The Orangetown Town Board honored two separate athletic teams from Tappan Zee High School at its Tuesday night meeting.
The board honored the boys basketball team, which finished with a perfect record in the regular season, won the Section 1 Class A championshipand played in the state championship game.
The council also recognized the boys swimming team, which won its second straight team state championship. With the swimming team, four boys were on hand because they broke a 19-year-old state record in the 400-yard freestyle relay event at the state competition. The four boys honored were seniors Lance Neuendorf and Yonghoon Jun and juniors Jack Carey and Kevin Schaub.
All four of them were also made automatic All-Americans, Tappan Zee swimming coach Dan Rafferty said, adding that only the top 100 swimmers from all high schools in the country are chosen.
“I was a Rockland County Dolphin, I was an Orangetown Shark. I was a lifeguard for 10 years,” said Councilman Thomas Diviny. “I’ll tell you, I commend you guys for sticking with it. It’s one of the hardest sports out there.”
Tappan Zee basketball coach George Gaine said it was the first time in school season the basketball team went undefeated. Councilman Paul Valentine said he was excited to have Gaine and the team in to honor them.
“I’m extremely proud to have had three kids who graduated from Tappan Zee High School and all three of them played under Coach Gaine,” Valentine said. “So it’s an honorable night for me and I’m very proud of you guys. Your teams’ accomplishments will be in the record books for a long time.”
Councilman Dennis Troy had two sons who played alongside Gaine when he played while attending Pearl River High School.
“George is very animated, very passionate, but one of the finest human beings I have met is George Gaine,” Troy said. “The players on the team are very lucky to have George Gaine.”
