How Massapequa's Little League baseball teams help feed a state champion powerhouse at the high school level

Jack Scannapieco stood center stage in the massive stadium at Binghamton University, holding the fate of the Massapequa varsity baseball team in his right hand. Every seat in his view was filled, with many supporters of the other team actively rooting against him. A shot at New York State baseball immortality was about to get underway.

The pressure was on, but he felt light as a feather. After all, he and his teammates had prepared for this public high school state championship game since elementary school.

Scannapieco casually twirled a one-run gem over five innings to lead Massapequa to a 7-1 victory over Section III’s Liverpool (Onondaga County) in the state Class AAA final on June 13. It was the program’s third state title, all in the past 20 years.

That came a week after Massapequa earned its  10th Long Island title and two weeks after its 13th Nassau championship  in the same time span.

This sustained dominance is no accident, coincidence or a stretch of good luck, and neither was the 2026 team’s championship run.

Products of the feeder programs

Of the state championship team’s 28 players from this past spring, 27 have been playing high-stakes baseball in front of large crowds in big venues for Massapequa for most of their lives — but not just for the school district. They grew up playing for the entire Massapequa community, encompassing the hamlets of Massapequa, East Massapequa, North Massapequa and the village of Massapequa Park.

The players developed as children in the two Little League programs that serve the area: Massapequa Coast Little League and Massapequa International Little League. Between the 27 Little League alumni who won a ring with the varsity team this year, 16 primarily played for Massapequa Coast and 11 primarily played for Massapequa International.

Scannapieco is one of the 16 Coast products. He joined the program at the 7-years-and-under level and stuck with it through age 12. It was there that he found his identity as a baseball player, and he brought it with him to the high school level. He became the ace of Massapequa’s 2026 state championship pitching staff, going 9-0 with a 1.87 ERA in 45 innings.

“I wasn’t really liking playing third base, and I liked hitting, but that wasn’t really my thing,” Scannapieco said. “Every time I would go to the mound, that was why I liked playing baseball.

“When I was pitching, that was when I was at my happiest. My coaches slowed the game down for me and taught me that mental aspect of the game, and that made me more prepared [for varsity]. I still use the mental tactics that they taught me.”

Coast is in its 75th year serving the community; International is in its 70th. Coast exclusively accepts players who are zoned to the Massapequa School District, which mainly supplies it with kids from Massapequa and Massapequa Park, with an occasional few coming from East Massapequa. Most of International’s players also are zoned to the Massapequa district by way of Massapequa and Massapequa Park, but the organization also accepts residents of North Massapequa, Farmingdale and South Farmingdale, which zones kids to the Plainedge and Farmingdale districts.

How it works

Both organizations offer year-round playing opportunities — including offseason practices and clinics — to the community’s kids between the ages of 4 and 16. Both offer multiple teams for each age group with varying skill levels. The two had more than 2,100 players between them this year.

Both also offer travel teams that compete in some of Long Island’s strongest leagues, such as Boys of Summer, East Coast and Hot Stove. These teams also go long distances every year to compete in several big tournaments such as the Cooperstown Dreams Park or any of the several Ripken Baseball tournaments in states such as Maryland, Tennessee and South Carolina.

Both organizations form an “A” team at each age level to compete in the Little League World Series tournaments, often sending several groups of boys to district, sectional, state and regional championship tournaments.

In Coast’s case, it sent its 2022 team all the way to Williamsport, Pennsylvania, for the national tournament, becoming the first Long Island team to do so since Rockville Centre Little League in 1978.

This summer alone, Coast’s 11-and-under and 13-and-under “A” teams won their New York State championships. Its 10-and-under squad made it to the state final. International’s 14-and-under team also won a state title.

These ambitious tournaments and travel leagues give the community’s players experience in some of the most competitive atmospheres one can find in youth baseball. It expedites their mental development as players, which complements the year-round physical instruction.

“Sometimes, in the arena of competitive baseball, you’re going to be the big fish in a small pond, but we have to expose you to the whole ocean,” Coast president Craig Garland said. “You’re going to get swallowed up sometimes, and it’s going to make you realize that you’ve got to work harder and do better. It makes you realize there’s someone better than you and your team. It toughens them up.”

Player development

Both feeder programs have many qualified individuals instructing the players. Most of the coaches played college baseball and many have played professionally. Though their mechanical instructions are essential to developing a fundamentally sound player, they also have a knack for diagnosing and fixing issues with the mental part of the game. By giving struggling athletes endless support, they create more stars.

Chris Sultana — an outfielder committed to Stony Brook who is coming off his junior year — said he started playing intramural baseball for International at 10 years old. He arrived at International as a light-hitting, self-doubting player. His coaches vastly changed that.

“My first year of playing with them, it was rough,” Sultana said. “I would be shaking the bat all over; I was too nervous. I wouldn’t swing in games the same way I would in the cages. My coaches there showed me how to bring that confidence from the cage with me to the games when we would do live at-bats during practice. They’d say, ‘Listen, we know how good you are. Show everyone else how good you are.’ That still sticks with me.”

Sultana batted .470 with a 1.308 OPS for Massapequa this past spring. Between the state semifinals and final, he went 5-for-6 with two doubles, three RBIs, a walk, a stolen base and three runs scored. He drove in the first run of the state championship game with a two-out RBI single.

His classmate, first baseman Joe Genova — another International product — also went 5-for-6 with two doubles, three RBIs and three runs in the two games.

“There’s nothing better,” International president Chris Brooks said. “When we see all these boys that played through our program go on and play high school ball and develop there, and then have our younger kids in the program go there and watch them play, that’s huge.”

Coach's perspective

By the time they try out for the Massapequa varsity baseball team, coached by Tom Sheedy, the players are well-prepared. The training, bus rides, plane trips and hotel stays, as well as the intensity and pressure that the players face during these games — all while representing the Massapequa community — serve as an effective trial run for what awaits them in high school.

“These kids playing in tournaments at 10, 11 and 12 helps them handle pressure because they’ve been through it before,” Sheedy said. “They’ll be playing for a county championship on our level, and it’s not the first time they’re playing for something like that, because these Little League guys are playing for regional, state or coastal championships. So we expect to win.”

Sheedy himself plays a role in the development of the players before they arrive at the varsity level. He communicates often with Garland and Brooks and attends their clinics to help keep their operations running smoothly — which, in the long run, helps Sheedy’s program do the same.

“I give credit and kudos to the two Little League [organizations],” Sheedy said. “They do a wonderful job. I think they definitely had a part in this championship.

“They do the same things we do at the high school level. We work together to try to help the product be better so they can pass them on to us. We realize this is not a one-way street . . . It’s important that their coaches see how we’re doing things, too.”