Orangetown Honors Statewide CYO Winners

The Orangetown Town Board has honored the winners of the 2014 Catholic Youth Organization statewide boys basketball tournament at a recent Town Board meeting at the Town Hall in Orangeburg.

The winning team was the undefeated St. Catharine’s CYO team from Blauvelt, sponsored by that hamlet’s St. Catharine’s Roman Catholic Church on Western Highway.

According to one of the coaches, Kevin Clancy, the 6th grade boys team went undefeated this season, with an archdiocesan record of 27-0.

Thy began their victory route with a 48-40 win over St. Paul’s of Congers for the Rockland County CYO championship at Albertus Magnus High School in Bardonia.

From there the nine Blauvelt boys defeated St. Joseph’s of Kingston in the upstate semi-final match by a score of 46-23 at Dominican College of Blauvelt and continued with a victory at the upstate finals over St. Mary’s of Washingtonville held at the John A. Coleman Catholic High School in Hurley.

The final game was the New York State championship which pitted St. Catharine’s against the defending 2013 championship team of Sacred Heard of Staten island, whom they narrowly defeated 50-46.

The victorious boys team included Robert Caulfield, Liam Collins, Kevin Clancy Jr., CJ Florencia, Joseph Grammatica, Dan Linehan, Anthony Rostek, Jacob Sansone and Matthew Zona.

Coaches, along with Clancy, included Brendan Collins and Joseph Angelini, while the CYO coordinators for the competition were Mary Anne Pagnani and Edward Dinnegan.

Leading the recognition for the Town of Orangetown was Councilman Denis Troy of Pearl River, himself a long-time youth and CYO coach both locally and on a countywide basis.

Each of the boys was given a certificate of recognition from the Town Board and a standing round of applause at a recent Town Board meeting, where they were congratulated by all five board members.