The 2019 Sachem Athletic Hall of Fame class was inducted on Saturday, December 14, 2019 during a ceremony at Sachem High School North.
Read more about the inductees …
Billy Alvino is the first Sachem East graduate to be inducted into the Sachem Athletic Hall of Fame. Uniquely, he played three years of varsity baseball at Sachem before the district split and he attended Sachem East for his senior season.
Dating back to 1960, he was only the second freshman in Sachem history to play varsity baseball. He was a two-time All-County, four-time All-League, and in 2005 had one of the best individual seasons of any baseball player in Sachem and Suffolk history: he won the Suffolk County Gold Glove Catcher Award, was League I MVP, Class AA Playoff MVP, and helped his team win the school’s first Suffolk County and Long Island baseball titles.
At High Point University Billy was a Louisville Slugger Freshman All-American in 2006 and was named to the Johnny Bench Award watch list four years in a row as the top catcher in the nation. He was a semifinalist in 2009. Also in 2009 he was named the toughest Division I hitter to strikeout in the nation and was named First Team All Big South Conference.
From 2009 through 2014 Billy played professional baseball. He was a member of the Detroit Tigers organization from 2009 to 2011 and reached as high as Double A and later spent two years in the Can-Am League with the Newark Bears and Rockland Boulders.
Following his playing career he immediately began coaching college baseball, first with Manhattanville College from 2013 to 2015, and later as an assistant at the University of Pittsburgh of the ACC until 2018. He most recently was at Nova Southern University.
Laura starred at Sachem in the early 80’s on the Swim Team. She was Captain, Co-Captain, four-year MVP, three-time top 10 New York State Award recipient, held numerous school and Suffolk County records and competed in the Junior Nationals and Nationals. She swam in the inaugural Empire State Games in 1978 and continued until 1984. In the off season, she swam with both Sachem and Three Village Swim Clubs. Laura earned a full swimming scholarship to Boston University where she competed in the NCAA Division I finals. After college, she took 25 years off from the pool. In 2009 she went back to the water and now competes on the master’s level in the pool as well as Open Water Competitions. Last year she started dabbling in Aqua Bike Competitions. To date, she has swum about 2800 miles and holds New England and National Records where she is ranked top 10 in most events in her age group. Laura’s biggest accomplishment in her swimming career happened in August 2014 in Montreal. In masters competition relays are the total ages for all four individuals. Laura and her teammates were entered in the 200-meter medley relay. Laura swam the butterfly leg. The powerhouse USA women broke the FINA World Record in the event by over 5 seconds, a record previously held by the British. Laura was a Town of Brookhaven Lifeguard at Holtsville and Ronkonkoma Beach. She now lives in Westminster, Massachusetts and is an American Red Cross Water Safety Instructor, Lifeguard and just became a certified USA Swimming Coach. When not working part time at a law office, she teaches swim lessons at Worcester Fitness, five days a week from ages 6 months to 45 and is now an Assistant Swim Coach with the Worcester Fitness Flyers. Laura has a large support group. Dozens of folks from her life are here to show came to the induction to lend support and she would not be here today without them, especially her coaches Barry and Joyce, her mom who drove her to all those practices and meets, and her dad, who passed away, and would be so proud!
During his sophomore year Richie Doyle made the varsity soccer team and began a string of starting 50 out of 51 straight games. Legendary soccer coach Frank Schmidt said that Doyle’s junior season marked the beginning of the Sachem stretch that dominated Suffolk County over the next 25 years. Preceding his junior year, Doyle was selected to represent Long Island at the Empire State games but later declined the selection to travel with other Sachem soccer players to Ireland where they played several matches and received invaluable training. In his junior year Doyle was selected captain of the varsity squad. This was another first in Sachem soccer because no junior had ever captained a varsity soccer team.
In the summer of 1980 Doyle was again selected to be one of 16 players out of 200 to represent Long Island in the Empire State Games. This time Doyle did not travel to Ireland but went to Syracuse and returned home with a Gold Medal. Doyle went on to play his senior year with a broken bone in the bottom of his right foot, a sprained ankle, a severely bruised right instep and right thigh muscle. He still managed to score 9 goals and tally 6 assists. Doyle capped his Sachem career by scoring a hat trick in his final game against Lindenhurst. He was the first player in the school’s history to win back-to-back MVP awards. Upon graduation, Doyle presented Coach Schmidt with his Empire State Game Gold medal.
Doyle played college soccer at Southern Connecticut State, a national Division II soccer power that was ranked No. 1 in the country when he played. As a freshman, he played in the NCAA national championship game in 1982 in which Southern Connecticut lost 2-1.
Doyle’s professional career started as a police officer with the New York City Housing Authority Police Department. He relocated back to Connecticut where he became a Police Officer with the Easton Police Department. During that time he obtained his Bachelor’s degree from Sacred Heart University and went on to obtain his Masters Degree from the University of New Haven in criminal justice with an emphasis on Advanced Investigations. While assigned to a DEA Task Force Doyle worked as an undercover officer in the purchasing of narcotics and the surveillance of drug traffickers which led to several successful convictions by the US Attorney’s office. In 2002 he was one of 250 law enforcement professionals in the United States along with representatives from 53 foreign countries selected to attend the FBI National Academy 209th Session. Doyle also served as an adjunct professor in the criminal Justice Department at Norwalk Community College as well as an Instructor at the Bridgeport Police Academy. Doyle presently serves as Police Captain and serves as second in command of the Easton Police Department.
Erin Silvering Grey is one of the most inspiring stories in Sachem cross country and track & field program history. Here is the shortest and best version of her story… “In Erin’s junior year cross country season, she was Sachem’s No. 11 runner. In Erin’s senior season, Erin was the No. 11 cross country runner in New York State.”
From her junior cross country season to her senior spring track and field season, Erin would contribute to six league champion teams and five county championship teams. Erin would close out her senior indoor track season and career as a NYS champion and would qualify for Nationals in both her senior winter and spring track and field seasons.
Erin was one of the county’s stronger two milers by the end of her junior year. After a summer of intense training, Erin emerged as one of the stars of Suffolk cross country in her senior year. She earned All-County honors as she helped Sachem to a repeat county title and took her first trip to the New York State cross country championship meet where she placed No. 12 in the Class A race, was named an All-State runner and qualified for the Federation Championship meet.
Erin picked up where she left off in her senior indoor track season. She was one of the county’s top distance runners. She scored big team points as Sachem won its fifth straight county title in her last winter season and Erin ran her fastest 800 ever as Sachem’s 4×800 relay placed first at State Quals and qualified for the NYS Championship Meet held at Syracuse University. Erin ran even faster at States as Sachem won its first-ever 4×800 state title. She had the same outstanding success in her senior spring track season, contributing to Sachem’s sixth straight league title in six seasons, and she ran some of the top 1500 and 3000 meter times in the state. Erin had a memorable high school senior year: All-League, All-County, All-State, Nationals qualifier, and team champion.
Erin accepted a full scholarship to the University of Rhode Island. In her four year career at URI, she became one of the Rams’ best-ever distance runners. Erin was honored by URI with induction into their Athletic Hall of Fame earlier this year. She continues to be very active in the exercise, fitness and running arenas and she works in the medical field. She and her husband Colin live in Hauppauge where they are raising their toddler aged twin daughters.
Larry Huggins is a talented two-sport athlete and one of just a few Sachem alumni to be drafted by a Major League team. He had the unique experience to help both the football and baseball teams win the first county championships in school history in both sports. He is the son of the late Catherine Huggins, former SYAG volunteer and president for many years.
Known by teammates and friends as “Miller,” Larry was a hard-hitting starting linebacker on the 1977 Rutgers Trophy and Suffolk County title winning football team. In 1979 as a senior starting linebacker he was named captain and was all league as well as co defensive MVP of the team.
In baseball, as the Arrows right fielder, he was named all league his junior season and all league and all county his senior year. His strong arm, and all around solid play enabled the Arrows to win a county baseball title. He was captain of the team his senior year.
Larry’s excellent baseball abilities were evident early on as he and Neal Heaton – Sachem’s greatest baseball talent – played on the 8th grade baseball team at Sagamore as 7th graders and on the undefeated 9th grade Sagamore team while in 8th grade coached by the late Jeff Stone. Neal led the team in hitting and Larry was second. After playing in the Connie Mack World Series in Farmington, New Mexico, Larry was recruited and received an out of state scholarship to play baseball at Mesa College in Grand Junction Colorado.
He was a four-year starter for Mesa, named captain his junior and senior years, and broke several school records, including doubles in a season and career, career home runs, career RBI’s, and home runs in a game. He recorded the third highest batting average at .438 and 7th highest at .394 in school history. Huggins was selected all R.MAC and All District both his junior and senior years.
In the 1983 MLB draft he was the 685th pick in the 28th round by the Cincinnati Reds. Pro baseball was not in the cards and Larry went back to Mesa to complete his degree. He worked for nearly 30 years in municipal government advancing to Parks, Library and Recreation Director for the City of Sterling, Colorado. He started several youth sports programs for the City including basketball, volleyball, flag football and took summer gymnastics to a year round program.
Larry is married to Michelle, a former All-American softball pitcher at Mesa, and they reside in Sterling. They have two sons, Justin and Jason, and one grandson, Hunter Huggins, born earlier this year.
Crystal Jones is one of our all-time great track and field athletes. She competed for four years from 1982 through 1985 and was an integral part of the 1983-84 Girls Winter and Spring track teams that established Sachem as one of the top programs in Suffolk County. During her career, she was named team MVP multiple times in all seasons.
By the end of her Sachem career in 1985, she had set school records in the following events: 55m, 100m, 200m, 300m, long jump, triple jump, 4×100 meter relay, 4×200 meter relay, 4×400 meter relay and medley relay. She held Suffolk County records in the 4×400 meter relay and the winter long jump. Among her many achievements she was a six-time state qualifier in five different events and was multi all-league, all-conference, all-county, and all-Long Island. In 1985 she was Sachem’s senior outstanding student-athlete.
Highly recruited by colleges for her accomplishments on the track, she received full scholarships to five schools and chose to attend Providence College to compete at the Division I level in the Big East Conference.
She held school records in the following events at Providence College in the 55 meter, Long Jump, Triple Jump and 4×100 meter relay. She was All-Big East and placed second in the Big East championships in 1987 in the triple jump. Crystal was fortunate to have a very successful track career at Sachem due in large part to her coaches, John Horst, Richard O’Brien, and Kevin Spelman, her loving and supportive parents, Philip and Mary Jones, her sister Angela, and all of her Sachem teammates.
After graduation from college, Crystal spent 20 years working in the financial services industry, spending 10 years as a Vice President at Citibank. She moved her family from Holbrook to Florida in 2005. She left Citibank and took a position with the Girl Scouts in 2012 and is currently the COO for the Girl Scouts in Orlando. Crystal lives in Sorrento, Florida, with her two children; Brandon, a freshman at Cornell University and Alexis, a freshman in High School.
Dennis could not make it to the ceremony today. One of our all-time great two-sport athletes, he was an All-County football and lacrosse player and a National Merit semifinalist academically ranked No. 16 in his class of 1290.
During his 1992 senior football season he rushed for 1,035 yards on 200 carries and scored 14 touchdowns and was Team MVP. During that season, he led the Flaming Arrows to a 6-2 regular season Conference I record. The Arrows were a “Big Four Champion” from Conference I. For his accomplishments that season he was named a First Team New York Daily News Suffolk All-Star and an EAB/News 12 Long Island Scholar Athlete. He won the James LaBue Award as the top scholar athlete in Suffolk County. He was a finalist for the Hansen Award which goes to the outstanding high school football player in Suffolk County and was chosen to play in the North-South Exceptional seniors football game.
During his 1993 senior lacrosse season Dennis was an All-County midfielder who helped lead the team to a 21-1 record and their second New York State Class A Championship. That team beat Ward Melville 8-4 in the Suffolk County Championship in a game that ended Ward Melville’s 40-game winning streak as well as their 11-year reign as Suffolk County champs. As a junior he had 19 goals and 5 assists and won the Hustle Award for the 1992 team which went 16-2 and finished as Suffolk County runner-up.
After Sachem, Dennis played lacrosse at Princeton University where he was a face-off midfielder and three-time NCAA lacrosse National Champion. He then attended NYU Medical School and completed an orthopaedic surgery residency at Johns Hopkins followed by a fellowship in Pediatric Sports Medicine Orthopaedics at Boston Children’s Hospital. He currently is a father of four children and an Assistant Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery at Harvard Medical School and a Pediatric Sports Medicine Orthopedist at Boston Children’s Hospital.
Diana Lopez was a two-sport athlete at Sachem in soccer and lacrosse. In high school she earned All-League, All-County and All-Conference honors before making her mark at Adelphi University in both sports as well. With the Flaming Arrows she received Sachem’s Outstanding Student-Athlete Award.
If her time in high school was successful, her time at Adelphi is now legendary and she is also an inductee of the Adelphi Athletic Hall of Fame. A four-year member of the women’s soccer team, Lopez helped guide the Panthers to a 60-12-10 overall record in four seasons while recording an impressive 37-11-3 East Coast Conference record. At defense, she played in 74 games while starting in 66 of them; she was part of a formidable back line that allowed just 39 goals including a mere seven in the 2003 season. During this time, the team earned berths to the NCAA Tournament on three occasions, claimed the Northeast Regional title twice and was the national runner-up in 2004. Her contributions on the back line that season allowed the Panthers to enjoy their most successful season to date; they notched 20 wins to set the school record which has yet to be broken.
Lopez also found success on the lacrosse field. She helped Adelphi set the stage for national dominance over the years with a four-year combined record of 56-6. Her career stats include starting in 59 games while seeing action in 62 of them. She scored 136 goals, 104 assists and 240 points. Her milestones include being a part of the first two National Championships in the history of the sport at Adelphi in 2004 and 2006 while earning a spot in the final four in 2005. At attack, she etched her name in the record books in four all-time categories at the time of her induction. She sat sixth in career points (240), eighth in points per game (3.87), eighth in goals scored (136) and fifth in assists (104). She was a two-time ECC First Team All-Conference honoree, earned four IWLCA All-Region recognitions, and was named a Second Team IWLCA All-American three times.
Today, Diana is a physical teacher and a varsity soccer and lacrosse coach for the Hauppauge School District.
Lauren Lopez, like her sister, was a two-sport star in soccer and lacrosse. She was All-League, All-County, and All-Long Island in lacrosse, and All-League and All-Conference in soccer.
As a midfielder at Adelphi, Lauren played and started in all 62 games where the team recorded a 56-6 record over her four-year tenure. She was part of the first two National Championships in the history of the sport at Adelphi in 2004 and 2006 while earning a spot in the final four in 2005.
She garnered a slew of awards that included four IWLCA First Team All-American honors, four IWLCA First Team All-Region selections, three-time ECAC All-Star kudos and was named to the NCAA All-Tournament team and the ECC All-Conference First Team twice. She was also named a Tewaaraton Watch List nominee and was recognized by WomensLacrosse.com with DII Rookie Team status.
Lopez was among the top-three point earners each year while leading the team in 2006 with an impressive 75 points on 58 goals and 17 assists. Her totals over her career have left a lasting impression on the Adelphi record books. Over her career, she amassed 259 points, 200 goals, 59 assists, 129 ground balls and averaged 4.18 points per game.
Lopez was named the Adelphi Female Athlete of the Year on two occasions and was also crowned the East Coast Conference Woman of the Year in 2007. In 2019 she was inducted into the Long Island Metropolitan Lacrosse Hall of Fame. Lauren is currently a physical education teacher in the Roslyn School District and the head varsity lacrosse coach at Roslyn.
John played three sports in the late 1970s: football, basketball and baseball and was a leader and star on every team.
In football he was a Team MVP, All-League, All-County, All-Long Island and helped Sachem win two Suffolk County championships and a Rutger’s Trophy. His interception against Pat-Med in 1977 helped seal the first county title in district history. In basketball he was a team captain. In baseball, also a captain, he helped Sachem win its first county title in 1979 and was All-League.
John played college baseball at Towson State for four years and also played football for one season. He held a number of baseball records at the time of his graduation, including stolen bases and was top five in hits, home runs and batting average, and was also a team captain in 1983.
He served as head assistant baseball coach at Towson for 14 seasons from 1987-2000. In 1988 and 1991 his teams qualified for the NCAA Tournament. He also coached youth sports at the recreational and club levels for over 20 years, including football, basketball, baseball and soccer.
After retiring from the insurance industry in 2010, he founded his own vending company. He has one amazing daughter Marissa and a beautiful fiance, Patty.
An incredible athlete at Centereach and UConn, Tina was an All-American field hockey player in high school and college.
Tina has been a guidance counselor in Sachem for the past 20 years and while guiding thousands of students during her tenure, she has also built one of the top field hockey programs in New York State.
Prior to coaching at Sachem, Tina spent two years at Manhasset and four years at Westhampton Beach. From 1999 through 2004 she was the coach at Sachem before founding the program at the newly built Sachem East where she has been ever since.
A seven-time Suffolk County Coach of the Year, Coach Moon’s teams at Sachem East have won six county titles, six Long Island championships and two state crowns. Her record is 269-91-13.
Sachem East team consistently finishes at the top of the league earning Division championships every year but two during her tenure as head coach – her first year in 1999 and the first year of Sachem East in 2004.
Sachem’s run in 2011 and 2012 is now legendary. The Arrows won back-to-back state titles and compiled a record of 65-1 during those two seasons. They haven’t let off the gas either. Most recently, as of last month, Sachem East won its latest Long Island championship and was a state finalist.
Moon is one of the most well respected high school coaches of any sport in Suffolk, on Long Island and in New York and we’re proud she wears red, black and gold.
Sean O’Hara has had the rare experience of being one of the most successful student-athletes in his sport of wrestling at Sachem, and eventually one of the most successful head coaches here as well. He has represented us proudly on the mat in many ways, and has dedicated his life to teaching our Sachem students.
In 1992 Sean was a Section XI champion and had a 27-1 record, while leading the team in pins. He placed third in the state. The 1992 team was one of the best in the history of Section XI and arguably the best in Sachem history. Of the 14 weight classes contested, Sachem put seven into the county finals with four winning titles that year.
After Sachem it was off to wrestle at the University of Pennsylvania where Sean was a four-time varsity letterwinner, three-time All-Conference and a conference finalist in 1997. He was named Second Team All-Ivy in 1997, the same year he qualified for the NCAAs and ranked No. 8 in the nation. He placed fourth at the Midlands championships and also led that team in pins. The 1997 Penn team was the best in the over 100-year history of the program.
On the international scene, Sean was a University Nationals All-American in 1996 for USA Wrestling.
Sean immediately began coaching following his college career. First an assistant at UPenn where he helped his alma mater win another conference title and Ivy championship, and then back to Sachem as an assistant from 1998 to 2004. In 2004 he became the head coach of the newly formed Sachem East program where he built the team into a major power.
Sean spent nine years as head coach and six as an assistant, compiling a 218-60 record. The team had some incredible streaks, including a 95-5 record from 2011 to 2016. They won six League I tournaments, six League I dual meet titles, finished first or second in league tournaments 10 out of 15 years, was a two-time Section XI tournament champion in 2013 and 2014 and finished in the top five in Suffolk County 6 out of 15 years. In 2019 Sachem East was Section XI dual meet champions.
Sean was named Long Island Coach of the Year in 2014, a three time Section XI coach of the year in 2013, 2014, and 2019, and a seven-time League Coach of the Year. During his tenure he coached three state champs, 10 All-State wrestlers, nine Section XI champs, 60 All-County wrestlers, 53 League Champions and 169 All-League wrestlers
James O’Neal is the best offensive football player in Sachem history. He also had one of the best single seasons in the history of New York State football in 1995 when he helped lead Sachem to a Suffolk County championship and our first appearance in a Long Island title game.
Let’s look at his senior season first … in 1995 he had 2,185 rushing yards, 32 touchdowns, and scored 192 points. For his efforts he was named the Hansen Award winner as the top football player in Suffolk County and the New York State Football Player of the Year. Of course, he was also named All-State, All-Long Island, All-County and All-League and played in the Boomer Esiason All-Star Football Game as one of the top talents in the New York region.
For his career, he ranks first in Sachem history with 3,786 rushing yards, which he did in just two seasons, 565 rushing attempts, 359 carries in a single season, 45 carries in a single game, and holds the single-game rushing record with 320 yards against Northport as a junior in 1994. He is the only person to rush for 300 yards twice in single games.
And he ranks second in single-season rushing yards, career rushing touchdowns (46), rushing touchdowns in a season (32), rushing touchdowns in a game (5, twice), points scored in a career (276), and points scored in a game (32). He averaged 6.6 yards every time he touched the ball.
After Sachem, James played football first at Division I Iowa State and then settled in at Division I-AA Delaware.
Today Jimmy works as a probation officer and lives with his family in Lake Grove. His four children all attend Sachem.
Dom Savino was coaching basketball and teaching physical education at Sachem as early as 1972 when he was first hired at Samoset. He coached football, basketball and track at various schools during different years.
After a brief year at Rocky Point coaching their varsity hoops team, he was back to Sachem as the head JV coach from 1978 to 1982, winning JV coach of the year honors in 1980, and then as the Sachem varsity boys assistant from 1982 to 1986.
It was off to Center Moriches where he led the small school from 1987 to 1994, winning multiple league and county titles and back to Sachem as varsity head boys coach for a nice run from 1996 through 2005, winning two league league titles, making two Class A Final Four appearances and winning two League Coach of the Year awards.
Through the years it was evident that Dom’s name led instant credibility to the sport of basketball in Sachem. That successful name recognition was never more evident upon his retirement from Sachem and his positions as the associate head men’s basketball coach at Dowling College, head varsity coach at Riverhead High, special assistant to the head men’s coach at Stony Brook and as the head men’s coach at Adelphi from 2010 to 2014 where he went 120-86 and his teams played in two NCAA Regional Tournaments.
He cared about the history and legacy of Sachem, and nurturing his student-athletes into respected and well-rounded young men.
Eric Sopracasa, aka “Soup,” was born on December 13, 1977 in Brooklyn. Soon after his family moved and eventually settled in Farmingville where Eric attended Sagamore. It was there that the game of lacrosse caught Eric’s eye and eventual passion. He was short, slow, and skinny and was told numerous times that lacrosse may not be the sport for him. To Eric, the word “No”, or “Can’t do” were his nemesis. It only made him dig deeper, train harder and longer than anyone, thinking about the game day in, and day out.
Under great coaching, Eric’s passion grew and his training led him to eventually become a fierce player on Sachem’s lacrosse team. As a senior in 1995, Eric received All-Division, All-County and All-American honors. As captain he led the team to the Suffolk County, Long Island, Southern Regional and New York State Championship Finals.
Upon graduation, Eric went on to the University of Massachusetts where he played as a long stick midfielder. He continued to grow, be an inspiration to all that came in contact with him, and flourished as a leader who led by example. From high school to college, Eric was a selfless athlete, a genuine giver who made sure that fellow players, newbies or vets, would experience the joy and passion in playing the game as he did. He was a lion on the field and those who played against him still remember those games, while earning the admiration and respect from those very same players.
Eric’s life continues to be a monument of what can be achieved by determination, respect and passion. Although he was tragically taken away from us on May 5, 1999, playing the sport that drove his life, his legacy lives on in memories, stories, awards and scholarships, and in the 43 Forever t-shirt movement that has traveled around the world in his honor.
Originally from Ossining, Steve Tuttle was a three-sport athlete and eventually elected to their Athletic Hall of Fame. He attended Hofstra University from 1967-1971 and played on the Hofstra football and baseball teams for four years.
Hall of Fame coach Fred Fusaro had been on the Hofstra football staff, and he arranged for Steve’s interviews at Sachem where he had just been appointed as varsity football coach.
Tuttle began his career at Sachem in September 1971 as a high school social studies teacher and JV football coach. He became a varsity football assistant in 1972 and would remain on staff for 18 seasons in which the teams won several League I and Conference I titles including two Rutgers Trophies.
Tuttle helped organize the first Sachem golf team in 1972 and became the golf coach in the Spring of 1973. He served as golf coach through 1994 with a brief interruption in the late 1970’s when the team was dropped due to budget constraints. His teams won several league titles and he also served as the Suffolk County Golf Coaches Association President for some 10 years.
During the absence of the golf program, Tuttle became a part of the Sachem baseball program under Hall of Fame coach Bill Batewell. He coached the JV for a couple of years then became the varsity assistant. Their 1979 team claimed the county championship.
Adding more to his resume, he became the Sachem girls bowling coach in 1990. Over the next nine seasons the girls captured eight county championships and one New York State title.
He is thankful and proud to have worked with such talented athletes and alongside a group of dedicated coaches at Sachem throughout his career.
Christina Walsh Hope was a three-sport athlete at Sachem in field hockey, basketball and softball.
Sachem’s outstanding female athlete in 1986, she was dominant in all sports, and a leader as well. In basketball, she was part of a state title team in 1984 and a county championship in 1985. In softball she helped Sachem win county titles in 1984 and 1986. As a senior she was co-captain, Team MVP and All-County.
But it may be in field hockey where Christina will be most remembered. She was All-County, All-Conference, All-League and MVP as a junior as Sachem had an undefeated first place season. A year later as a senior co-captain, same honors and same result for her and Sachem. In 1985 she played in the Empire State Games.
And then it was off to play field hockey at Duke, a trend she set as two other future Sachem Hall of Famers in Patti Stein and Laura Gentile would one day follow in her footsteps both at Sachem and Duke.
She was a four-year starter at midfield. Her 1988 team was the first Duke squad to ever break into the national top 20 rankings. She was also a college all-star in 1990, the same year she graduated with a political science degree.
Later Christina attended New York Law School, and worked at the law firm of Levitt, Greenberg, Kaufman & Goldstein on Madison Avenue as a paralegal and Associate Attorney and has worked at the IRS since 1997 as an estate tax attorney specializing in gifts, trusts and estate tax matters.
Chris Wayrich is one of Sachem’s all-time great gymnasts. He was Suffolk County champion in the pommel horse in 89-90. He was New York State pommel horse champion in 90-91 and was named an All-American on pommel horse, parallel bars and all-around.
Chris was also captain of the High School All-American Team, MVP of Sachem’s team as a junior and senior and a member of the Suffolk County Championship team for four years.
In 1991 he was a member of the third place New York High School National Team and later placed first on the parallel bars and second on the pommel horse at the Empire State Games in 1996.
Competing at SUNY Cortland he was an NCAA Division II parallel bars national champion and All-American.
Chris received a Doctorate of Chiropractic in 2000 and a Masters in Occupational Therapy in 2012. He currently works for the New York City Department of Education working with special needs children in Queens and lives with his wife Chrissy and children Jack and Ava in Jericho.