Leading off today: Ron Eden, who coached the Brentwood boys soccer team to 10 Long Island Championships and four NYSPHSAA crowns, died Sunday. He was 72.
Eden had a 484-70-32 record after becoming the head coach in 1996, including 17-1-1 last fall. He is second only to Robert Muir of Mattituck for most wins among Section 11 head coaches in Long Island history.
United Soccer Coaches selected Eden as its national boys high school coach of the year in 2023 following a 22-0 season, and he was inducted into the Suffolk Sports Hall of Fame in 2020.
"For many years, Coach Eden dedicated himself to the Brentwood community, leaving a lasting impact on generations of student-athletes, colleagues, and families," Brentwood administrators posted on social media. "Through his passion for the game, unwavering commitment to his players, and devotion to Brentwood, he built a legacy that will be remembered for years to come."
Said Commack coach Dave Moran: "I'm lucky enough to say that Ron has always been a mentor, a friend, a staunch competitor and my biggest and best rival," Moran said. "In the coaching realm, I don't know if there's a better compliment than any of that."
More passings
Carmine Colasanto, who was the winningest football coach in PSAL history at the time of his retirement in 2008, died Saturday at the age of 79.
Colasanto's Herbert H. Lehman teams won 208 games. His players included future Syracuse University and Buffalo Bills head coach Doug Marrone, and the Brooklyn native sent numerous players to Division I college programs.
• Former Syracuse quarterback Chuck Zimmerman, who played alongside Jim Brown and led the Orange to two of the first bowl games in program history, died on Wednesday. He was 90 years old.
Zimmerman was a three-sport star at Syracuse CBA, which went 24-0 in games in which he played and posted an unbeaten and unscored upon season in 1953. He went on to SU, where Zimmerman started at quarterback from 1956-58 and played in the Cotton Bowl and Orange Bowl.
He set a school record for completion percentage in 1958 and appeared on the cover of Sports Illustrated two days after a 14-6 road victory vs. Penn State.
Interesting decision by Section 2 football standout
James Cocozzo is passing up his senior year on the Stillwater/Saratoga Central Catholic football team. Unlike the many high school players who leave for prep schools, Cocozzo's next destination is Division I.
The Times Union reported that Cocozzo, who missed his entire junior season in 2025 after suffering a torn ACL, will enroll next month at Rutgers. That became an option for the 6-foot-4 offensive lineman when he enrolled in summer school courses to complete graduation requirements.
"I thought about this for a while," said Cocozzo, who also had offers from Penn State, Maryland and Syracuse. "It is definitely weird that I will playing college football because I haven't played in over a year, going back to my sophomore year."
The likely scenario is for Cocozzo to get reacclimated to football this fall and compete for playing time for coach Greg Schiano in 2027.
"In talking with their staff and James, there is an opportunity -- not this season but (in 2027) -- to start," Stillwater/SCC coach Ian Godfrey said. "It is a total head start for him and I totally understand."
James Cocozzo, a two-time first-team all-state player in Class D, is the son of Joe Cocozzo, a Mechanicville graduate who played for the University of Michigan and the San Diego Chargers.
Following up on Holy Trinity suspending its football program
Newsday reports that Holy Trinity was losing six of the Hicksville CHSFL school's top players even before the decision last week to suspend its football program.
The announcement on Wednesday came shortly after Cain Mack, hired in February to replace Gino Tassone as coach, had resigned effective immediately.
Athletic director Matthew Sloan's letter to the Holy Trinity community last week, touched upon the coaching change, writing, "There were significant internal concerns regarding the culture surrounding our football program and conduct within our school that led us to believe a change in leadership was necessary."
Tassone, whose teams went 1-10 and then 7-4 in his two seasons. took exception to the remark.
"I'm deeply offended by that comment," he told the paper. "My kids were never in trouble in school. They never had a problem behavior-wise or anything. He was on the job for a month and a half before he told me they were going in a new direction. That's not enough time to get a feel for what the culture is around the building.
"You went from having 53 kids. Twelve seniors graduated, so that left 41. Where are those 41 kids? You didn't do your job retaining any of them. That's not on me."
Drama in Florida
Pinellas County (Fla.) Schools confirmed last week that county AD Marc Allison instructed district high schools not to schedule contests with St. Petersburg Catholic for the upcoming school year. Contracts signed before June 25 will be honored, the district said.
The Tampa Bay Times reported it is the first time the district has formally moved to freeze out a private school. Individual coaches have often declined to schedule private schools they suspected of recruiting, but establishing a district policy breaks new ground.
The paper reported Pinellas County Schools has lost about 17,000 students since 2019; Florida made vouchers universally available in 2023, and more than 500,000 students statewide have used public money for private-school tuition or homeschooling.
