Move over Michigan’s Fab Five. Meet Salesian’s Fantastic Four.
As freshmen, Kevin Punter, Jason Alleyne, Nick Sedia and Mike Cacciato all crossed the border from The Bronx and led the New Rochelle school to the ‘B’ JV title as ninth graders, back-to-back CHSAA Class B intersectional titles, a CHSAA ‘B’ state title and will now will end their high school careers on the Times Union Center court in Albany in the school’s third trip to the New York State Federation tournament.
“I hope they get it because they’re a special team,” Salesian coach John Miressi said. “Not too many schools can say they’ve won a Federation championship. There’s one in 90 years of basketball at Salesian.”
Salesian takes on Pathways in the ‘B’ semifinals Friday at 5 p.m. and the winner meets either Burke Catholic (Goshen) or Collegiate in the final Saturday at 5:45 p.m. In Salesian’s gorgeous new athletic center, there is just one white banner that hangs high above the hardwood, honoring the 1997 state Federation champs.
These seniors are trying to make history in their last high-school games.
“There’s no better way to go out than to win the Federation,” Punter said. “It doesn’t get any better than that.”
The players will board a bus for the nearly three-hour ride to Albany Thursday afternoon, but the journey actually started four years ago on CYO courts in The Bronx.
Sedia, a hard-nosed point guard, was playing for St. Francis Xavier. Punter and Cacciato were teammates at St. Nicholas Tolentine on Andrews Ave.
“We played against each other since fifth and sixth grade,” Sedia said.
But they weren’t always friendly.
“We hated Nick so much,” Cacciato said. “It was always a rivalry.”
Meanwhile, just across the street from St. Raymond in Castle Hill, Alleyne was a star at MS 127.
“St. Raymond’s was tough and I didn’t want to ride the bench,” Alleyne said.
Sedia said he and Cacciato both knew they were going to attend Salesian, but he was unaware Punter had the same intentions until he saw him at the school’s open house. When Alleyne showed up the first day of practice, the seeds were sown for what would arguably be the most successful four-year period in Salesian history.
“All of us had different types of talent,” Punter said. “You could see in practice how we would do certain things and the potential was definitely there.”
“We just clicked right away,” added Cacciato.
Miressi said he had an idea he had a special group of players that freshman year.
“You could see the chemistry developing and that’s one of the reason why I think we have the nine seniors,” said Miressi, a 1980 Salesian graduate whose son, Joe, is the lone junior on the team. “We were fortunate to have 30-40 kids try out, but the chemistry here was so good that there was no reason to upset it.”
After struggling with the transition to varsity as sophomores, the Fantastic Four led Salesian to its first CHSAA Class B intersectional title since 1999 last year and repeated earlier this month at Fordham’s Rose Hill Gym.
The Eagles took success one step further by beating St. Mary’s (Lancaster) in the CHSAA state ‘B’ final, avenging a loss in Buffalo last year.
“We’ve got two games, one goal and we’re trying to make the best of it,” Punter said.
The 6-foot-3 Punter, who scored a game-high 31 points in the Class B final against St. Joseph by the Sea, will attend Trinity-Pawling in the fall, Alleyne will likely attend either Southern Connecticut or Felician and Cacciato is considering Mercy and Queens College as well as Clark, a junior college in Washington state.
Sedia’s basketball days are down to a maximum of two games. He’ll play somewhere in the middle infield at Albertus Magnus College in New Haven, Conn.
“These are my last games of organized basketball,” the diminutive point guard said. “I’ve been playing since second grade. It’s going to be really hard for me to walk away from this if we lose.”
Win or lose, Salesian’s Fantastic Four have formed a lifelong bond.
“We’ve been coming here since freshman year and we’ve built up a brotherhood,” Punter said. “I love these guys.”
“We’re never going to separate from each other,” Alleyne added. “We’re all going to have our phone calls and be right there for each other.”