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Larry O'Leary and his Dad in 1980. (Photo courtesy of Ed Randle)

Levittown Athletes Excelling On The Next Level

By Ed Randle

Larry O’Leary will be among nine new members who will be inducted into the SUNY Cortland C-Club Athletic Hall of Fame during its annual ceremony on Saturday, Sept. 14.  O’Leary graduated from Division in 1975.

A two-sport star at Cortland, O’Leary was a starting linebacker for the football team and an All-American on the lacrosse field. Over the course of his career, O’Leary scored 69 goals and had 60 assists, totaling 129 points. In 1979 he was named 2nd team All-American at attack, and in 1980 he was named 1st team All-American at midfield. He also played in the 1980 North-South Game.

In 1979, he led Cortland to the NCAA quarterfinals. The following year, as a senior, he led the Red Dragons to the NCAA finals, where Cortland lost to Hobart, 11-8. Larry is retired and a decorated New York City Police Detective.

While on the subject of Cortland, MacArthur’s All-Long Island running back Ryan Isom (class of 2021) was a member of the Red Dragons Division III NCAA national championship football team. He started as a defensive back.

Now back to lacrosse. MacArthur’s Connor Cullen (class of 2022) was named first-team All CACC Conference for the University of Bridgeport. Cullen was far and away the best face-off specialist in the conference, he won more than 200 faceoffs while tallying a winning percentage of nearly 65 percent. He also grabbed 104 ground balls which was the third highest mark in the CACC.

Cullen added four assists as well. He came up with a season-high 27 faceoff wins and 17 ground balls in a win over Caldwell on April 13. Over UB’s final four games, Cullen went 82-for-106 in faceoffs and totaled 51 ground balls.

Over at St. John’s University, Adrian Nowak, a red-shirt freshman from Levittown, tallied nine goals and one assist from his attack position for the Red Storm. Nowak is a 2022 graduate of Kellenberg. Michael Leo is another Levittowner excelling on the collegiate level. Leo was named Honorable Mention All American while playing lacrosse for Syracuse University. Leo began his high school career at MacArthur before transfering to St. Anthony’s.

At the University of Richmond, sophomore attack Julianna Stanley scored 20 goals and added seven assists. She notched a hat trick in games against Davidson and George Washington. Julianna graduated from Division in 2022 and is the Blue Dragons all-time leading scorer.

On the baseball diamond, junior Nick Roselli is batting .379 with six home runs for Binghamton. On May 12, Roselli hammered a two-run home run in the bottom of the 13th inning to give Binghamton a 5-3 walkoff win over UMBC in America East conference play. Roselli is a 2021 graduate of Division.

On the soccer pitch, MacArthur three-year standout Nolan Tordy will join his brother, Jason Tordy, on the field next year at Marywood College. Marywood made it to the semifinals of the Atlantic East Conference.

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