Thursday, October 1, 2026
Don’t look now, but the Seaford boys basketball team is hitting its stride at the perfect time.
The Vikings have won five out of their last seven games, including a two-point victory against League 7-A leaders Malverne. They are in contention to win the conference championship for the first time in ages.
“We’re under the radar, which is fine because people look at us as a football school,” Seaford head coach Jay Lynch said. “But they’re playing some excellent basketball, and there’s some talent, young and old.”
And there are key football players who are on the 15-man roster, guys who were unavailable for some early-season games following a run to the Long Island Class IV football championship.
So the Vikings got off to an 0-4 start, including defeats to perennial powerhouses Jericho and Manhasset. And then fell to 1-5 following a loss against PSAL juggernaut Thomas Edison in the Bayhawks Holiday Invitational at St. Dominic’s.
A frustrating 69-60 overtime loss to Friends Academy on Dec. 30, in which Seaford (7-9, 5-3) squandered a 16-point lead, closed out 2025.
The new year brought new optimism, and the Vikings look like a different team, even though Lynch said there’s not a lot different outside of simple execution.
“What we were doing well in early December, but not winning, we’re doing the same thing, but we’re finishing because they’re practicing shooting,” Lynch said. “They’re practicing what we want. So it’s peaking at the right time.”
That materialized in the 66-64 win over Malverne on Jan. 6, with Brian Falk and Luke Tudda scoring 17 points apiece and Michael Spinella chipping in 12 as the Vikings overcame a 14-point first-half deficit to pull out a signature win.
“They don’t panic,” Lynch said. “They came out, they did exactly what we did in the first half. We pressed them effectively. We tried to uptempo Malverne, which we did, and the results were there.”
Spinella has played the role of floor general on both ends of the court, and Falk is averaging a double-double. Cody Gatto, a freshman, and Tudda, a sophomore, have both come up with big contributions off the bench.
“They’re a found gem, so to speak,” Lynch said. “I didn’t expect the minutes, they’re young on a team with 12 seniors, and they played their way in, and they’re contributing. So you talk about under the radar, that’s them.”
Tate Gatto, a consistent and unselfish senior shooting guard who scored 24 points in a 68-64 loss against Friends last Saturday, is Cody’s older brother, and basketball is in their DNA. Their grandfather, Jimmy Gatto, is a legendary former Hall of Fame coach at St. John’s Prep in Queens.
Add in Brian Hennessy, who anchors the defense in the middle of the lane, and an underrated X-factor in Dylan Alt, who is back from injury and scored 13 points in a 63-50 win over Island Trees on Jan. 24, and you have the makings of a team that can make some serious noise in the postseason.
“How far can we go? It’s as far as those kids want to go, really,” Lynch said. “They have the talent. They really do.”
