Sachem North held its annual mini-camp this week at the high school. The camp consists of players from grades 7-12 and coaches from various levels of the program lending instruction.
North is coming off a 20-2 run the last two seasons, with the only losses coming in the Suffolk County Division I championship to William Floyd. Mini-camp for this program is important this year with many holes left from graduating seniors.
Coaches are looking for leaders to step up and some have. Others will fall into a stronger role once training camp comes around in August.
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What is mini-camp?
For you non-football aficionados, pro, college and high school football programs hold mini-camps in some form. Many times they’re optional, but teams that care about winning urge players to participate one way or another. Most times the training is meant to brush up on fundamentals and to begin the gelling process, which is already underway at morning and afternoon weightlifting and conditioning sessions at the school anyway.
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The team rotated between defensive and offensive work during the week and Friday's session was more of a hybrid practice, putting together many of the things they worked on in previous days.
Soccer field will do
The team has been using Field at the high school for camp since the track is being redone around the football field at Alumni Stadium. It’s been a slow construction process for the track, but it should be done by the time training camp starts.
Alumni lend a helping hand
Various players from Sachem’s recent past have showed up this week to help coach during the camp, including Davon Lawrence, Sean Gil, Matt Slinkosky and John Cannone. All were integral parts of their teams when they wore the Black & Gold.
Ironically, during Thursday’s session, four other Sachem alums were practicing lacrosse right next to the football drills. Recent grads , and , were all tooling up and getting ready for their college careers. Joining Nick was his older brother , who recently took the graduate assistant coaching job at Wagner lacrosse.
Crossans off to UMass
Senior missed the last two days of mini-camp to attend a visit at the University of Massachusetts, where he could potentially play football or lacrosse, or even both depending upon the package they may offer. His younger brother , a sophomore, missed Friday’s session in Lake Ronkonkoma because he participated in a camp at UMass.
On the field progress
It’s tough to say who stood out during mini-camp since it really does focus on fundamentals; no pads, no big passes, no big tackles, etc. Jacob Starling has matured and will be a threat on the line again. is getting bigger and is only a junior. Senior will be a nice addition to the team this year and is a natural athlete, who is slotted to play college lacrosse at Rutgers. Trent Crossan will play quarterback for the next two seasons and is a quick learner, not to mention the son of a former Sachem quarterback. Dalton Crossan is Dalton Crossan, so you know what to expect from him.
Sachem is ranked as the No. 2 seed in Division I coming into 2011. Having lost a considerable amount of talent, the Flaming Arrows will look young, but will contend for a playoff spot as usual.
What’s next?
Training camp at school starts Monday, August 15 and two-a-days begin August 18. The team will head to Fishkill, N.Y. August 22 for its week of camp on the road. Sachem’s first scrimmage is August 31 against Riverhead at 4:30 p.m., with another scheduled against North Babylon September 2, and its first regular season game is September 10 at Bay Shore.
Review of mini-camp coverage
If you missed any of our overage this week on Sachem Patch from mini-camp, here's a recap:
Stay logged onto Sachem Patch for coverage of training camp, scrimmages and games and live coverage from Fishkill, as well as coverage from mini-camp at Sachem East next week.
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