No-name Herricks girls exceling on court

Hyram Landers

Watch out for the Lady Highlanders!

Coach Glenn Lavey’s varsity basketball team is once again pillaging the countryside (countyside). At 10-2 overall (5-2 in league play) these no-names have been leaving their mark in Nassau County.

So far they have won two tournaments. They defeated Clarke in the opening round of the Herricks Tournament fleecing the Rams 69-37. Then they chained up the Hewlett Bulldogs 41-31 in the finals with sophomore Alison Ricchiuti scoring 25 points. Ricchiuti was named tournament MVP, and Marisa DiRienzo was named to the all-tournament team having scored 20 points over the two games.

“The New Hyde Park Tournament was a real great highlight for the girls,” Lavey said proudly. They suppressed the Great Neck South Rebels 47-30 in the opening round, but found themselves trailing the New Hyde Park Gladiators 12-0 in the finals. Then the defense stiffened up and Ricchiuti took fire scoring 26 of her 30 points in a 10-minute span over the second and third quarters. Junior Kim Givelechian led the way in disarming the Gladiators with 12 rebounds and the Highlanders came away with a 51-43 victory (considered to be a decent upset win).

The Lady Highlanders have a huge long-standing rivalry with the Vikings (pretty much the way history went as well) of Port Washington. Trailing by five in an early season Viking raid with only minute remaining Ricchiuti scored the last seven points hitting a foul-line jumper with three seconds on the clock for the 35-33 win.

They defeated Port again in a raid of their own. The Highlanders trailed 18-10 at the half in the Vikings’ home fiord, but once again the Herricks defense came up big holding Port to only six second half points. Michelle Weinman (“the toughest competitor on our team”) scored eight points in the second half for the 32-24 win.

While Ricchiuti has carried the team thus far offensively averaging 17 points per game, timely scoring and gritty team defense is moving this team toward playoff contention. Thanks to the combined efforts of Alissa Kokinakis (sr.,), Kalli Mamais (sr.), Sabrina Telmo (so.), Victoria Marano (so.), Julia Buckley (so.), Barbara Nictas (fr.), and Erin Rivera (8th) the Highlanders are for real.

Their latest victory over the perennial county powerhouse Hicksville Comets 39-34 underscores the Highlanders’ credentials and sends a loud and clear message out to the rest of the county. Ricchiuti had 14 points, seven rebounds, and five assists. Givelechian grabbed 11 rebounds, and Weinman tossed in eight huge points.

Meanwhile, the Highlander matmen completed their 27th winning dual match season since 1978 at 10-3. They ventured south to Long Beach High School for the Conference Championship Tournament, which is known as the qualifying tournament, where they competed against East Meadow’s Jets, Mepham’s Pirates, Glen Cove’s Big Red, Lynbrook’s Owls, Plainview’s Hawks, and the host Marines for All-Conference honors and bids to compete in the county championship tournament. Initially ranked fourth among this assemblage, the Highlanders finished third, 15 points out of second and well ahead of the fourth place Pirates by 69.5 points.

Four Herricks matmen punched through to the finals. Ryan Singh (sr.-112) was 4-0 on the day with a pin, a technical fall, a major decision, and a 6-3 decision victory in the finals over Long Beach’s Matt Gray, who was third in the county last year. Singh has moved well up on Herricks wrestling’s career leader boards in several categories; and he leads this year’s team with 34 victories, seven tournament finals appearances, and five championships.

Anthony Rosa (jr.) continued his hot pace by going 3-0 with two pins (one in the finals) to win gold at 189. He has placed in all seven tournaments this year, and since he has gotten down to 189, he has been in five straight finals winning three straight championships.

“Anthony has become an X-factor,” Coach Cliff Forziat noted. “He has emerged from out of nowhere to become a dangerous opponent. He pays attention to his coaches, and all of his heavy off-season work is really paying off.”

Both Kevin Ryersen (sr.-171), who bumped up from the 160 class, and Tom Gonzalez (sr.-152) brought home silver. These four finalist and their teammates drew plenty of notice from coaches and wrestlers who had not seen them all year.

“I told them at the ranking committee meeting that Herricks should be higher,” former Glen Cove Head and Nassau County Ranking Committee member Coach Steve Kocienda remarked several times as the long day progressed.

In all, 17 Highlanders won all-conference honors.

Joining Singh, Rosa, Gonzalez, and Ryersen are: Corey Iuculano (so.-96), Matt Grandelli (fr.-103), Andrew Farrell (so.-112), Dan Grandelli (sr.-130), Mike Vespe (so.-130), Tom Dunn (sr.-135), Carlos Rodriguez (sr.-135), John Temperino (so.-140), Chris Farrell (sr.-145), Eric Kautz (sr.-189), Solomon Aziz (fr.-215), Bill Rynne (jr-215), and Mike Lopez (so-285).

Mark Holuka (fr.-112) had two pin victories, Will Rodriguez (jr.-119) had two major decision victories, and Samir Licul (fr.-130) added a hard-fought decision win. They plus Jason Liarikos (fr.-140) and Will Dowd (jr.-215) fell one round short of All-Conference honors. Justin Frangione (fr-96), Joe Tadros (fr-125), John Dunn (fr-125), and Dan Akhtar (so-125) ran into heavy duty competition early, but they all agreed that they were glad to have been in the show.

“We [the coaches] keep an open end on our upward expectations for each member of the team,” Forziat said. “We believe in their strength and their potential. We make note of any deficiencies and work hard to eliminate them, but the bottom line is that no one really knows how good they can be and how many things they can be really good at simultaneously until they truly try. We strive to get every eligible wrestler directly involved in this high level varsity competition as early in their careers as possible so that they can get past any trepidation that comes from the perceived mystique surrounding this level, and can gain the confidence that hard work and paying attention to this fine coaching staff can enable them to achieve success wherever they choose to go after it.”

Mike Miller is Forziat’s assistant coach this year, but Forziat treats all of his coaches as valuable varsity assistants including Jake Phillips and Chris Auriemma from the Middle School, and interns Tom La Maida and Bill Reavy.

They attend the numerous county coaches’ meetings and seeding meetings thereby gaining valuable experience and credibility among the members of the Nassau County Wrestling Coaches’ Association.

The Highlander coaching staff is quick to praise first year senior Sidney Kang. With no prior wrestling experience he attended some in-house clinic sessions last spring, then went to camp with a large contingent of the team in June. “Sid came every day [attendance is taken], did everything that we asked of him, and nobody worked harder than he did,” Forziat said. “He is bright, perceptive, industrious and persevering. His only drawback has been his lack of experience, especially at 160 and 171, but despite that he contributed eleven victories to the team. We are extremely proud of him.”

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