Stepinac Signing Day Distinguishes Nine Student/Athletes

On Tuesday, April 15, nine student/athletes from Stepinac High School accepted offers to attend colleges and signed Letters of Intent to attend their respective schools on National Letter of Intent Day.

The Stepinac gymnasium was graced with excited parents and proud coaches of the student/athletes, as they ushered the soon to be Stepinac graduates to the next level of their educational careers.

Brian Harris, the Captain on last season’s Crusaders football team will pursue a career in the military, while playing football for the United States Merchant Marine Academy, in Kings Point, New York.

Harris, a Golden Dozen Award Honoree this year, expects to make an immediate impact on the Division III Mariners next season. “I am more than happy with my selection. I am ecstatic! I am definitely hoping to make an immediate impact on the Mariners football team next season,” said Harris.

Brandon Campos, the catcher for the Crusaders baseball team will take his talents to Villanova University, while accepting a four-year athletic scholarship to play for the Division One Wildcats. “Stepinac helped me mentally, while giving me challenges to overcome and with my time management and that is something I will definitely need next year,” said Campos.

Also representing this season’s Crusaders baseball team, first baseman/pitcher Joseph Signore accepted a four-year scholarship to attend St. Thomas Aquinas College, in Sparkill, N.Y. Signore will try to assist the Division II Spartans baseball team next season. “Yes, it is nice to be going to college close to home, so my family can come see me play. I am hoping to get some playing time quickly but I am just happy to get a scholarship from a team,” commented Signore.

Crusaders Head Baseball Coach Pat Duffy attended the festivities to acknowledged the hard work and achievements of his players Campos and Signore and congratulate all the college bound student/athletes.

This year upon graduation Stepinac will also be represented at the United States Naval Academy, in Annapolis, Maryland. Eric Terminello singed a Letter of Intent accepting an appointment to play on the Midshipmen’s Golf Team next season. “The entire faculty supported me through the process, especially my Guidance Counselor. They helped me through the tough times and now I am going to play at Navy,” smiled Terminello, while proudly wearing his Naval Academy cap.

Stepinac will also have the first student/athlete from their Wrestling Team graduating and going on to college. Angelos Paradisis will be a preferred walk-on to the Wrestling Team at Edinboro University next season.

Paradisis will join the Division 1 Fighting Scots who finished in third place in the 141-Pound weight category and fourth place in the 133 and 149-Pound weight divisions, at the NCAA Division I Wrestling Championships this season.

“The wrestling team started four years ago when I was a freshman. It feels good to make strides like this to get from that point to this point,” stated Paradisis, who will major in Computer Science at Edinboro.

In 2010, Head Wrestling Coach Rick Lee started the wrestling program at Stepinac with eight wrestlers and presently has about 35 student/athletes coming out for the team.

Assistant Wrestling Coach Tom Gwin took off from work to honor the achievement of Paradisis and pay tribute to the progress of the Stepinac wrestling program over the past four years. “It feels great. When we started the program we did not expect this, we just wanted students to wrestle. In four years for Paradisis to become such a great wrestler is a huge accomplishment,” stated Gwin.

Other Crusader student/athletes being recognized on National Letter of Intent Signing Day at Stepinac included, Sheldon Salmon, who accepted a four-year scholarship to SUNY Brockport for football, Joseph Somereve, who will attend Castleton State College, in Vermont for football and Liam O’Donnell, who will follow in his brother Conor’s footsteps, while attending Catholic University for Lacrosse. Liam is also the son of Stepinac Head Football Coach and Athletic Director Mike O’Donnell.

“We are very proud of all our student/athletes accomplishments. Our most important job here at Stepinac is to help the students go on to college and become successful,” proudly recognized O’Donnell. “Winning football games or lacrosse matches and everything else is secondary to helping them grow to become successful young men,” O’Donnell, the longtime Head Football Coach and Athletic Director at Stepinac, added.

What is Transpiring in Some High School’s in 2014?

While some student/athletes at Stepinac High School put their moral fortitude and academic and athletic prowess on display, while achieving college scholarships and acceptance into colleges, other students from some high schools were wasting their time displaying their ignorance and insensitivity concerning racial injustices.

In wake of the incident at the Westchester County Center this year, where Mahopac High School students sent racially offensive tweets to the Mt. Vernon basketball team, after the Knights beat the Indians in the Semifinals of the Section 1 Basketball Tournament, two more despicable racially offensive incidents have occurred at the prestigious St. Anthony’s High School, in South Huntington, New York.

Two students at St. Anthony’s were expelled for walking into a sporting event in their gym carrying a Confederate flag. Then, two more students from the well-known Catholic high school were expelled for posting a picture of them wearing blackface on social media. “I find it just very hard to even imagine why any student in 2014 would even consider or think that a Confederate flag would be anything other than a symbol of hate,” stated Brother Gary Cregan, the Principal at St. Anthony’s High School.

St. Anthony’s football team has been renowned as a powerhouse in the Catholic High School Football League (CHSFL) for many years. Stepinac High School Head Coach Mike O’Donnell leads his Crusaders against the Friars each year. O’Donnell is also Vice President of the CHSFL Executive Committee.

“St Anthony’s is a great school. I am sure they are dealing with these issues very seriously. We try to be proactive with our students about so many of the decisions they make. Making smart choices is very important for all of them to be successful.

I just read that all the students involved have been expelled. It is very hard to believe in this day and age that children would think that this racially insensitive behavior is acceptable,” said O’Donnell.

In the same week that Major League Baseball honors Jackie Robinson, the first Afro-American to play in the majors with Jackie Robinson Day, on April 15, four students from St. Anthony’s decide to inflict racially offensive behavior upon fellow human beings.

Also, in the same week that the NY Yankees dedicated a plague in Monument Park at Yankee Stadium, to pay tribute to former South African President Nelson Mandela for his dedication to overthrowing the segregated practice of apartheid; all these students from St. Anthony’s could understand was to wave a Confederate flag at the school and don blackface to display their ignorance.

Cregan wrote a letter to parents of students attending St. Anthony’s which read: “The use of symbols designed to revive past injustices or to inflame discrimination or racial intolerance, is completely unacceptable and profoundly offensive.”

Why are these racially disgusting episodes occurring in our high schools these days? I would sure like to hear from the parents of these racially insensitive students to understand their interpretation concerning these racially offensive incidents.