Marc Cuseta
After being selected as an All-City second baseman at Newtown HS in 1977, where he was a teammate of former Montreal Expos and New York Mets GM Omar Minaya, Marc Cuseta continued his academic and athletic career at Hofstra University. Marc graduated from Hofstra with a BA in marketing.
Cuseta founded the Bayside Yankees in 1981, and would quickly become the director of one of the nation’s first truly elite travel baseball programs. Under his direction, the Yankees won 18 National Championships. An even more incredible number is the well over 1000 student athletes that Coach Cuseta has assisted in continuing their careers at the collegiate level, with more than 500 at the Division 1 level. You would be hard pressed to find college coaches who are unfamiliar with the name Marc Cuseta.
On the professional side of the game, in the 1990’s Marc scouted for both the Chicago White Sox and Milwaukee Brewers. His seemingly endless baseball rolodex contains the personal numbers and emails of general managers, scouting directors, cross checkers, scouts, players and front office personnel. Cuseta has had 62 of his former players (Sonny Gray, Jon Lester) play at the Major League level, including Major League Managers (Walt Weiss, Rocco Baldelli) and MLB Hitting Coaches (Anthony Iopoce, Eric Duncan and James Rowson). Marc’s reach at both the amateur and professional level is unparalleled.
Vincent Lumetta
Vincent Lumetta attended and graduated St John’s University prior to earning his Masters in Education, with a specialty in Counseling, from Hofstra University. During his 31 year career with the Department of Education, 7 years as a teacher and 24 years as a college/guidance counselor, he has won the city-wide Counselor of the Year award 4 times. Throughout his career, he has been called to work in as many as 5 schools at the same time. Lumetta has helped upwards of 1000 students attend hundreds of colleges with non-athletic aid. Currently, he works as a College/Guidance Counselor with World Journalism Preparatory School in Queens NY, where he has worked to get 3+ million dollars in financial aid annually for their graduating students. He also works closely with the NCAA to make sure World Journalism Preparatory School is adhering to all the standards the NCAA sets to have students eligible to play collegiate sports and clear the clearinghouse. Vincent is a member of National Association of College Counselors, New York State Counseling Association and the National Counselor’s Association.
Greg Morhardt
Greg was a High School All-American at The Gilbert High School in Connecticut. After being drafted by the St. Louis Cardinals in the 14th round, he did not sign and continued his playing career at the University of South Carolina where he won the team MVP award and was a finalist on the 1984 US Olympic team that featured Mark McGwire, Barry Larkin and Will Clark. That same year, he was the 36th overall pick in the 1984 MLB Draft by the Minnesota Twins. After playing in the Twins and Detroit Tigers organizations, Morhardt became a coach at Liberty University and with the Torrington Twisters in the NECBL. In 1999 he became an Area Supervisor for the New York Mets. In 2007 he moved on to become an Area Supervisor for the Los Angeles Angels. He has been an Area Supervisor and National Crosschecker for the Mets, Angels, Atlanta Braves and currently, the Boston Red Sox. Some of his notable draft picks are:
Mike Trout, Matt Harvey, Steven Geltz, Ian Anderson
ESPN: Draft Heist: How Mike Trout Fell To the Angels
Starr Sackstein
Starr Sackstein started her teaching career within the New York City Department Of Education almost two decades ago. Sackstien is a certified Master Journalism Educator through the Journalism Education Association (JEA) and serves at the New York State Director to JEA to help advisers in New York better grow journalism programs. In 2011, the Dow Jones News Fund honored Starr as a Special Recognition Adviser, and in 2012, Education Update recognized her as an outstanding educator. She has made the Bammy Awards finals for Secondary High School Educator in 2014 and for blogging in 2015.
Starr was named an ASCD "Emerging Leader" class of 2016 and had the opportunity to give a TEDx Talk called "A Recovering Perfectionist's Journey to Give Up Grades." Sackstein then took a district-wide position as the Director of Humanities (Business, English, Library, Reading, Social Studies and World Languages) in West Hempstead, New York.
Starr is the published author of Teaching Mythology Exposed: Helping Teachers Create Visionary Classroom Perspective, Blogging for Educators, Teaching Students to Self-Assess: How Do I Help Students Grow as Learners?, The Power of Questioning: Opening Up the World of Student Inquiry, Hacking Assessment: 10 Ways to Go Gradeless in a Traditional Grades School, Peer Feedback in the Classroom: Empower Students to Provide Effective Peer Feedback and Going From Teacher to Leader Without Losing Your Mind.
In recent years, she has spoken internationally in Canada, Dubai and South Korea on a variety of topics from assessment reform to technology-enhanced language instruction. Most recently, Sackstein began consulting full time with the Core Collaborative, working with teams on assessment reform and bringing student voice to the front of all classroom learning.
In 2019, Starr was named publisher at Mimi and Todd Press.
Vincent Messana
After a standout career at Centereach HS culminating in 2009, where he achieved All State, All County, All League and league MVP honors, Vincent Messana continued his success at Farmingdale State College posting nine victories in just two campaigns. The LHP then set his sights on continuing his personal run of success at Adelphi University in Garden City, however those on field aspirations were cut short due to a torn labrum and unsuccessful rehabilitation attempt.
Messana turned disappointment into opportunity as he shifted his focus towards his other passion - writing. He was able to combine that creativity with his love of sports, sharing his insight, thoughts and opinions with his campus brethren as the sports editor of the Delphian in 2013.
Always wanting to help others while staying true to his personal passions, Messana created the Increasingly popular Axcess Baseball platform in January 2017. Axcess Baseball is a media publication dedicated to coverage of the amateur baseball scene on Long Island. Previously, his work was featured in both Newsday and on the Bleacher Report.
Messana, 28, is engaged to Emily Nemecek, with their nuptials slated for September 26, 2020.
Kevin Young
Kevin Young was born and raised in Watts, California, overcoming gang violence that plagued the area. After a third place finish at the 1984 CIF California State Meet, he walked onto the track and field team at UCLA as a non-scholarship student-athlete. Young finished his senior year as team captain and the most valuable male collegiate athlete in the United States, winning the Jumbo Elliott Award. Young graduated from UCLA setting junior and senior class records in the 400 m hurdles (48.15 and 47.72 respectively).
Young made his debut in international competition at the 1986 Goodwill Games in Moscow, USSR, and later at the 1987 Pan American Games in Indianapolis placing second. At the 1988 Summer Olympics, Young finished fourth just behind Edwin Moses (whose record Young would replace four years later) in his final race. At the 1991 World Championships, Young was again fourth. In 1992, Young won his first USA Outdoor Track and Field Championships title and was unbeaten prior to the Barcelona Olympics.
At the 1992 Olympics running for Team USA, Kevin won the 400m hurdles with a new world record of 46.78. The record still stands, and he was the first person in history to have run 400m hurdles in less than 47 seconds.
It is well noted that Young, throughout the 1992 season prior to Barcelona, placed small pieces of paper with the numbers 46.89 in each running spike. He had mentally convinced himself that running under 47 seconds was possible. And he even bettered his vision.
Young became the first ever ESPY award winner in track presented by ESPN. He was inducted into the United States Track & Field Hall of Fame in 2006.