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Memorable Mondays: Favorite venues
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 morning.
In Week 6 of Memorable Mondays, we look at five of our favorite venues across Long Island.
LaValle Stadium, Stony Brook University
Home of the Stony Brook University football and lacrosse teams, the home of the Seawolves has seen its share of great high school sports moments.
In the 2011-12 school year, Stony Brook saw witness to a historic football game - the highest scoring game in NYS history - in which Sayville topped Lawrence, 78-61 in the Class III title game. Following that, Stacey Bedell ran roughshod over the Stony Brook turf for 412 rushing yards against East Meadow.
Located in East Setauket, NY and opened in 2002, LaValle Stadium holds just over 8,000 fans and most recently hosted the 2012 NCAA Womens Division I lacrosse championships.
Brother Kenneth Robert Gymnasium, St. Mary's High School
One of the last of the old style basketball gymnasiums on Long Island, Brother Kenneth Robert Gymnasium at St. Mary's High School is truly a uniqueplace to play.
The court is smaller than normal and not regulation sized, hence fast breaks seem lightning fast. Want to take a three-pointer from the corner? Unless your feet are extremely tiny, that will be a tall task. Add a stage with the cheerleading team cheering on right above you, there's not much room for sound to travel when the gym is packed.
St. Anthony's High School
From the small, to the gigantic. St. Anthony's High School's athletic and activity facility is an enormous 120,000-square foot center that can be bigger than some actual high schools. Inside is a five-lane track, a wrestling room, football field, locker rooms, chrous and band rooms and three art studios.
Ott Field, Chaminade High School
Surrounded by well-kept landscaping and ivy, Chaminade's Ott Field is probably one of the most picturesque football/lacrosse fields on Long Island. Like St. Mary's, its track surrounding the football field is smaller than normal, which poses some difficulties when its comes to the football field as extra pieces of astroturf has to added to the corners of the endzone to accomodate the smaller field. Regardless of its quirks, Chaminade's Ott Field is a place that is beautiful to look at.
Shuart Stadium, Hofstra University
Opened in 1962, Hofstra University's Shuart Stadium may not regularly host college football games anymore, but that's not keeping the high schools away.
With a capacity of 15,000, Shuart Stadium regularly hosts two of the four Long Island football championship games, and this season hosted the 2012 NYS Downstate boys lacrosse semifinals. This June the UnitedHealthcare Empire Challenge nearly filled Shuart Stadium to capacity by hosting more than 12,000 fans for the annual New York City vs. Long Island all-star football showdown. It also hosts the annual Newsday Marching Band festival in late October which showcases the top marching bands from across Long Island in a three-day extravaganza.
Join us throughout the summer as "Memorable Mondays" brings you more top 5 lists:
Aug. 6: Top five coaches from 2011-12
Aug. 13: Top five most memorable games from 2011-12
Aug. 20: Top five teams from 2011-12
Aug. 27: Top five teams to watch in 2012-13
Find them all at www.msgvarsity.com/mondays.
Tri-State lacrosse Top 20: Week 4
Long Island power rankings: Spring sports
All-Metro boys and girls basketball: 2012-13
All-Long Island teams: Fall 2012
