Jesse Scanna to Play Football at Cortland

Sachem North’s Jesse Scanna will be attending SUNY Cortland next fall where he will become the latest Flaming Arrows football player to join the Red Dragons on the gridiron.

As one of Sachem’s all-time greats and one of only four players in school history to play varsity as a freshman, Scanna had a handful of colleges to choose from.

“Out of all the places I went I liked it the most,” said Scanna, who cited their nationally recognized physical education program as a major reason for his decision. “Cortland is where I wanted to go the whole time. I just want to play football for four more years.”

Scanna rushed 169 times for 1,531 yards and 17 touchdowns at Sachem, ranking him as the 11th all-time leading rusher in school history. He ranks second all-time with 9.25 yards per carry average, and is first with 320 total career tackles.

Scanna joins Sachem alums Joe Kirchner and Dan Cancro on the Red Dragons roster, as well as current teammates Mike McCarthy and Alex Katos, who will attend the school and walk on once school begins.

“I feel good there,” said Scanna, who roomed with Kirchner one night at the school on his recruiting visit. “It obviously makes me feel better with them there. It’s a positive.”

The big question is why would Scanna, one of Long Island’s premier football talents the last two seasons, choose to attend a Division III school?

“I don’t care what anyone else thinks, it was my decision,” he said. “I wanted to get off the island. The [Cortland] coaches were great and made me feel comfortable. It felt like I was back at Sachem, like a family.”

Scanna said he was encouraged by Sachem coach Dave Falco to visit as many schools as possible during his recruiting process.

“He was telling me to keep my options open,” Scanna said. “He made me visit the other schools.”

Falco said that he is, “excited to see Jesse play for the Red Dragons” a place where he went to college and played for four years in the early 1980s and also coached there for six seasons.

“My job as the head football coach at Sachem is to get our players looked at by these coaches who have interest as well as get our players to visit as many of these colleges as possible so they can make an informed decision,” he said. “A decision that takes into account location, football, academics and the money side of attending any college.”

He toured Albany, Cortland, Maine, New Hampshire, C.W. Post and Stony Brook, had partial offers from Stony Brook, Maine, New Hampshire and a full scholarship offer from Post, according to Falco.

“I feel very confident when I say that Jesse Scanna has been one of the most talented football players to play at Sachem ever,” said Falco. “The recruiting process that Jesse went through began his junior year and lasted until the decision that he and his family made in February of his senior year."

During this two year process there were about 30 coaches from all levels of college football (Division I-A, I-AA, II and III) who come through the doors at Sachem North to watch film, look at transcripts, talk to teachers, administrators and even had one talk with a security guard about the gifted athlete.

"I have been involved with the recruiting process for over 20 years, I truly believe that it comes down to a recruits film, his transcript and what college coaches call the eye test, [which takes into account height and frame size], but what needs these schools have in a particular recruiting season also plays a factor,” Falco said.

Falco had Scanna’s film evaluated by Doug Marrone, the head coach at Syracuse University, and said the evaluation was, “great football player, good transcript but not tall enough for [Division I] football.”

Many insiders were baffled when Scanna didn’t win the Hansen Award as Suffolk County’s top player or the Collatta Award as the county’s top linebacker, which after the 2010 season he had, clearly would have made sense. Instead, Connetquot’s Mike Pellegrino won the Hansen and Islip’s Alex Gavira won the Collatta.

“In our opinion Jesse was the best football player in Suffolk County,” Falco said. “We believe he should have won the Hansen Award, but not winning that award had zero impact on offers he got or didn't get.”

Scanna, who said his favorite moments as a Sachem football player came in his first game as a freshman when he picked up a fumble his brother Jerry caused and his junior year when the Flaming Arrows beat Floyd in the final two seconds with a field goal, will play linebacker in college.

Cortland plays in the New Jersey Athletic Conference and finished 10-2 in 2010. The Red Dragons beat Ithaca, 20-17, for the Cortaca Jug, a historic game that has been played between the two schools since 1959.

Scanna and Sachem lineman James Thompson, who will attend Southern Connecticut, have two more games in their high school career: June 5 in Syracuse in the Upstate-Down State Empower High School Football Classic and June 21 at Hofstra in the Boomer Outback Challenge. Falco will coach in the Boomer game and be on the sidelines for the classis as a rep for the NYSHSCFA.