Today I want to take the opportunity to spotlight three local authors from Long Island, whose work I admire and enjoy immensely as a reader.
Vincent N. Scialo is a self-published author of Mysteries. He has eight books out presently. His most recent is The Decision, available on Amazon.com.
https://www.amazon.com/Decision-Vincent-N-Scialo-ebook/
Mary A Ellenton is the author of two riveting tales situated on the Island. Her first novel Flipping, and her latest, Psychic are excellent.
Connect with Mary and her books on her website https://www.maryellenton.com
Dina Santorelli is a transplanted Queens girl now ruling her roost in Massapequa. She is the author of the highly acclaimed Baby Grand Mysteries.
Connect with Dina and her books on https://www.dinasantorelli.com
And now, a coaches lament.
I coach middle school football at Howitt Middle School in Farmingdale. The Dale is like no other community in Nassau County when it comes to football. We are a football town. We identify with our Dalers. Every kid playing youth football here dreams of one day donning the green and white to play for Coach Buddy Krumenacker, our legendary coach at the high school. I get them before he does. That's sort of my problem.
We had eighty kids try out for the middle school this fall. We could only keep fifty-five. This put me and the other coaches in the difficult position of having to tell twenty-five seventh and eight graders they couldn't play football this year. Cut Day is absolutely the worst day of the season for any coach. Despite making every effort to be fair, impartial and judicious, five days, and zero days with pads almost guarantees mistakes might be made.
Because we were prevented by state law from padding the kids up and having them engage in full contact drills, we were left to rely on the eye test. The problem with that is everyone looks good in shorts and a tee shirt. While a kid might look like Tarzan, he might play like Jane. One of the kids I cut might have been the second coming of Jim Thorpe, but I'll never know unless he comes back to try out next year. If I made a mistake, I hope they come back next year and prove me wrong.
Having felt sorry for myself long enough, right now we have fifty-five terrific young men who are on their way to being Dalers. I and the other coaches have six games to make it so. I like what I see so far.