Massapequa 2011 Football Preview

The football team is gearing up for a highly anticipated season under newly appointed coach, Kevin Shippos. The young coach and Baldwin High School alum is heading into his first year in the lead role after serving as a defensive coordinator, amongst other roles, for the varsity and JV units since 2005.

“We have good young guys at the skills positions," Shippos said. "We are going to be a relatively young team and I really expect them to be as competitive as a senior-experienced team because those are the type of kids we have here.” 

After closing out the 2010 regular season at 4-4 and an eighth seed in the Conference I playoffs, the Chiefs earned a match-up with top-ranked Oceanside. The Sailors lone regular season loss came at the hands of eventual Long Island champion Freeport in the season finale. Despite a courageous effort in the first round, the to close out their schedule at 4-5.

2011 is a new year and Massapequa has a lot to look forward to with seniors such as Anthony Turano, a starting defensive end and offensive guard, as well as top running back Vassili Grigorakos, a junior who will double as a middle linebacker on the defensive side.

“Everyone is focused in on that first game and we all come out to work hard and ready to play. We work together here as a brotherhood,” Grigorakos said. “We are going to go from scrimmages to the first game and take it as far as we can.”

An experienced offensive line should figure to be incremental to the Chiefs success this season. Along with Turano, seniors Mike Sollenne and Mike McCarren will be looked at to provide necessary running lanes and protection for the quarterback.

“The tempo is high and everyone’s expectations are high," Turano said. "We all respect our new coach and buy into his program and will love playing for him. We want to win everything."

Massapequa will feature either sophomore Craig Berge or junior Matt Pagano as starting quarterback to replace recently graduated Ryan Neu from last season.

 “All of the kids have an excellent attitude, a good work ethic and put out a lot of energy on the field,” Shippos said. “My expectations are always at the top, to win the Long Island championship. The ultimate in this sport is to win the championship and that’s what our goal is.”

The Conference I schedule serves to be no easy task for Massapequa as they are set to meet some upper echelon Nassau County competition. The first four games of the season will prove to be a solid test for the Chiefs, starting with East Meadow on the road, a team ranked second in the preseason polls, on Sept. 10.

Massapequa will stay on the road in the second game against Valley Stream Central (Sept. 17), who recently moved up from Conference II. Mark September 24 down on the calendar, as the Chiefs play their home opener against Baldwin, former school of their head coach. That will be followed by another home game against aforementioned Freeport (Oct. 1).

The Chiefs will also go up against Port Washington (Oct. 6), Plainview JFK (Oct. 15), longtime rival Farmingdale (Oct. 22) and Hempstead (Oct. 29) to conclude the regular season schedule.

With an experienced coaching staff, including Tim Radomski, Brian Rath and Lou Andre, aiding Shippos this season, Massapequa will look to contend for a deep 2011 playoff run in hopes to earn their first Conference title since 1998.