Topic: 2008 All Long Island

Lets get one thing straight...Futures=Joke.  I have seen the tryouts and quite frankly, completely unimpressed.  I also see some of the players that are on 'futures', so your arguement goes loses credability on that point.  You can say what ever you want to try and say that there's nothing wrong with sending 5 players from one team to All LI...seriously.  I don't care if GC beats UCONN...it's dead wrong.  I will repeat myself, I am not knocking the players that made the list, it's the shame for the players that didn't. Specifically, there were players from SWR, including goalie Jackie Grant who totally deserved it.  I could go on, however it's not about the individual players, its about the selection of 5 from one team.  Sad to say that you think more players from GC deserved it...you apparently don't get it either.

Garden City has 4 kids playing this year that made All Long Island last year. McTiernan dropped off in her scoring from last year - from 25 goals and 10 assists to 16 goals and 10 assists but her, Pewarski 12 goals and 14 assists and Terraciano 12 goals and 12 assists will probably make it again as Garden City has again been dominant.  Don't know much about Kaila McDonnel who made it last year despite scoring only 4 goals and 2 assists. It shouldn't be all about scoring- DeMola made it last year and deserves it again despite not having big numbers. Only other returnees from the All Long Island team  are Michaela Gallagher who doesn't score as much as she used to (down to 14 goals and 5 assists from last years 19 and 6) but is a superb player who scored 70 goals in her career and carried a team that struggled against the good B teams to a goal short of going back upstate in the C Division. Melvilles Georgia Holland made All-Long Island as a sophmore with 15 goals and 16 assists and followed that up this year with 21 goals and 14 assists. Hard to imagine her being left off team especially since Melville is going back upstate this weekend. There are other deserving kids on Garden City, Melville, Sayville, SWR and Smithtown East so I think its hard to figure that 2 kids will be picked from Sachem East. Tough assignment for  Newsdays editors. Been another great season and lets hope both Garden City and Ward Melville can prevail in Syracuse. Would have liked to have seen those 2 teams play this year.

Very intelligent post.  Great comments.  On the mark. You come around and post more often.

 It was ( "is" for GC and WM), a great FH season.  In Suffolk, nearly every north shore game was like a playoff game, ok, throw in Sayville too to the west>east axis of SmithE, WM, SachE, PJ, MP, RP, SWR...all great games and should be a fun awards dinner in Dec.  

There is no question GC is a very good team and in Nassau County they are in a league by themselves litterally.  I've only see them play once in a non- league game against Sachem East 2 years ago.  This game went to overtime.  This year GC scrimmaged against WM and that game ended in a tie.  The message here is yes GC is good but not necessarilly any better than the best teams in Suffolk County.  Newsday should stop overating there accomplishments,  They are a big fish in a very small pond. 

          Meaning no disrespect to Ward Melville, but Garden City played their first string against Ward Melville in the scrimmage for no more than 15 minutes and dominated play.  WM starters took forever to score against 2nd string and JV callups.  So don't point to a scrimmage that neither team took seriously as if it had an ounce of meaning.  Or some game from over two years ago.  Ward Melville is excellent, they are going to win a State Championship this year and next year are going to be dominantly awesome, but please, respect this years  TopoftheCircle Nationally 5th ranked Garden City Field Hockey program. They bring honor to Long Island Field Hockey.   Jeesh.

          And in my opinion, while normally I would say that a team that didn't even win their county championship in their class shouldn't get more than one player on the All LI, I would make an exception for Sachem East.  With Sachem East you can't judge their players by goals scored.  Number one, they play a lot on grass which means lower scoring.  Number two they played less games than anyone else for some reason.  They played 16 games, compare to SWR with 23 games and WM with 22 games, so you can't compare stats with them.  Also they played a difficult schedule with 5 of 16 games vs.  WM and Smithtown East and games against tough teams tend to be low scoring.  If I were Newsday, I would expand the number of All LI selections this year because there  are a lot of good players this year.  They have selected as many as 17 in the past.  And I would ask Coach Moon for her input on which two of her players she thinks had the most impact on their team's success.  Michelle Loor, Danielle DeMola and Jessica Caturano are all possibilities, I would think, maybe others.  She would know best.

I'm in agreement with you on all counts.  However, Erin Grekin from Sachem East should be a consideration as well as the other girls that you mentioned.   I know it's highly unlikely that 4 girls from Sachem East would get picked but DeMola, Loor, Grekin and Caturano should all be considered.  I saw alot of talent this year from many teams.  Good luck to all.