Sachem AD Supports New Idea to Go Away from State Championships

Suffolk County’s top high school sports figure proposed the idea of eliminating or changing the current state high school sports championship structure due to costs, according to a report by Newsday.

"We love the state championships, but financially it's a burden," Section XI executive director Ed Cinelli told Newsday. "That's the reason we want to discuss this. For the 2011-12 school year, there is not a single state championship on Long Island. We're traveling for everything. There's a huge cost to that. We'd like to bring some events down here."

Cinelli told Newsday Section XI spent more than $200,000 in travel expenses for the 2010-11 school year to send Suffolk teams or individual athletes to state championships. According to the Newsday report, Cinelli first made the formal request at the January state athletic association executive meeting.

Sachem Athletic Director Pete Blieberg said he is in full support of Cinelli’s motion due to the overwhelming financial costs associated with sending Section XI teams upstate for championships, and to stop all competitions at the Long Island level.

“Football has paved the way for what I feel would be larger attended championships, more money generated for local use and huge upside to rivalries that are lost at the state level,” said Blieberg, who is referring to the Long Island football playoff system which was adapted in 1992. “If financial times were different, I probably would not feel the way I do, but having seen football be so successful with the LI championships, could you image a wrestling tournament at the Nassau Coliseum? The crowds would be huge and the competition fierce.”

Blieberg said having had the opportunity to travel with former districts as well as Sachem to state championships, in three different sports, he can say without hesitation that teams from Long Island play in obscure areas in front of very small crowds against schools they’ve never heard of.

As for the parents who are concerned that their child might miss out on a scholarship opportunity by not attending the state tournament, Blieberg said ask any college coach who will tell you, “that if the student/athlete is good enough to play at their level, they will find them and recruit them, after all, that’s what they do for a living.”

Blieberg’s recipe for local success is to increase the crowds on Long Island, stimulate the local economy, “and allow our kids to play in front of the people who support them the most without placing a price tag on the experience.”

Sachem has had considerable success at the state championships since the 1980s, winning titles in boy's lacrosse, girl's soccer and boy's soccer and more recently at Sachem East with field hockey and girl's basketball.