Garden City's Stevie Finnell wins Thorp Award
There’s a lot that came with donning a Garden City football uniform this season. As always, the player became part of a rich and illustrious tradition and, as always, he shouldered a responsibility and expectation of competing and winning. This fall it also came with the whispers that the Trojans were finally vulnerable after graduating a slew of top players off its 2021 Long Island Class II champion.
Stevie Finnell heard those whispers. He was accepting none of it.
The 6-2, 195-pound senior running back played an exceptional season as he and his Garden City teammates shrugged off the naysayers and turned in a perfect season. With Finnell the team’s big-play maker, the Trojans went 12-0 to extend the program winning streak to 30 games, captured a seventh straight Nassau II title and repeated as Long Island Class II champions.
“When you’re hearing those things it motivates you,” Finnell said. “You don’t want to be the class that let people down . . . For us, winning another Long Island championship was the only goal.”
Finnell was superlative in the biggest games of the season. In Garden City’s 38-7 victory over Mepham for the county title, he rushed for 122 yards and two touchdowns and returned an interception 21 yards for another score. In the Trojans’ 28-0 win over Bellport for the Island championship — a game in which they overcame four fumbles— he rushed for 346 yards and all four touchdowns, on runs of 63, 57, 75 and 64 yards.
“As you get closer to the prize the intensity always picks up for all the players and as the games got bigger so did Stevie’s level of play,” Garden City coach Dave Ettinger said. “In that Long Island championship, we were struggling on offense [by] turning the ball over and he just took that game over.”
On Tuesday night, Finnell punctuated his sensational senior season by being named the 81st recipient of the prestigious Thorp Award at the Nassau County High School Football Coaches Association banquet at the Crest Hollow Country Club in Woodbury. Newsday annually presents the Thorp to Nassau’s most outstanding player.
He was chosen ahead of two other finalists: Farmingdale senior running back Tomaso Ramos, who led the Dalers to the Nassau and Long Island Class I championships, and Plainedge senior linebacker/running back/tight end Shane Mosia, who led the Red Devils to the Nassau III title.
Finnell is the third Garden City player to earn the Thorp Award. Terence Hartigan won it in 2004 and Jack Cascadden won it last season.
Finnell stood out as a top performer on both offense and defense. He rushed for 1,520 yards and 21 touchdowns on 141 carries and caught 12 passes for 220 yards and four more scores — an astounding 11.4 yards per touch. He also created big plays when lining up as a linebacker or defensive end, recording six sacks, five tackles for a loss, and forcing two fumbles and making two interceptions that he returned for touchdowns.
“All I knew is that I was going to play [running back], but I don’t know if I pictured myself having this good of a season,” Finnell said. “Good as it was, it doesn’t happen without the play of the line and the hard work of our coaches. We had a great offensive line.”
“We wouldn’t have won this year without Stevie,” Ettinger said. “We graduated all our impact players from [2021]. He kept us afloat with all the pressures of the world on him to succeed.”
Finnell was also a key player on Garden City’s state Class B boys lacrosse champion and has accepted a scholarship offer to play lacrosse at Duke.
Finnnell doesn’t just stand out when he is on a football or lacrosse field. He is a strong classroom performer with a 91.4 weighted GPA. And Ettinger praised his volunteering to help youngsters in Garden City’s youth football and lacrosse programs.
Finnell’s father, Steve, was also a standout athlete at Garden City and Duke and is a longtime football assistant coach.
“He’s been at every Garden City football game since he can remember and before he can remember,” Ettinger said of Stevie Finnell. “For him to have watched the team for so long and to get his opportunity to do it and then to do it at the level that he did it? It really is a great story.”
NEWSDAY THORP AWARD WINNERS
2022 — Stevie Finnell, Garden City
2021 — Jack Cascadden, Garden City
2021 Spring — Charlie McKee, Oceanside
2019 — Dan Villari, Plainedge
2018 — Kevon Hall, Roosevelt
2017 — Tommy Heuer, Oceanside
2016 — Jordan McLune, Farmingdale
2015 — Davien Kuinlan, Plainedge
2014 — Jordan Fredericks, Lawrence
2013 — Ray Catapano, Carey
2012 — Billy Andrle, East Meadow
2011 — Robbie Healy, East Meadow
2010 — Tom Joyce, MacArthur
2009 — Anthony Brunetti, Holy Trinity
2008 — Terrell Williams, Hempstead
2007 — Alex Rivas, East Meadow
2006 — Chris Edmond, Freeport
2005 — Ricky Manigat, Baldwin
2004 — Terence Hartigan, Garden City
2003 — Rich Ohrnberger, East Meadow
2002 — Gian Villante, MacArthur
2001 — D'Brickashaw Ferguson, Freeport
2000 — Chris Richez, Freeport
1999 — Jason Ham, Port Washington and Jerone Pettus, Roosevelt
1998 — Clifton Smith, Freeport
1997 — Kevin Pierce, Clarke
1996 — Eric Wedin, Division
1995 — Vaughn Sanders, Lawrence
1994 — Amos Zereoue, Mepham
1993 — Amos Zereoue, Mepham
1992 — Dan Penengo, Syosset
1991 — Eugene Culbreath, Baldwin
1990 — Louis D'Agostino, Lawrence
1989 — Stephen Boyd, V.S. Central
1988 — Lamont Hough, Hempstead
1987 — Elvin Brown, Sewanhaka
1986 — Denis Goodwin, Lynbrook
1985 — Robert Lee, Roosevelt
1984 — Ken Randolph, Sewanhaka
1983 — Anthony Cappellino, New Hyde Park
1982 — Don McPherson, West Hempstead
1981 — Larry Galizia, Lynbrook
1980 — John Rodney, Hicksville
1979 — Ron Heller, Farmingdale
1978 — Herbert Butzke, New Hyde Park
1977 — John Rogan, Chaminade
1976 — Henry Feil, Berner
1975 — Tony Capozzoli, St. Dominic
1974 — Matt Kupec, Syosset
1973 — Joe Diange, Farmingdale
1972 — Larry Esposito, Clarke
1971 — Mike Duffy, Massapequa
1970 — Mark Coady, Carle Place
1969 — Phil LaPorta, V.S. Central
1968 — Dennis Macholz, Bethpage
1967— Phil Barbaccia, East Meadow
1966 — Warren Koegel, Seaford
1965 — Charles Drimal, V.S. South
1964 — Ed Kane, Levittown
1963 — Guy Riccardi, Freeport
1962 — Jim Litterelle, Mineola
1961 — Sal Ciampi, Lawrence
1960 — Rollie Stichweh, Mineola
1959 — Matt Snell, Carle Place
1958 — John Mackey, Hempstead
1957 — Dave Hayes, Mepham
1956 — Don Kornrumpf, Hempstead
1955 — Paul Rochester, Sewanhaka
1954 — Bob Reifsnyder, Baldwin
1953 — Bill Sandie, Mepham
1952 — Jim Brown, Manhasset
1951 — Dick Martin, Hempstead
1950 — Ed Nickla, Mepham
1949 — Lou Britt, Glen Cove
1948 — Al Kohanowich, Hempstead
1947 — Mike Kinney, V.S. Central
1946 — John Fasano, Port Washington
1945 — Ray Mrozack, Mineola
1944 — Bob Casey, Baldwin
1943 — Billy Wilson, Lawrence
1942 —- Fred Miller, Chaminade
Roger Rubin returned to Newsday in 2018 to write about high schools, colleges and baseball following 20 years at the Daily News. A Baseball Hall of Fame voter since 2011, he has covered 13 MLB postseasons and 14 NCAA Final Fours.
