For the second time in three years, the north Shore Middle School football team (Maroon Team) under the guidance of coaches Bill Melillo and Dave Sanford have completed a very successful 6-0 season. The team consisted of seventh- and eighth-grade boys who worked extremely hard toward completing this great season. They beat the Roslyn, Oyster Bay, Jericho and perennial powerhouses in Middle School football, Port Washington, Island Trees and Clarke. The team scored a total of over 200 points and gave up less than 60. These boys spent many hours working on learning and improving due to the fact that the North Shore district does not have a biddy football program so for many of these fine athletes their first experience in tackle football is in the seventh grade. The team was led offensively by quarterbacks Bob Magnuson and Lou Mastellone who ran for nine and 12 touchdowns respectively as well as throwing for an additional six TDs between the two of them. The explosive offense was run by both of these fine young quarterbacks, as well as running backs Tom Kilderry, Keith Lopez, Matt Muscarello, Tyler Ryan, Rich Blount, Chris Dellavechia, Brian Brown, Billy Johansen and John Scuderi. The receiving corps was led by Trevor Cannella, Chris Frey (3 TDs), Paul Wefer, Alex Appel, Nick Cortisdis, Jared Felix and Matt Girshick. An outstanding season was put in by center Steve Cottell and the fine offensive line of Joe DeNovellis, Tom Kulikowsky, Sean Pascarelli, Erik Swenson, Sal Vacchio, Luis Rosario, Tom DeSito, Mike Fiorenza, Mark Jongwattanpaisan, Joe Simmons, Anthony Croce and Brian Leigh.

The defense was led by Coach Sanford and they were put to task each game and came away winners. A stellar linebacking corps of Mastellone, Swenson, Kulikowsky, Blount, Muscarello, DeStio, Ryan, Kilderry and Johansen held most running backs to negative yardage or minimal yards. The line of DeNovellis, Vacchio, Leigh, Pascarelli, Fiorenza, Felix, Simmons, Wefer, Magnuson, Canella and Jongwattanpaisan had no less than 16 sacks on the season. The secondary of Lopez, Cotell, Appel, Girshick, Brown, Scuderi, Dellavecchia and safety Chis Frey had seven interceptions.

This was a great season in that the teamwork and camaraderie were outstanding. The players were always pulling for each other when they were up or when they were down. North Shore is looking forward to these boys making a great impact on the varsity football team down the road, along with the sophomores and freshman who just finished an 8-0 junior varsity season to add to the Varsity 5-4 record.

The team would like to also thank Coaches Cardonna and Freund of the White Team for all of their help this season. Coaches Melillo and Sanford would also like to congratulate them on the fine job that they did with the players. Congratulations also go to the White Team that had to play in an extremely tough conference yet came out better, stronger and ready to take over the reigns of the Maroon Team next year.