Season Preview: Varsity Boys Winter Track

Coach George Dreher’s winter track season goals are simple: "I want to see every returning runner improve their times from last winter’s season."

And although the team doesn’t have four of the top five cross country runners coming out for the indoor season, Dreher is looking forward to the team being very competitive at the conference and county championship level – on both the individual and team levels.

The team, one of the deeper Garden City squads in recent years, will be led by a trio of senior captains – Christian Morreale, Danny Muller and Tom Pittela.

Morreale (shot put) will head up a talented group of field event performers like Mike Gilbert (shot put), Scott D’Antonio (jumps) and Ryan Norton (jumps). All four are outstanding performers on the football field and bring their talents indoors for the track season. It will be Norton’s first attempt at jumping but all indications are that he will add to his field goal kicking resume with some good air time.

Assistant coach George Lucas is impressed with the talent level of the returning boys but added ‘we have a good group of football players joining the squad, as well as some good looking youngsters.’ He’s been very impressed with the attitude and commitment of the group of runners that turned out this season and believes only good things can come from it.

On the track, the sprint group will be led by Mark Ellis, the all-purpose football star that comes off a terrific season on the gridiron. Add to Ellis juniors like Matt Trabold and Mike Padala, as well as senior Nick Zawisha and the sprint group will be pushing their performances to the limit, in races from the 55 meter dash up to the 400 meter sprint. The sprint group will make it especially tough on the other Nassau teams in the 4x200 and 4x400 relays.

The middle distance group may have the most depth of all with a terrific group of youngsters joining the team. The boys handling the 600 to 1000 meter races, and stepping up to pace the team, will be seniors Muller, Pitella and Kyle Howard, junior Andrew Magdich and sophomore Tim Feyrer. With a talented range of runners to choose from, coach Dreher will be looking to pair up a quartet that can challenge the county's best in the 4x800 relay.

On the distance side, junior Andrew Morra is coming off of a fantastic cross country season where he led the team to an undefeated season and its first county championship in 50 years. The coaches are looking forward to him bringing that winning attitude with him to the indoor track. Morra is versatile enough to run a range of events from the 800 meters up to the 3200 meter race, with the mile being his best event.

Coaches Dreher and Lucas will be working in more invitational meets than in past seasons, which will help push the boys to higher levels and have them competing each week against not only the best on Long Island but in the region.