South Side High School welcomed a new athletic sign to Rockville Centre to display its championship years. Donated by Molloy University, the sign was revealed to the community on Oct. 26 during a ceremony led by Nassau County Legislator Scott Davis.
Dozens of residents and students came out to check out the new sign and see all their championships recognized for the village’s viewing. The sign sits at the corner of Ocean Avenue and Sunrise Highway.
“I want to thank you all for coming here today, we really appreciate it,” Davis said. “So there's a sign right down the block and that sign has seen a lot better days. So I thought that this town deserves better than that.”
Davis started the conversation about a new sign, however bringing it to a reality was going to take some more work. He then looked to Molloy for the answer. After speaking with James Lentini, the university’s president, the deal was made in 10 minutes.
“In addition to this great partnership that gets assigned here and Molloy's name on the bottom, we also want to announce a scholarship that Molloy is working on now with South Side,” Lentini said. “We'll offer two $2,500 scholarships to Molloy each year for a male and female athlete. And that would be, in addition to any other merit aid that student would get coming to Molloy, and we're doing some great things there.”
This movement is in part with Molloy’s “Communiversity,” which bonds the university with Rockville Centre village.
“When we think about a day like today, we think of three things, really,” Matthew Gaven, superintendent of Rockville Centre Schools said. “We think of community and the Rockville Centre community is an unbelievable community. We think of tradition and outstanding excellence in all of our sports and in the classrooms.”
Patrick Maguire, the athletic director for Rockville Centre Schools, ensured that the correct information was collected and each championship was displayed prominently.
“He was so instrumental in making sure that I see all of you here, and you're looking at the names and the gears and those who are on this board, that's the man who made it happen,” Davis said.
“Scott Davis was instrumental, that we're grateful for the president of Molloy showing up and helping us with this,” Gaven said. “And of course, the village we're grateful to all of them for working together to celebrate our kids and Pat Maguire’s work to kind of collate everything all together.”
The village board also attended the unveiling with Mayor Francis Murray.
“I'd like to thank all the coaches, the parents and the students, because without any of you, none of these numbers would be up here,” he said. “We will continue to back the school, and we will continue to back our athletes and whatever they need from whatever we can do with the village.”
