The MacArthur HS Community has yet one more reason to be proud: this time two faculty members have garnered the attention of their peers and received honors they so richly deserve.

The National High School Coaches Association has announced its New York State Awards for 2003, naming Howie Greenblatt as the New York State High School Wrestling Coach of the Year, which now puts him in competition for the National High School Wrestling Coach of the Year Award, and Tom Bobal has received the Ray Downey, Sr. Assistant Coach of the Year Award. Both are names that have come to be synonymous with MacArthur wrestling, but like any worthwhile accomplishment, it took a long road of hard work to reach this pinnacle of success.

Howie Greenblatt came to Levittown in 1987 after graduating from Cortland College. The first few years of coaching were not the easiest. He decided to focus on the whole picture: academics, behavior, discipline, physical strength and training, and the results have borne out his beliefs: In the last 15 years, MacArthur High School has captured 13 County Championships (dual meet and tournament), and in just the last three years, 10 county champions have been selected, nine All-New-York-State wrestlers have been named, and the team has been consistently ranked in the top three schools in New York State.

When questioned about the success of the squad, Howie consistently stresses one point: the importance of the input from his assistant coaches: Tom Bobal, an Art teacher who wrestled for Hofstra, and Cartney Curnuck who wrestled for the University of Virginia. He mentions the importance of "a smile and a pat on the back" for the student who needs some motivation, an understanding of the "strain and demand that is placed on the individual," and an appreciation of the fact that these students are under tremendous pressure in a sport "where they are out there alone."

When asked about leisure time activities, Howie laughingly replies that coaching is his job and his hobby. Now that coaching wrestling is in the "off" season, he is - coaching! This time it's women's soccer in an over 30 league where, as he explains it, "we don't win a lot of games in Division 5 but everyone's families come to the games and we get to laugh a lot." Joining these families is Howie's own lovely family - wife Debbie, a reading teacher, and sons (and future wrestlers), J.C. who's 3-years-old and Thomas who's 2-years-old.

Tom Bobal is also a coach and teacher, although not a physical education teacher. An alumnus of MacArthur, Coach Bobal attended Hofstra University for his undergraduate studies and Stony Brook for his graduate studies; at both universities, he studied Art and prepared for a career in Art Education. He currently teaches Photography, both Basic and Advanced, Drawing and Painting and Independent Courses in Art and Photography. In his free time he is an avid fisherman, golfer and gardener who still finds time to add a room to his house each year with his lovely wife, Joanne, who is a pre-school Special Education Teacher for BOCES. When he is not coaching wrestling, he is coaching his other love, football. His philosophy of coaching is best summed up in his own words: "The goal is not necessarily to win, but to overachieve. That work ethic carries over into life - even though a group of athletes may not go on to play a sport in college, as long as they reach their potential or go beyond what they thought they were capable of doing, that will carry over into other areas of life."

MacArthur High School is very grateful for teachers and coaches of Howie Greenblatt's and Bob Fehrenbach's caliber - professionals who set priorities for students that will serve them well throughout life. Howie recently said that he is always asking himself, "How do you motivate kids?" One answer seems to be, "You can introduce them to Howie Greenblatt and Tom Bobal."