Sachem AD: 'School Spirit Is At An All Time High'

As the Sachem North Varsity Football team celebrated with fans at its long-awaited and possibly overdue victory over William Floyd in the Suffolk County Championship game on Sunday, Sachem's Athletic Director Pete Blieberg took a minute out of the mirth to speak with Patch about the state of Sachem athletics.

This year is only half-way through and already Sachem has racked up three titles. The Sachem East Boy's Volleyball squad took a Long Island Championship upstate before losing in the state finals. Ditto for the Sachem East Field Hockey team, who grabbed yet another Long Island crown, but fell short of the state championship. Now, the Sachem North football team is on top, with a chance to win the Long Island crown with a victory over Farmingdale on Saturday at 4:30 p.m. at LaValle Stadium. 

Blieberg couldn't be happier, for North and for the whole Sachem community.

On finally beating Floyd in the Suffolk County final:

“These kids and the coaches have worked so hard for so many years and just always seemed to run into a buzzsaw of a team that had a great kid at running back (Floyd's Stacey Bedell and Chris Faison), and a great kid at quarterback (Floyd's AJ Otranto and Eric Brust), so I couldn’t be happier for them. They deserve it.”

On the emotional uptick for the community

"School spirit is at an all-time high. This year we had a great fall in sports and here we are: winter sports started last Wednesday and we’re still playing football, so it’s great. Boy's Volleyball East, Field Hockey East  and obviously the North Football team, so it’s very exciting.”

Sachem North heading to the LIC

"This is the Long Island Championship; it’s only our second appearance since the inception of the Long Island Championship, so it should be great next week.”