Floral Park Wins Nassau Class A Basketball Championship

Floral Park Memorial High School’s boys’ varsity basketball team captured its second straight Nassau Class A championship Friday, defeating Friends Academy 70-53 and setting up a shot at redemption against Suffolk County’s Mount Sinai in the Long Island Championship.

The victory pushed the team’s record to 21-2 and brought back memories of last year’s county title run, which ended in heartbreak when Mount Sinai knocked Floral Park out of the island championship. Tuesday’s rematch gives the squad a direct opportunity to finish what it started.

Coach Sean Boyle credits the team’s culture as much as its talent. “They are a very special group,” he said. “They really embody what the team is all about; they are brothers to one another.” Boyle described brotherhood as the defining quality of this roster, and said the goals were clear from the start of the season. “The goal was to win the conference, win the county, and then have a chance to rewrite the end of our season last year.”

The squad has now claimed two of the program’s three championships in its history, a remarkable run for a school not traditionally known as a basketball powerhouse. Senior captain Brendan Martin pointed to relationships as the foundation. “We’ve built a brotherhood, and that helps us win,” he said.

Fellow captain Declan Lally, who is committed to play basketball at Marywood University in Scranton next year, was measured but motivated after Friday’s win. “We’re just happy to get back to where we were last year,” Lally said. “Hopefully, this year we’ll take care of business in the Long Island Championship and not fall short like we did last year.”

Principal Alicia Calabrese praised both the athletic achievement and the character of her student-athletes. “These young people are tremendous athletes,” she said. “They are great young role models. They take that role very seriously. They represent Floral Park.” Calabrese said that even inside the school building, the players serve as examples to the wider community, and she credited work ethic, culture, and character for the season’s results.

On the girls’ side, the story is more bittersweet but far from discouraging. Floral Park’s girls’ varsity team also competed Friday in the Nassau championship but fell to Plainedge, finishing the season at 17-6. For a program that pushed further than it had in recent memory, the players say the final loss does not define what they accomplished.

Point guard Ashley Battista, who will attend West Point next year, put it plainly. “I thought it was a great season, and we can’t let that last loss dampen our success,” she said. “This is the farthest we made it while I was on the team, and we’re really proud of this.”

Forward Siena McCree, who is also an all-county soccer player, echoed that sentiment. “We had a bunch of girls really step up, it was a mix of older girls and younger girls,” she said. “We bonded really well and made it really far, so it was a great year.”

Amanda Owen also pointed to the team’s cohesion as central to the run. “We all really helped each other out on the court,” she said, noting that the group went further than they had before and held strong relationships throughout the season.

Calabrese’s praise extended equally to the girls’ program. The principal’s comments reflected a school that sees both teams as community assets, not just athletic representatives.

For Floral Park, Friday was a night that reminded the village what its schools are capable of producing. The boys now carry the weight of expectation into Tuesday’s Long Island Championship, knowing exactly what stands between them and a title that slipped away last year. The girls close a chapter that, by their own account, left them stronger and hungry for more next season.

The community will be watching Tuesday. After a 70-53 statement win over Friends Academy, Floral Park’s boys have given their fans every reason to believe this time, the result will be different.