Top 10 high school sports stories on Long Island in 2023

From tragedy to triumph, Long Island athletes were resilient in 2023.

Here are the top 10 stories from the high school sports season: 

1. FARMINGDALE MARCHES ON

The Farmingdale football team fell short of its goal of repeating as the Long Island Class I champion, but it may have done something far more important in 2023. The Dalers gave people in a community laid low by tragedy a place to unite and comfort one another and heal.

Farmingdale was heartbroken after a bus carrying members of the vast and popular high school marching band that was bound for a Pennsylvania band camp crashed and rolled down an embankment in Wawayanda, N.Y. Dozens of students were injured and band director Gina Pellettiere, 43, and former teacher and chaperone Beatrice Ferrari, 77, perished. The town mourned through funerals and vigils, and across Long Island high school populations showed support by donning Dalers green and observing moments of silence at their events.

The football program did not play its scheduled game against Freeport that weekend but, when it returned, it offered hope, inspiration and successes to cheer for. Farmingdale fans who came out for a road game at Port Washington saw the home team and its town extend a sympathetic hand. And when the band returned to the field for Farmingdale’s homecoming game against Baldwin, thousands filled the stands and ringed the field to see this pillar of their community perform again.

The football players parted to create a lane for the band to march on to the field for the national anthem and the throng — many teary-eyed — showered them with a three-minute standing ovation before they could play a note. It put on a cathartic halftime show that all who attended will never forget.