The Tornado has made landfall at Harborfields as the boys’ varsity basketball team clinched their first playoff berth in three years. The boys took their final shot at making the playoffs and seized the opportunity.
The Harborfields varsity boys’ basketball team is a member of the New York State Public High School Athletic Association (NYSPHSAA) and competes in League IV. The Tornadoes are led by third year head coach Joseph Cavallaro. He’s joined on the sidelines by John Tampori and James Cavallaro. In program history, Harborfields won the New York State Class A title in 2012 and the Suffolk County Class A title in 2016.
“Coaching is a lot about building relationships. Being younger [27], I was in their shoes not too long ago. Just being able to build that relationship off the court as a younger coach, I think it helps get the trust and build that relationship. The kids trust me to an extent, as far as they know how much I care about them, how much I love them, and we’re able to get ourselves out of a jam because of how close we are on and off the court. I think it adds a little bit of a chip on my shoulder, too, to try to prove myself to some of these older coaches who have done it for a long time,” said head coach Joseph Cavallaro.
The boys finished the regular season with a 9-10-0 record. The Section XI standings and their win/loss record don’t reflect the hard work the Tornadoes put in to fight for a playoff spot on the final day of the regular season. This fact alone just goes to show how important it is to give it your all until the very last whistle.
“All the kids have been amazing this year. I think one of the biggest things for us is that we have a bunch of really strong leaders on our team this year. Some kids that I’ve had with me basically since I’ve been there. Our captains have just been really good, and they’ve stuck to the plan. They’ve gone through the ups and the downs of our season, and we’ve really started to play some good basketball as of late, within the last week or two. The leadership that we have on this team is pretty special,” said Cavallaro.
Harborfields took on East Hampton on the road for their final regular-season matchup. The two teams met in mid-January on Harborfields court, where the Tornadoes won the game by the score of 56-53. A similar outcome would follow 23 days later when the two teams met with a playoff birth on the line for the Tornadoes. Harborfields clinched the season series and a spot in the Section XI playoffs with a 55-52 win over East Hampton.
“It was pretty surreal winning that game. It was our last game of the season, if we won, we made the playoffs; if we lost, we were handing in our jerseys the next day. A pretty high-pressure situation, and on top of that, we had to travel all the way out to East Hampton, which is a two-hour bus drive. It was a pretty surreal moment getting back into the locker room after playing in such a high-stakes game in front of a packed house. East Hampton fans are awesome, that’s the kind of game that you dream of playing in,” Cavallaro told The Messenger.
Harborfields boys’ basketball is active on social media, showcasing the team and documenting their players and season. After their playoff clinching win, the team celebrated with coach Cavallaro in the only way sports teams know how, a water shower. With water bottles primed and ready, they got their target [Cavallaro] as soon as he set foot in the locker room. A much-deserved celebration after working hard to control their playoff destiny when it mattered most.
Earlier this month, Harborfields honored its five seniors on Senior Night prior to their matchup with Eastport South Manor. Alex Ruisi, Francis Dipalo, Ryan Barling, Greg Gonzalez, and Sam Arnowsky are set to graduate with the Class of 2026 this spring. The seniors’ family members joined them on the court for the festivities, boasting signs and cardboard cutouts of the boys when they were kids. The boys were rewarded with a dominant 43-29 win over ESM.
“Specifically, our senior captain, Ryan Barling. He’s been amazing this year on the court and off the court. Just keeping the guys into what’s going on, even when we were losing a couple of games towards the beginning of the year, he really helped keep the ship afloat. He’s just been the extension of the coach on the court for us. Without him, I don’t think that we’re where we are right now because we definitely had a couple of air losses that things could have gone really south for. They could have had the reaction that they did, and they stayed the course and kept grinding along, even when things weren’t always going our way,” said Cavallaro.
Senior Alex Ruisi was named to Newsday’s Top 100 basketball players list earlier this season. Cavallaro made a point to recognize Ruisi in our conversation, stressing how important he is to the team.
Player of the game traditions are a popular thing amongst sports teams; we commonly see it at the professional and collegiate levels. Cavallaro has brought it to the Harborfields locker room.
“The culture chain is something that we do to highlight one of the kids who played with the passion, intensity, and energy that we preach about. I feel like a lot of kids these days look at stats, specifically points as the meter of if they did well, or they didn’t do well. There’s just so much else that goes into basketball, and so many things that happen when you don’t have the ball in your hand. We preach a lot of different words throughout the course of the year: energy, intensity, effort, attitude, sacrifice, selflessness, and accountability. When we see a kid who’s really rising to the occasion and doing the things that we preach, that really impact winning more than kids these days think, we try to reward them by giving them the culture chain,” said Cavallaro.
“One kid [Alex Ruisi], who we gave it to in the last game at East Hampton, we stopped at Burger King on the way home. He was eating a burger with his chain and the Burger King crown on,” A fun example of the culture chain being put into play.
Harborfields hasn’t been in the playoff scene for a bit and is looking to make some noise with the spot they earned. The playoff brackets have yet to be announced, but the playoffs are set to begin on February 13 for the Class AA bracket. Whichever seed they end up in, Cavallaro is confident in his team’s ability to handle the task at hand.
