Patchogue-Medford Looks to Return to Championship Form in 2023

Patchogue-Medford High School has become one known for producing superstar athletes. Anthony Famiglietti, Marcus Stroman, and recent graduate Josh Knoth come to mind, but when discussing the school's athletic successes, you can’t forget about their football team.

The Raiders are entering the 2023 season with a new face at the helm as Thomas Piccirillo – who was most recently an assistant at Bethpage High School – will be stepping in for Gary Marangi as the new head coach of Pat-Med football.

“I was hired around the end of June, so that was when we got this rolling,” said Coach Piccirillo. “I can't really speak on last season or the season as a whole. What I do know was last year we had a roster size of 29 and we already have a good turnout so far in summer workouts.”

While speaking with Coach Piccirillo, the South Shore Press was also able to receive some comments from Athletic Director Anthony Cracco on the most recent season and hopes for the upcoming season as well.

“The season as a whole definitely had a lot of positives towards the end of the year,” said Cracco. “Things started to come together. They put together a couple of wins and they had a big win in week seven against Ward Melville, who wound up being the County Champion and that helped catapult them into finishing in a place where they had an opportunity to play a playoff game. They lost the tough team in the first round of the playoffs. But it was an exciting run towards the end of the year. We’re excited and optimistic for the program to move forward in their direction.”

Coach Piccirillo comes from an extensive football background and he hopes his experience can help the Raiders reach the goal of winning a championship in the near future.

“My prior experience includes playing football at Gettysburg College after playing defensive end in high school,” Said Coach Piccirillo. “I was an All-Conference selection my senior year and since then I’ve coached football for 11 years with this being my first year as a head coach. I’m going to take everything that I’ve learned in my football career and bring it to Pat-Med.”

So far this summer, Piccirillo has seen a great turnout as the offseason workout program he currently has been holding for 7th-12th graders has seen anywhere from 60 to 75 athletes show up consistently.

“We started our strength and conditioning programs right after the Fourth of July,” said Piccirillo. “We go in four days a week [Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday], we also get in on the field a couple of times a week to focus on our offensive and defensive techniques. It’s been a great start as we are building our culture and putting an emphasis on commitment, integrity, and family.”

Entering the 2023 season, the Raiders will have some big shoes to fill according to their athletics department as seven seniors from last year's team are going on to play football at the collegiate level.

“It shows how talented last year's team and that group of seniors was,” said Piccirillo. “We lost a good chunk of guys to graduation this past year, so we will be a younger team. We anticipate around 10 sophomores to make the varsity team and we will be a large group of juniors on this team.”

The team will be returning some talented players like two-way lineman Hamza Ibin who will make an impact on day one according to Coach Piccirillo. He also has a lot of faith in Ontonio Papaleo who has been impressive in the summer sessions. Papaleo will be getting plenty of touches out of the backfield while also seeing some snaps at the linebacker position.

The Raiders will also be leaning on Kam Sylevestre and Jackson Wustenhoff at the wide receiver position this fall as both these guys have also been pleasant surprises for the coaches so far this offseason.

Pat-Med still has one major decision left to make before the 2023 season begins; who will be the starting quarterback this year?

The team is holding a position battle between junior Brody Sorensen and incoming freshman Brett Rupolo. “It’s an open competition and both guys are doing a great job,” said Piccirillo. “They’ve committed to training, they’re at everything, and they are super coachable. We’re excited to see the competition play out because it just makes everyone better.

It’s probably going to come down to who does their job the best and executes their responsibilities the best. We (the staff) told the kids that don’t control playing time, you do it based on how you play, how you practice, how you hustle, and if you never give up on plays.”

The Raiders are looking to rebound after a 4-4 season and with the legendary Gary Marangi stepping down, Coach Piccirillo is looking to keep the culture of PatMed football alive.

“We're looking to get back to a level where we can get back to being a top four team in division one and continue to build off our success,” said Piccirillo. “Right now, year one is starting and establishing what that championship culture looks like. The idea we want to hammer home is commitment, integrity, resilience, and family, getting those expectations of it being a yearround, full-time commitment and developing our players as not only just as football players, but as people.

We want to help turn boys and girls in our programs into young men and women. So those are things going forward and developing that whole person approach that I know will yield championship play. So I'm not really so fixed in about the overall record and where we end up [this season], but I know and my staff knows that once we implement these things going forward, we're gonna be able to build something that we can be proud of and that's gonna be able to play at a championship level, year in and year out.”

It may take a little bit of time, but it appears Pat-Med is hungry and ambitious to make it back to their former form where they were a powerhouse in the 1990’searly 2000’s. They begin their quest towards a championship on September 8th as they open their season against Sachem East on the road. Their homecoming game will be on October 14th against Longwood in a huge matchup between two historically good programs.

The Raiders will also be hosting their annual “Support the Troops” game on Friday, September 22nd against Riverhead that will include a guest of honor and other veterans who will be present at the game.

The team will also host their senior day on September 29th against Central Islip High School.

“My goal in year one is to establish and build a championship culture,” said Piccirillo. “Every single day I want to be able to embody that and put components around it that are gonna help us to achieve those certain goals we have.”