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Memorable Moments: Top 2011-12 teams
Welcome to MSGVarsity.com’s Memorable Mondays, a summer-long series that looks back on the top players, games and moments from the past season and gazes ahead to 2012-13. As the summer goes on, we’ll compile all the lists and post them here: www.msgvarsity.com/mondays. New Lists will be posted every Monday at noon.
In Week 9 of Memorable Mondays, we look at the top five teams in New York City from the 2011-12 season.
Abraham Lincoln football: The Railsplitters weren’t supposed to get back to Yankee Stadium. After all, 26 players graduated from the team that lost in the title game the year prior, many of them starters. But Lincoln used that as motivation and went on to enjoy an undefeated season, capped by a win over Erasmus Hall in the title game, the Coney Island school’s first city championship since 1993. Six of the team’s seniors earned college scholarships.
American Studies boys volleyball: As was the case with the Lincoln football team, American Studies used a loss in the PSAL Class A final a year prior to serve as the backbone of a brilliant season capped by a three-set win over Bronx Science for the small Queens school’s first-ever boys volleyball title. The Eagles were so dominant that they didn’t drop a set all season until a semifinal win over Cardozo.
Collegiate boys basketball: A boys basketball dynamo lives in a tiny gym on the Upper West Side. Led by Connor Huff and Ryan Frankel, the Dutchmen captured a fifth consecutive New York State Federation Class B title in March at the Times Union Center in Albany. Collegiate is tied with Mount Vernon and Nichols School for third in all-time Federation titles. Coach Ray Voelkel deserves a huge amount of the credit for building the perennial powerhouse.
Leon Goldstein girls tennis: Stony Brook-bound Becky Shtilkind remembers a time when the Goldstein girls tennis team struggled for league wins. Now, the Dolphins are a city juggernaut that won its second straight PSAL title in June. Even more impressive, though, is that Goldstein claimed its first Mayor’s Cup title, defeating St. Francis Prep in the final, ending the Terriers streak of 12 straight Mayor’s Cup crowns and 203 consecutive victories.
Martin Luther King boys soccer: The premier boys soccer program in New York City, and a perennial national powerhouse, once again celebrated a PSAL title in November, a remarkable 13th city crown in 16 years. Led by supremely talented players like Tarek Beckles and Ibrahim Diaby, MLK, which was ranked No. 3 in the country by the NSCAA, defeated Francis Lewis, 3-2, in the final, capping an undefeated league season.
Join us throughout the summer as “Memorable Mondays” brings you more top 5 lists:
Aug. 27: Top five teams to watch in 2012-13
Find them all at www.msgvarsity/mondays
Tri-State lacrosse Top 20: Week 4
NYC power rankings: Spring sports
All-Metro boys and girls basketball: 2012-13
2012-2013 All-City teams
