Newsday: https://www.newsday.com/sports/high-school/football/macarthur-s-joyce-wins-thorp-award-j04544

MacArthur's Joyce wins Thorp Award

When Tom Joyce showed up for football practice at MacArthur in the summer before his sophomore year, there were six linebackers listed ahead of him on the depth chart. By opening day, he was the starter. That's the thing about Joyce. No matter the circumstances, he never believes he is outnumbered.

"He wants to make the play. When he gets to the ball, he's excitable," Generals coach Bob Fehrenbach said. "He gets up and he's 'Yeah, yeah, yeah!' The kids rally around him and feed off him. We've done pretty well with him in there the last three years."

For his stellar work as an inside linebacker and fullback, Joyce was awarded the 2010 Thorp Award last night at the Nassau County High School Football Coaches Association's 45th Gridiron Banquet at Crest Hollow Country Club in Woodbury. The Thorp Award has been presented annually by Newsday since 1942 to the outstanding high school football player in Nassau.

"I never thought they'd be looking at me,'' said Joyce, who was genuinely surprised. "I couldn't have done it without my teammates."

Joyce is the second MacArthur player to win the Thorp, joining Gian Vilante, the 2002 recipient. The other finalists for this year's award were running back/defensive end Mike Kozlakowski of Lynbrook and quarterback Tyler Heuer of Oceanside.

For the second time in three seasons, the 5-11, 200-pound Joyce was MacArthur's leading tackler. His nine-game total of 104 tackles included four sacks. The next closest teammate had 48. "He's one of those kids that you're blessed to have in your coaching career," Fehrenbach said.

In addition to his hard-hitting presence on defense, Joyce took on the fullback role in the Generals' wishbone formation. He wasn't the featured back but was the most feared, carrying 54 times for 456 yards, an 8.4 average, with eight touchdowns. The Generals finished at 5-4, including a 24-22 loss to Farmingdale in the Conference I quarterfinals.

"He started out as one of three tailbacks," Fehrenbach said. "But running back was our deepest position, so in the third or fourth game, we went to a three-back set to get all three on the field at once. Someone had to be the fullback."

Guess who that was?

"Our fullback doesn't get a ton of carries,'' Fehrenbach said, "but he did the blocking unselfishly."

"If there's one thing I take pride in, it's that I give it 100 percent all the time," Joyce said. "I wanted to be the fullback to help our team win. I didn't care about the stats."

Joyce rushed for 91 yards and scored the go-ahead touchdown on a 6-yard run in the fourth quarter against Farmingdale in the playoffs before the Dalers rallied for the victory. He also caught four passes for 97 yards that day, made numerous tackles and recorded a sack.

"He's a load, a tough kid to bring down," Fehrenbach said. "Once we made the change to three guys in the backfield, we started scoring some points. He embraced the role. Whatever would help the team."

What helped the Generals most was Joyce's dynamic play on defense.

"He made a bunch of tackles against Freeport, Farmingdale, East Meadow, Baldwin - the big games," Fehrenbach said. "That's when he really stepped up. When the chips are down, he's making the big plays."

Joyce made 11 tackles, including a sack, in a 20-13 win over Baldwin that really impressed Bruins coach Steve Carroll.

"The biggest thing for me is the kid doesn't take a play off. His engine never stopped," Carroll said. "I can't believe what he does on the field. He's a sideline-to-sideline linebacker who takes on the biggest guy and plays off the blockers."

That type of play earned Joyce the defensive MVP Award in the Nassau Senior Bowl, an all-star game played on Thanksgiving Eve. It has also attracted some scholarship interest from Syracuse, Stony Brook, Marist and C.W. Post.

Hempstead coach Antoine Moore saw plenty of Joyce, who ran for three touchdowns in the Generals' 41-14 victory over the Tigers.

"As a coach, he's the kind of guy you like to have because he sticks his nose in there. That stands out to me more than any statistic," Moore said. "He made plays every time he had the opportunity. It's tough to play every down in Conference I, but he did it. He goes 100 percent on every play. [As a runner] he makes you miss. He has speed and he has toughness.

"He's a football player," Moore added with emphasis.

And now Joyce is at the top of the depth chart in Nassau County.

https://patch.com/new-york/levittown-ny/macarthurs-tommy-joyce-most-outstanding-football-play26f6ba768a

https://www.newsday.com/sports/high-school/football/joe-tangredi-wins-top-linebacker-award-continuing-macarthur-tradition-c14846

Joe Tangredi wins top linebacker award, continuing MacArthur tradition

Forget quarterback. The glamour position at MacArthur is fast becoming linebacker.

For the second time in three years, the Generals earned one of Nassau's major postseason awards when Joe Tangredi Sunday was named the Piner Award winner as the county's outstanding linebacker.

In 2010, MacArthur linebacker Tom Joyce won the Thorp Award as the county's most outstanding player, a fact not lost on Tangredi.

"He also wore No. 31. I always looked up to him," said Tangredi, an All-County player for 2012 who led the team in tackles for the second season in a row.

Tangredi said he didn't ask for Joyce's uniform number. "It just worked out that way," he said. But he did make winning the Piner Award -- won by MacArthur's Gian Villante in 2002 -- a priority.

"Since the ninth grade, I always dreamed of winning that award," Tangredi said.

"He's a quiet kid, but the Piner is something he wanted and he really worked for it," said MacArthur coach Bobby Fehrenbach, who promoted Tangredi to the varsity for the playoffs after his JV season of 2010 and started him against Farmingdale. "He had a nice game, and after that, we knew we had something special. He knows the competition is great in Nassau County. It meant a lot for him to be up there holding that award."

The 6-foot, 180-pound Tangredi held on to opposing runners and receivers for both of his varsity seasons. A classic sideline-to-sideline middle linebacker with coverage skills, Tangredi made 80 tackles as a junior and improved to 83 last fall, specializing in beating ballcarriers to the hole or running them down. "I've got a lot of instincts," he said.

"He studies film and diagnoses the play," Fehrenbach said. "On film, you'll see him pointing at the hole or redirecting one of our guys. He's a smart player."

A fast one, too. "I'm a speed guy," said Tangredi, who is strongly considering Division III Buffalo State as the place he'll continue his football career. "It's tremendous to be only the second guy in school history to win this award."

https://patch.com/new-york/levittown-ny/macarthur-football-player-wins-top-linebacker-award

https://www.newsday.com/sports/high-school/football/ryan-o-shea-of-macarthur-wins-martone-award-as-nassau-s-top-two-way-lineman-o76433

Ryan O’Shea of MacArthur wins Martone Award as Nassau’s top two-way lineman

When the whistle blows and the play is over, Ryan O’Shea is nowhere to be found.

You can’t miss him when you watch MacArthur’s football team in person. Assuming your eyes work and your head swivels, you’ll see the Generals’ 6-0, 235-pound lineman punishing imposing defenders all over the field. But a camera’s scope captures only so much real estate.

“When you’re watching film, he’s on the screen with the kid he’s blocking and then all of a sudden both are gone,” coach Bobby Fehrenbach said. “He just takes them right off the screen. A lot of kids, they make their block and go, ‘Alright, I’m good.’ He just keeps going until he hears the whistle.”

Though the whistle has sounded on his high school football playing days, O’Shea still has not come to a halt. He has quickly transitioned back to the wrestling mat for his fifth varsity season, allotting time for visits with the Division III football programs courting him.

And on Wednesday night, the Nassau County Football Coaches Association granted him the Martone Award as the county’s top two-way lineman.

“It shows how much work the coaches put into me for four years now,” O’Shea said. “Everything that everyone’s ever done for me in my football career, that’s what it’s for.”

In 2016, O’Shea recorded 33 tackles, two sacks and one forced fumble. His four-year totals at MacArthur include 146 tackles, nine sacks, four forced fumbles, one fumble recovery, one interception and one touchdown.

And that says nothing about his value to the offense’s production. Fehrenbach said the Generals (5-4) directed about 75 percent of their running plays toward O’Shea, whose 40 games played are the most in MacArthur history, according to the coach.

Ever since he made varsity as a freshman, O’Shea’s calm but confident presence has inspired his teammates and coaching staff. “He’s not a rah-rah guy,” Fehrenbach said. “He’s not going to fire up the troops and rally the troops, but he just leads by example working to the whistle. It’s just that drive and hard work.”

O’Shea played middle linebacker as a freshman before moving to the line as a sophomore and becoming a Martone Award finalist as a junior.

During training camp this past August, Fehrenbach felt more comfortable sending O’Shea back to linebacker because of his team’s personnel.

O’Shea, who said he prefers to have his “hands in the dirt” as a lineman, did not complain.

Said Fehrenbach, “Probably in most kids’ heads [would be], ‘Hey, all the other linemen left that were finalists [for the Martone Award] last year. I’ve got a pretty good shot at it this year. I could win the award.’ He doesn’t even hesitate or say, ‘Hey, coach, Martone is something I really have my sights set on.’ ”

“I just wanted to step up, play for the team,” O’Shea said. “Wherever they needed me, I would play.”

The whistle blew on the experiment after a game or two. After that, everyone knew where to find O’Shea. Until he went off screen.

Said Fehrenbach, “It was a pleasure watching him.”

https://patch.com/new-york/levittown-ny/levittown-footballer-honored-countys-most-outsanding-lineman

https://www.newsday.com/sports/high-school/football/sean-tierney-martone-award-q77046

MacArthur's Sean Tierney collects Martone Award as Nassau's top lineman

Whenever MacArthur needed to convert a tough, short-yardage situation everyone knew the Generals were going to run it — behind left tackle Sean Tierney — and that often included the defense.

“When we really had to get those big yards we would always run it behind him,” MacArthur coach Bobby Fehrenbach said. “Everybody knew it but they still couldn’t stop it.”

A three-year starter on both lines, Tierney helped spearhead a dominating rushing attack that led MacArthur to the Nassau II title game. For his efforts he was named the Martone Award winner as the county’s top lineman at the 54th Gridiron Banquet presented by the Nassau County High School Football Coaches Association in Woodbury on Wednesday night. Neil Levantini of Farmingdale and Freeport’s Myles Norris were the other finalists.

The 6-1, 255-pound Tierney embraced the physical side of being an offensive lineman.

“Run blocking is fun, you get those pancakes,” said Tierney, laughing. “It makes the game fun to lay somebody out. When you see him [the running back] breaking down the field, it makes you want to do that again and again.”

Tierney started at guard his sophomore season and showed off his athleticism getting out and pulling on run plays before developing into a mauling tackle that pushes back the line of scrimmage and helps protect the quarterback as well as anybody.

“He’s so athletic for a kid his size,” Fehrenbach said. “He’s able to come off the line and get to linebackers so well and he was also a punter and a kicker for us.”

But Tierney was more than just a physical blocker. He was also cerebral, according to Fehrenbach.

“He studies film,” Fehrenbach said. “He’s the kind of kid who gets it after you tell him once.”

Tierney grew into one of the key veterans along both lines.

“You have to know all the plays and know what everyone else is going to do,” Tierney said. “It was hard to do and took a lot of focus to learn a new position but it worked out.”

It worked out so well that Tierney was a Martone award nominee as a junior before winning this year. And to those that watched him it was as obvious a choice as MacArthur running backs had when choosing which lanes to run through after Tierney demolished defensive lines.

“There was a handful of times he fork lifted kids up and drove them back,” Fehrenbach said. “He had a presence on the outside and could collapse the whole side of the line.”

https://www.newsday.com/sports/high-school/football/flatley-award-hugh-kelleher-nick-licalzi-w29622

Inaugural Tom Flatley Award goes to MacArthur's Hugh Kelleher and South Side's Nick LiCalzi

Hugh Kelleher shows up — always.

If the MacArthur Generals had an important football game, Kelleher, a two-time Newsday All-Long Island selection, turned in the big performance. If a lacrosse game was to be decided in the waning seconds, MacArthur coach John Nessler wanted the ball in Kelleher’s stick.

And when MacArthur High School ran a fundraiser or a community service event, Kelleher could be found in the thick of it. Whether it was a book collection or packing backpacks full of supplies for underprivileged students or a lacrosse clinic for kids with autism — Kelleher showed up.

While Kelleher found time to succeed on and off the field and in his community, South Side senior Nick LiCalzi was doing much of the same in his town.

LiCalzi also showed up.  

He was an impact player on both sides of the football and a two-time Newsday All-Long Island selection. He propelled the Cyclones to a 9-2 season and the Nassau Conference III final. He was one of coach Steve DiPietro’s top lacrosse players for four years and earned Nassau long-stick midfielder of the year in 2019.

LiCalzi, a devout Christian, went on mission trips with his church and during the pandemic has helped his mom make masks for essential workers in the community.

For their accomplishments, Kelleher and LiCalzi were recognized as the first recipients of the Tom Flatley Award, which will be presented annually to a male student-athlete in Nassau who competes at a high level in football and lacrosse, demonstrates athletic and peer leadership, academic success, and participates in extracurricular school and/or community service.

Both winners received a $1,000 scholarship from the Nassau Lacrosse Coaches Association.

The eight-man committee consisting of football and lacrosse coaches across Nassau narrowed the nominations to four finalists, which included standouts Jacob Bruno of Cold Spring Harbor and Billy Kephart of Garden City.

“We started talking about an award to recognize the impact of Tom Flatley back in August,” said Joe Baccarella, vice president of the National Interscholastic Lacrosse Coaches Association. “We thought it would be fitting to recognize these great student-athletes while he was still around. We wanted him to see the impressive candidates.”

Flatley was one of the most successful football and lacrosse coaches in state history. He led Sewanhaka lacrosse to 131 wins in six years and the school’s only Long Island title in 1981. After taking over the Garden City football program in 1985, he led the Trojans to 18 Nassau Conference championships and five Long Island championships.

Flatley died on May 26 of pancreatic cancer at the age of 80.

“I am so honored to win this award,” said Kelleher, who will attend Cornell this year. “He was a great man and an unbelievable coach. I will never forget when I was in ninth grade and playing JV football and we beat Garden City. Coach Flatley came over to me after we beat them and congratulated me. I’ll never forget that. It really left an impression.”

LiCalzi, who committed to the U.S. Naval Academy to play lacrosse, will leave for school on July 2.

“I’m super honored about receiving this award,” he said. “I’ve heard great things about coach Flatley. One of my coaches at South Side, coach [Connor] Horl, played for him, and said his impact is what inspired him to become a coach.”

Kelleher and LiCalzi have already started to inspire folks.

https://www.midislandtimes.com/articles/senior-student-athlete-earns-inaugural-award/#:~:text=MacArthur%20High%20School%20senior%20Hugh%20Kelleher%20received%20the%20Tom%20Flatley%20Award.&text=Hugh%20Kelleher%2C%20a%20senior%20from,the%20new%20Tom%20Flatley%20Award.