North, the three-point contest featured sharpshooters from the boys and girls varsity basketball teams. Vin Vacanti hit 21 shots, but it wasn't enough because John Ford, who is headed to play basketball at Drew University next year, hit 22 to win the contest.

Defending champion Nicole Caggiano struggled a little, but finished with a respectable score of 13.

In North's dunk competition was Ford, James Kenny and Stephen Chetuck. Kenny stole the show with three dunks, the third of which drew large cheers after he threw the ball to himself, ripped off his shirt and finished with a slam.

In the championship game, Nick Gallina, Vacanti and teacher Joan Wolffer beat Andy Moran, Joanna Staniewski and teacher Mr. Booth, 15-14.

The game came down to the wire, and clutch shots by Gallina and Vacanti paid off. The faculty-students game followed with the best teachers and best students competing against each other. This game was close throughout, and it appeared the students finally beat their superiors, but a few fouls called by teacher/referee Gary Comstock resulted in the teachers getting some extra foul shots.

Doherty wins it as always at East

At East, it was a battle between Bentley, Beamer and Benz and The Hughes Squad in the student game. Kristen Doherty did it again on the basketball court as her team, marked by hot cars as its name, won 16-10. Joining Doherty on the court was Mike Westerhaus, Ryan Murphy and Steve Sperry. Their adversaries were Chris DiIorio, Ryan Delaney, Lindsey Treanor and Nick Coffaro.

"Kristen hit most of her shots and we didn't make most of ours," said Bryan Vaccaro, the coach of The Hughes Squad, which is named for Scott Hughes, an assistant basketball coach at East. "Westerhaus was pretty solid from long range and Murphy was decent from inside the paint."

Randal Colson won the slam-dunk contest with two strong dunks: the first one he threw off the backboard and nailed it in and the second he had someone lay on his back with a camera pointing at the hoop, while he sailed over him.

Deandre Smith won the three-point contest and the senior students beat the teachers in the faculty-student contest.

Chris R. Vaccaro contributed to this story.