Despite a tough loss in the New York State Semi-Finals, Division Avenue Baseball Coach Doug Robins maintains an upbeat attitude about the team's successful season.

"We're very, very happy. Obviously when you win as much as we won this year, the coach has got to be happy at the end of the year," said Robins.

The team was overlooked prior to the season, possibly because they were a very young team with a good portion of its starting lineup being sophomores and juniors. Robins noted that Division was not even expected to be the team to win their own division this year. When Newsday, before the season began, ran their "players to watch" article, for the first time, possibly ever, according to Robins, no Division players made the list, comprised of 15-20 names of Nassau County players.

It was being overlooked that Robins thinks gave the team its first motivation. "I think that was really the rallying point for them. They knew that they were pretty good, they worked very hard, it was a great group of guys and I think that initially got things rolling early in the season, that they were overlooked as a team and were overlooked as individuals," said Robins. "I think that as the year went on, as they started to win and then some of the guys really started to stand out a little bit, I think they took a lot of pride in that."

The team jokingly referred to themselves as the no names because of this early lack of recognition.

As the season continued the team made quite a name for themselves, winning all but one game prior to the semi-finals. The one game they lost was in the playoff rounds against Garden City, a team that Division went on to defeat two times in a three-game series. Division then defeated Wantagh to earn the right to play in the Long Island Championship game, held in Holbrook. In that game Division defeated Hauppauge 3-2. It was there that starting pitcher, senior Ryan Darcy won his 13th game of the season, the most games that any Division Avenue pitcher has ever won in a season. "He had just an unbelievable season," said Robins of Darcy. Dan Cronin, the team's first baseman, leadoff hitter and number two pitcher hit a two-run homer to win the game for Division. Robins stated, "Defensively, between Steve Juliano, Eric Fierro, and PJ Antoniato, the guys just did a great job."

From the Long Island Championship game Division went up to Little Falls, NY to take on Vernon/Verona/Sherrill, a team from just a little northwest of Utica. Division lost for the second time this year by a score of 4-3. Robins explained that the team had a number of opportunities that they did not capitalize on and just made some errors that cost them the game. "Ironically it was not bad hitting, it was not bad pitching, it was not bad fielding but we made some mental mistakes where we missed signs, guys thought signs were given that weren't given so some mental things occurred that hurt us a little bit," noted Robins. Vernon/Verona/Sherrill went on to the state finals where they were defeated 6-5 by Johnson City.

Despite this loss, Robins believes that Division's team was very strong this year, with one of their main strengths, besides the quality of the players, being the team unity. According to Robins the guys on the team really pulled for each other and were real friends both on and off the field. "That's what makes a championship team," said Robins. "We've had teams in the past, in particular the year before, where we had a lot of talent and everybody was out for themselves and that kind of hurt the team a little bit. This was a real team...not just a team in name." Robins could not stress enough what an impact the team mentality had on the season. He noted, "It really was a great group of guys. There's more to sports than just winning games and this group of guys was just a fun group of guys. The teachers in school loved them, they were well liked by the students in school, they were really well-respected guys, and just nice people."

The team's biggest weakness, according to Robins, was the youth of the team. Three members of the team's starting lineup were sophomores and three, including the leadoff batter, were juniors. This weakness this year could be looked at as a strength for the coming years though because when they return it will be with a year's more experience and a regional championship under their belt.

Division is not the only team to be going into next season with this advantage though. Garden City, which Robins described as being their toughest competitors prior to the Long Island game and the state semi-finals, is also a young team. Robins noted, "That should be an interesting match-up next year."

While Robins is hopeful for next season, he said he does not want to discuss it because he doesn't want to take anything away from the seniors on this year's team, who did such a terrific job. Robins stated that Ryan Darcy, Alex Muniz, Joe Woods, Kevin Saragossi, Anthony Dell'Aera, Eric Lineman, and Kevin Schneider were all key contributors to the team and did a great job.

Kevin Schneider was following a family legacy when he went to the state semifinals this year. He is the third brother to achieve that goal with a Division team and Robins had hoped that he would be the first one to win the state title. Kevin's older brother Michael was the Diamond Player of the Year in 1991 and went to the state semifinals as a junior in 1990. The next brother, Dennis, was the Diamond Award Pitcher of the Year in 1995, the same year he made it to the state championships, a game that Division lost. "We were kind of hoping he [Kevin] would be the guy to get to the finals and win the whole thing- we'd have a straight flush there," said Robins.

The disappointment over losing in the states has not kept the Division team down. They just were ranked the 27th team in the nation by the Collegiate Baseball paper, sponsored by Easton Bats.

Being ranked so high in the country may have something to do with the number of times that Division has won the league, county and state championships. Division was the league champ in 1961, 62,65,68,70,72,77, and every year since 1979 except 1993. They were the County finalists in 1971, 79, 80, 81,83, 91, 92, 94, and 98. They earned the title of County Champs in 1970, 84, 85, 87, 89, 90, 95, 96, 97 and 99. The team reached the States, Final Four in 1984, 87, 89, 90, 95, 96, and 99. In 1984 and 1996, the team went all the way to win the title of State Champs.

This year marked the seventh time that Division has made it to the state semifinals. The Division Baseball team has won the state championship twice and lost it twice in the four times they made it to the state finals. They now have the record of being the team that has made it to the state semifinals more than any other team in New York state.