William Floyd Football Ready for 2023 Season

As football season slowly approaches, there have been rumblings about what school currently has the best program on Long Island. If you have that conversation, it is very hard to leave out the William Floyd Colonials.

The Colonials are coming off of one of their best seasons in program history as they were the undefeated league champions and Coach Paul Longo won a mind-boggling 15th Suffolk County Division 1 Coach of the Year award and helped guide the team to the number one seed before being upset in the County SemiFinals.

Longo is also a member of the Suffolk County Sports Hall of Fame and recently had the award for best wide receiver in Suffolk County named after him.

“We were undefeated in division 1 last year, going 8-0 into the playoffs and winning our first playoff game,” said Coach Longo when discussing last year's team. “Unfortunately, we got upset in the semifinals. When it's a one game series, you could have a bad game and we did, but overall, we were 9-1 and we won 90% of our games. We were first in the division and Big Four Champions. I think we obviously had a chance to compete for it all, which has been the case for many, many years now. We're always in the thick of this. We're always one of the teams that has a good chance to win the whole thing. And that was true last year, unfortunately, we did have one bad game and we did lose the game and (Ward) Melville played a very good game. We're hoping to use that as motivation for this year and pick up where we were before that game last fall.”

William Floyd will have some big shoes to fill this year as they lost a few key seniors due to graduation.

Dylan Harris was one of the best running backs on Long Island last year and he leaves behind a big hole in the backfield. He now plays for Stony Brook University as he continues his football career at the collegiate level.

“It's gonna be hard to replace him because he was a big, strong, tough back,” said Longo.

Jayden Montalvo will most likely become the incumbent running back as Coach Longo will lean on him to take the bulk of the carries in the backfield after Harris departed for college.

“He (Montalvo) could fill Dylan's shoes as far as running the ball,” said Coach Longo. “He's a little different runner. He's a real burner, really, very fast player. He's a legit 4.5 x 40-yard-dash guy. He's very elusive and has great ball carrier vision. He didn't play last year due to a very bad hamstring injury. I think he literally played one play. He tried to come back and he got hurt again. I think if he could step up, we still have a very, very good running back who maybe he can fill the shoes of what we got out of Dylan Harris.”

At quarterback, the Colonials have another big hole to fill as they lost a great athlete in LaDuke Harris, who graduated this spring as well.

“LaDuke was a tremendous runner,” said Coach Longo. “He was getting better at throwing the ball and made some good throws last year.” The team currently has a couple of rising Junior quarterbacks this year competing for the starting spot. AJ Cannet and Jack Malini will both be given a chance to fill the void left behind by LaDuke Harris.

“I think a lot of both of them as a quarterback,” said Coach Longo. “They both have very good arms, one guy is a little faster and one guy is a little taller.”

Floyd also will be returning three out of four defensive backs including Caden Lesiewicz who won the Tom Cassese Award as the best defensive back in Suffolk County along with the inaugural County Kicking Award for being the best kicker in Suffolk County.

“He won the award for the best secondary player in Suffolk County and he's coming back,” said Longo. “He's also a great kicker. I don't think there's a better kicker than him on Long Island. He was an incredible kicker last year. He actually won the kicking award for Suffolk County.”

Lesiewicz is currently being recruited by some Division 1 FBS schools – which are some of the biggest schools in the country – for his kicking ability.

Coach Longo also mentioned Javon Delaney and Wally Crane as key contributors to the defense as they will be third year varsity players who were All-Division last fall.

Coach Longo has many goals for his team every year and in a tough division like Suffolk County 1, he knows that if his guys are healthy they will go a long way.

“There's just so many good teams (in our division) and the goal last year was literally to win every game, which is always hard to do,” said Longo. “But that was a goal that we almost accomplished. We got tripped up but we almost accomplished it. This year, it's gonna be tough. There's so many good teams. Sachem North is a very good team. Ward Melville is a very good team. Longwood is always very good. Lindenhurst is coming up with a good team. Connetquot is a good team. I mean, it is a tough, tough league next year and the goal is to try to be as healthy as possible and just get into the best playoff position you can. And that's when the real season will start next year because I think it's gonna be very hard for any team to win all their games next year. There's a lot of good teams and a lot of teams are gonna knock each other off and you just want to get us the best playoff spot that you can. The key is which team is gonna be the most healthy because I think there's a lot of balance in the league.”

Longo has been here before and he knows that a lot has to go right in order for them to climb the mountaintop in 2023.

The William Floyd Colonials open up their season on September 9th at home against the Connetquot T-Birds.

“We play every tough team in the league and every week is gonna be a battle,” said Longo. “Every week is gonna be a tough game. So the goal this year is to win as many of the tough games as we can get so we can be as high as we can in the playoffs and hopefully stay healthy. And then that's when the real season will begin.”