Sayville's Patrick Coan and Sophia Buffardi win Butch Dellecave Awards as Suffolk's top scholar-athletes
Sayville's Sophia Buffardi and Patrick Coan pose with their Dellecave Awards at Villa Lombardi's on Sunday. Credit: Rick Kopstein
Sophia Buffardi and Patrick Coan have helped bring several trophies and plaques into the showcase at Sayville High School.
They each added another trophy to their personal collections Sunday morning at the 26th edition of the prestigious Butch Dellecave Awards brunch at Villa Lombardi’s in Holbrook.
Buffardi and Coan were named Suffolk’s top female and male scholar-athletes, marking the first time both winners represented the same school.
“I think Sayville just breeds great athletes,” Coan said. “Sophia is a great athlete, a great lacrosse player. Every year, we’re just rebuilding in Sayville with new athletes.”
“I’m super proud,” Sayville athletic director Ryan Cox said. “Sayville is an incredible place with a lot of support from our families, and our coaches do a great job of developing athletes. For us to have two Sayville athletes recognized amongst all of the incredible students in this room, it’s pretty special.”
There were 55 high schools represented, with each sending the top male and female student-athlete seniors to the annual Dellecave brunch.
The male finalists were Michael Cascione of Smithtown West, Jonathan Giraulo of Sachem North, Niall Haughney of Bay Shore and Keith McDowell of Half Hollow Hills East.
Alexa Jacobs of Port Jefferson, Peyton Logue-Boyd of Babylon, Avery Melchiona of Connetquot and Isabella Muccio of Newfield rounded out the female finalists.
“Everyone in this room is so special,” Buffardi said. “Everyone has accomplished so much. I’m so honored, I can’t believe it. I wouldn’t be here without all my teammates, the Sayville community, coaches, my parents, Dr. Cox . . . It’s amazing.”
Buffardi posed for pictures with her trophy at 11:30 a.m., knowing that she had to catch Sayville’s 1 p.m. bus to Stony Brook University for the Long Island Class C girls lacrosse championship game at 3 p.m.
“Honestly, I’m thinking about my lacrosse game in a couple of hours,” Buffardi said. “Time management is definitely difficult, but I think you just have to stay calm through it all. I just have to take deep breaths and really focus on what I have to focus on. Doing homework every day . . . I’m focused on being the best I can in school, sports, everything.”
Buffardi, who also plays soccer and served as a captain on the winter track team, has achieved a 102.71 GPA while taking several AP courses and is a member of the National Honor Society. She has worked as a coach for several youth programs, camps and clinics and provided individual instruction to young lacrosse players.
A two-time Newsday All-Long Island first-team selection, Buffardi scored five goals in the 2024 Class C girls lacrosse state championship game, delivering the Golden Flashes their first state title. She scored what proved to be the winning goal in Sayville’s first Long Island girls soccer championship win in November.
She has earned a full athletic scholarship to play lacrosse at North Carolina, which has won four national championships, including the 2025 title. Buffardi is unsure of what she will study in college but could see herself in business or a medical field.
Coan’s athletic achievements speak for themselves. In the last two years, Coan amassed 4,214 passing yards and 54 touchdowns and ran for 1,485 yards and 18 touchdowns, leading Sayville’s football team to two Suffolk Division III titles. He ran for 229 yards, including a 64-yard TD, in Sayville’s Long Island Class III championship win in November. Coan received the Boomer Esiason Award, presented to Suffolk’s top quarterback.
“It’s really cool to cap off a great year of athletics with this award,” Coan said. “I view this as a team award. All the teams I’ve been a part of, I couldn’t do it alone. And my parents provide so much support.”
He will continue playing football at Lehigh, but he made his presence known on the baseball diamond before he graduated. Coan emerged as an outstanding centerfielder this spring, making several high-flying catches to save runs.
Coan sports a 96 GPA and plans to major in business finance in college. He has coached young quarterbacks at several youth summer camps and dedicated time to Inclusive Sports and Fitness, a local nonprofit that helps children with special needs play sports.
Coan and Buffardi will each receive a $1,000 scholarship toward their education from the Butch Dellecave Foundation in collaboration with the Economic Opportunity Council of Suffolk. Dellecave served as an educator in the Connetquot school district for 30 years and was a highly regarded high school basketball official and one of the founding members of the Suffolk Sports Hall of Fame.
“I’ve been coming to this event for almost 10 years and the list of winners are exceptional,” Cox said. “Sophia and Patrick are both extremely humble and phenomenal teammates. They are both incredibly hard-working, well-respected, dedicated students on the field, in the classroom and in our community. They will represent the Dellecave Award and all that it stands for well.”
Matt Lindsay is a high school sports reporter who joined Newsday in 2022 after graduating from Stony Brook University.
More High Schools
