It’s the football season that never ends. Even the celebratory cake made for the Sachem football ring ceremony had that written on it.
The Sachem football family gathered one more time to celebrate the 2013 Class I Long Island championship season on Monday evening at Sachem North. Players and coaches officially received championship rings to commemorate their historic moment forever at an event organized by the Sachem Touchdown Club.
“I’ve dreamt about this moment since ninth grade,” said Sachem senior running back Malik Pierre, who will play at LIU Post, “and to finally have this ring is great. It’s beautiful, big and I love everything about it.”
Players, coaches and parents admired the gaudy piece of sports jewelry together in the cafeteria after spending the first half of the evening in the auditorium watching the season’s highlight film. You can never relive a championship season too much.
“We were part of teams the last three years that were so close to winning,” said Sachem senior quarterback Trent Crossan, who will play next season at Suffield Academy in Connecticut, “so this moment is unreal. This was a total team effort to get here tonight.”
Sachem coach Dave Falco said it was like Christmas seeing his players open the boxes and put their rings on for the first time. He asked around about what other programs have done to hand out rings before settling on an informal celebration like Sachem had.
“I felt it was important to have some closure on the season,” he said. “It was good to have the football family back together.”
Falco and his staff spent weeks designing the ring with Jostens before finalizing everything, only to have the whole process delayed when the rings came back with some issues that were eventually fixed.
“Jostens did an unbelievable job correcting the mistake that was made,” Falco said, “and we’re all very happy with the final product.”
The ring ceremony puts a final chapter in the book of the 2013 season as Sachem’s 2014 summer program is about to begin in one month’s time.
“It’s time to move on and continue the success with all the hard work we’ve put in,” Falco said. “I don’t think anyone is ever going to forget this group of kids and what they were able to accomplish. As with any program, you have to move on, duplicate past successes and go from there.”
Rings ‘n Things
- The ring includes eight cubic zirconia studs that represent Sachem football’s eight championships (seven county titles and one Long Island crown).
- On one side of the right is an actual design of the Long Island championship trophy presented to Class I teams each season. In that trophy on the ring are the letters “WTD.” This represents the team’s motto for the 2013 season, which was to “Win The Day.”
- While this is the first Long Island championship ring in Sachem football history, this is actually the second championship ring ever issued to a Sachem football team in history. The 1986 team had the opportunity to purchase rings after a successful Suffolk County championship and Rutger’s Trophy season.
-Words/Photos by Chris R. Vaccaro