Sports
Sachem Sports Club Kicks Off Fall Season With Annual Pep Rally
Over 700 football players and cheerleaders celebrate the return of football season.
Sachem Sports Club kicked off their season in style Friday night at the PAL Complex in Holbrook. Their annual pep rally signaled the official start of football season in the Sachem community, a day nearly 700 young football players and cheerleaders waited all summer for.
Players, aged 5-13, gathered with their teammates and coaches for the first official time, threw a pigskin around and donned new jerseys for the first "Friday Night Lights" event of the fall season to ring in the dawn of a new season on the gridiron.
Each team from the "Peewee" division all the way up to the "Senior" division was announced as they sprinted from the goal line to the 50-yard line, to the cheers of packed stands.
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The program, which was started in 1976 by Dennis Wandle Sr., has flourished and provided a place for young aspiring Flaming Arrows to learn the fundamentals of the game.
"We started in football, cheerleading, boxing at one time and roller hockey," said the Sachem Sports Club founder. "Then we evolved into lacrosse in the spring and everything else."
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Today, under the leadership of Dave Aronow, the current Sachem Sports Club president, and his son, Dennis Wandle, Jr., it has formed into one of the most productive youth programs on Long Island.
That program has helped translate to success at higher levels as well.
"This is where it starts," said Aronow, who has been involved with the program for 22 years. "It starts with a good youth group, good coaching. These kids get good coaching all the way up. The proof is in the pudding. Just look at Sachem North last year. All those kids played together. Last year, we saw what happened. They went 10-0 and had an unbelievable season. Coach Falco took them to the next level. It starts with these little guys."
But more than results, for Aronow and the Wandles, it's about providing the kids a place to enjoy themselves.
"We want to see these kids evolve into high school players and go from there," said Wandle, Sr. "But more than that, we love to see the kids having a good time."
