Half Hollow Hills Gets Ready For Some Football

"It was an incredible season,"  said 2010 graduate and former captain of the Hills West varsity football team, John Iaquinto.

With a 12-0 perfect season, a Division III Suffolk County Championship, a Division III Long Island Championship, Rutgers Cup winners for being the best team in Suffolk County, and having the Hansen Award winner in JeVahn Cruz for being the best player on Long Island, Hills West truly could not have done more in 2009.

But now it is 2010, and returning seniors are ready and willing to prepare themselves mentally and physically to have another successful year.

"We are looking to win. Plain and simple," said offensive lineman Michael Quinn. "That's what we come here for. That's what we spend our summers preparing for. We want to win. And not just games, but championships."

With the team currently working out three days a week since January, and starting their two-a-day practice sessions on Aug. 16, Half Hollow Hills West is most certainly looking to win another Long Island Championship, but is primarily looking to succeed in their new division.

This coming season, Hills West will be playing their games in Division II, facing powerhouses such as North Babylon, East Islip and Bellport high schools. The team is far from worried however.

"We already are the biggest team on the field, we just need to act like it and play like it," said head coach Kyle Madden. "We know how to win championships. We have proved that we can win and we can do whatever we want. It doesn't matter who we play."

This is the same approach that Hills West took last year on its quest for a Long Island championship.

"We take it day by day, practice by practice, game by game. We will worry about the other stuff when we come to it," the coach said.