Freshman Jack Coan looking good for Sayville
Dillon Boos, Steven Ferreira and Zach Sirico set the bar extremely high for Sayville quarterbacks as all three earned Newsday All-Long Island recognition between 2008 and 2012. Based on first impressions, 14-year-old freshman Jack Coan has passed his bar exam.
Coan completed his very first varsity pass in Saturday’s fifth Breast Cancer Awareness Day scrimmage against host school Bay Shore, and went to have an impressive overall debut. Coan, 6-2 and 160 pounds, displayed an accurate arm and exceptional poise in guiding the Golden Flashes to numerous touchdown drives during scrimmages against Bay Shore, Ward Melville and Patchogue-Medford.
Perhaps his best throw came against Patchogue-Medford when Coan lofted a perfectly thrown ball over a defender and into the hands of a leaping Chris Rupp in the right corner of the end zone on a fade route. That kind of deft touch in a tight window is a difficult throw even for an experienced quarterback.
“Am I happy? I’m beyond happy. But I’m not surprised,” said Sayville coach Rob Hoss, who knows full well the value of a good quarterback in his dynamic spread offense. “He’s got ice in his veins for such a young kid. You tell him what to do and he does it. He doesn’t get distracted by anything. He has tunnel vision. All he’s about is doing what his coach says. He has amazing composure for a freshman.”
Because he’s a freshman, Coan is cut no slack when it comes to the team’s rituals. That means that even though he’s the starting quarterback on a team that has won the last three Suffolk County championships, he still was assigned to tote the bag full of footballs between scrimmages on Saturday.
As he walked from Field 2 to Field 1 after his first varsity competition against Bay Shore, Coan admitted he had the jitters, “just for a little bit at the beginning. But all that was gone after the first play.”
The Coan Era has begun.
Takeaways
Other noteworthy tidbits from the eight-team event, which drew a crowd of several hundred for the $5 admission fee that went directly to the Judi Shesh Memorial Foundation in support of breast cancer awareness:
*Bay Shore defensive back Cordell Nix was all over the field, making interceptions on consecutive plays during one sequence. He’s also an elusive wide receiver.
*Patchogue-Medford first-year starting quarterback Anthony Lee, a senior, showed off a good arm as the Raiders moved the ball well in their spread. And that was without star wide receiver Connor Coughlin, who caught 53 passes last season but was on the sidelines with a minor leg injury.
*Speaking of injuries, Marc Coles, Floyd’s talented All-Long Island fullback/linebacker who suffered a torn ACL during summer 7-on-7s and had knee surgery on July 17, said he was holding out hope that he could return to the team some time during the playoffs. What a lift that would be for the defending L.I. champions. “He leaves us with quite a void on defense,” Floyd coach Paul Longo said.
*The Colonials also have a huge hole at quarterback with the departure of three-year starter A.J. Otranto. Based on Saturday’s scrimmages, senior Eric Brust, who didn’t play as a junior but started on the JV as a sophomore, appears to have beaten out strong-armed sophomore Brandon Desmond.
SARRA SOUNDS OFF: Dunia's comeback, Wyandanch hoops, more Newsday's Gregg Sarra hosts a new show covering the latest in high school sports on Long Island.
This is a modal window.
SARRA SOUNDS OFF: Dunia's comeback, Wyandanch hoops, more Newsday's Gregg Sarra hosts a new show covering the latest in high school sports on Long Island.