By Ashley Pavlakis
Cover credit – Suffolk County Sports Hall of Fame
Standing in the Hall of Fame for any achievement, sports, music, or otherwise is an amazing accomplishment.
To be inducted into the hall of fame in your hometown?
Priceless.
The Suffolk County Sports Hall of Fame (SCSHOF) is a non-profit organization established in 1990 to honor athletes in Suffolk County who have made significant contributions as an athlete at the amateur and professional levels.
The Hall of Fame debuted a partnership in 2022 with Port Jefferson High School, now taught at Miller Place, to integrate a class into the curriculum. The class is centered around educating the students on local sports history. The curriculum is curated to teach lessons about local sports history while incorporating research, media, and business skills. The students have the opportunity to hear and learn from inductees who will serve as guest speakers throughout the class.
“The overall mission for the Suffolk Sports Hall of Fame is to honor the past and inspire the future. I don’t think there’s any better way to inspire the future than educating students today about the sports history of Long Island, “ SCSHOF President Chris Vaccaro told The Messenger. “There are so many great people and places that tie into our history. If you bring that right into the classroom, it could spark interest, it could inspire them to be great. At the very basic level it educates them about why we live in such a special place.”
While sports and school do mix, there needs to be a written aspect of the class where students can take what they’ve learned and put it to use. The students put together research projects about local places that hold significance to sports that will allow the Hall of Fame to consider placing historical markers at those locations. Besides a research project, the students will contribute to the HOF on social media platforms.
“The whole process has been fun! From first creating the original idea and implementation at Port Jeff, to being able to rejuvenate and make the course more impactful now at Miller Place has been both hard work and rewarding. There were two sections of the class and 30 students two years ago and now I have five sections and over 100 students,” said Miller Place High School teacher, Bryan Vaccaro.
“You always get the most out of your students when you’re able to relate to them; it’s no question that at the high school level, there is a high rate of engagement for sports. The most enjoyable part for me is seeing so many kids wanting to take the class in addition to overseeing the course from idea to creation of concepts to implementation of teaching it. For any sports fan, talking about big games or legendary performances with your friends are all-time memories. We now get to do that in the classroom, “ said B. Vaccaro.
Perhaps the coolest part of the class is the opportunity to attend the induction ceremony that takes place in June. Only select students are invited and while in attendance they get to take part in providing social media support.
“The students and the administrators loved it. It’s a very unique partnership that doesn’t happen too often at any type of organization. I think a lot of people respect what the Suffolk County Sports Hall of Fame stands for. The fact that we can bring that into a classroom is very unique and I’ve heard nothing but good things across the board,” said C. Vaccaro.
The class itself is a special experience, inherently different from classes that have been taught before.
“They come from a special sporting region and there’s a lot of great people who came before us. They as students can aspire to be great. I really want them to stay informed about all of the great history that happened here. I want them to talk to the hall of famers, [about] what they went through, and understand and visualize the journey and sacrifice that it takes to be great,” said C. Vaccaro.
