Thursday, October 1, 2026
Students and staff at Long Beach Middle School raised more than $3,000 at the annual Joseph Farrell Memorial Student/Teacher Basketball Game. The sale of tickets, T-shirts, pizza and snacks were directed to a scholarship established to honor the memory of the beloved Long Beach teacher and community member Joseph Farrell, who passed away suddenly on July 5, 2007. Farrell’s wife Gail was on hand, accompanied by many members of her extended family.
In a fast-moving competition, the eighth-grade Boys and Girls Basketball teams faced off against the Middle School faculty and staff. Although both teams, alternating shifts by gender, gave it their all right up to the final buzzer, the faculty prevailed by 11 points. Between quarters, spectators were invited down to the court for Zumba dancing. The main objective—to raise money for the Joseph Farrell Memorial Scholarship Fund—had been successfully met.
Mr. Farrell was a lifelong Long Beach resident who taught for 13 years in the Long Beach School District, first as an elementary teacher at Lido School and later as a sixth-grade social studies teacher at the Middle School. As a teenager, Farrell worked as a Long Beach lifeguard, and at 20, he began coaching at the Long Beach Recreation Center, where he met his wife of 23 years, fellow coach Gail Henry. In 2004, he began coaching the Girls Swim team at Jericho High School, where he turned the last-place conference team into conference champion and was named Jericho Coach of the Year.
“This event, which was held for a great cause, is the beginning of spring here at the Middle School. Joe would have liked that,” said Vice Principal Keith Biesma.
