Byram Hills Kicking Can on Boys’ Hoops Circuit
By Ray Gallagher, Examiner Sports Editor @Directrays
In an era where some high school coaches are lucky to last a year before being run out of town by helicopter parents and such, longtime PLEASANTVILLE wrestling coach Bob ‘Berno’ Bernarducci kicked off the new year with his 500th career win Saturday at Ardsley’s Radomski Duals. Bernarducci, beloved in the P’ville community, began his coaching career at Irvington High in 1982 before heading to Pleasantville in 1990. A Panther now for over 35 years, the veteran mentor has left behind a fulfilling legacy, which has affected thousands of Section 1 wrestlers and a slew of admiring colleagues, including former P’ville assistant coach Steven Tornambe.
“I can remember wrestling in high school and seeing coach Bernarducci’s face across the mat,” said Tornambe, now the coach at Mahopac and a former Ossining Section 1 champion.
Coach Berno, the all-time coaching wins leader in Section 1, was impactful from the start.
“Fast forward to my second coaching job; a friend of mine said Pleasantville is looking for an assistant. I called Bob and he gave me a chance,” Tornambe said. “That chance turned into a 13-year internship behind one of my mentors. Bob taught me how to coach for the right reasons. He helped me grow into the coach I am today. Coach Berno knows the sport but most of all he knows every kid in the state. Matchups were his specialty. He would pull out the index card before dual meets with all the matchups and big matches and the score. He was usually right! That is something I do now as a head coach.”
The nuts and bolts of coaching wrestling is something often overlooked. Coach B would have none of that during his career.
“As a head coach, I didn’t realize all that goes into it,” Tornambe said. “The behind the scenes of what a wrestling coach has to do is crazy. Weight loss plans, entering track info, caliber of competition points. For coach Berno it’s not a job, it’s his passion and something he instilled in me. To say I’ve coached alongside the best to ever do it is incredible. To Bob Bernarducci: congratulations and thank you for being my head coach for all those years.”
If I come back in my second life as a high school grappler, I’m hoping to do so under the wing of Coach Berno, among the finest coaches in NYS history…
Before we dip away from wrestling, I can’t recall a time when there was this much hope at YORKTOWN High where the Huskers are not-so-quietly putting forth an historic season after winning the Section 1 duals and performing as well as they have to this point in time. I can’t recall a time when the Huskers were, quite possibly, the favorites to hoist the D-I team championship hardware. And that boys’ hoops team ain’t too shabby either, undefeated (5-0) and state-ranked (No.21) in Class AA…
GIRLS’ HOOPS
If you didn’t know Mahopac senior G Mady Ford before the Mahopac Hoops Holiday Tournament, you do now if you pay any attention to the Ex-area girls’ hoops scene. Ford, the tournament MVP, scored the last of her nine points at the buzzer to knock off Class AAA Arlington, 46-44.
Wolf Pac senior and All-Tourney choice Ashley Koch added 15 points and Giana Puckhaber scored 10 points. Ford had 19 points, four assists and three rebounds for Mahopac in the first round of their 51-39 win over state-ranked (No.24) Class A HEN HUD. Puckhaber added 17 points, nine rebounds and five assists. And the Kelleher sisters did what the Kelleher sisters do; Niamh Kelleher had eight points, four assists and two steals and Fiona Kelleher had seven points, three assists and two steals.
The real PLEASANTVILLE team showed up on Dec. 30 in the Panthers’ 43-41 overtime win over state-ranked (No.18) Pearl River. Juliana Karaqi scored a team-high 17 points and Aislin Harison added 12 to lead the Class A Panthers, who improved to 2-3. The Panthers also defeated WESTLAKE (3-3) before the break, 43-40.
BOYS’ HOOPS
When former BYRAM HILLS coach Ted Repa stepped down in the spring of 2025 with a handful of sectional titles on his belt loop, FOX LANE grad James Morales took over a team rife with promise. Oftentimes, when a coach leaves a coaching situation, they do so with the program hanging on by threads, knowing it has run its course and a rebuild is upon it.
Nothing could be farther from the truth when it comes to the team Morales has inherited. The two-time defending Section 1 champion Bobcats are a mix of veterans and a group of role players just getting up to speed, and as they do so the state pollsters are well aware of their potential, ranking them No.4 in NYS.
The Bobcats (5-1) lived up to the billing in Saturday’s rendition of the Slam Dunk Showcase, posting a 60-37 beatdown of neighboring rival Fox Lane Saturday at the Westchester County Center where it was all Byram from start to finish.
Bobcats MVP Ben Wolf (24 points, 8 boards, 2), Aiden Sokoloff (2 points, 6 rebounds), Kevin Kendall (13 points, 10 boards), Max Miller (11 points, 6 boards, 6 assists) and sophomore Andrew Gendal (10 points) were just a portion of a complete start-to-finish onslaught.
It began at 8-6 early in the first before Byram expanded its lead when Wolf, Gendal and Miller (coast to coast) created a 14-6 lead with :40 left in the first quarter. From that point forward, it was all Byram. Wolf made it 16-6. Miller then found Wolf again, 18-6, at 6:45 of the second. Wolf then completed a 13-0 run for a 20-6 lead and tacked on for another hoop for a 22-6 lead at 4:50 before halftime.
The Foxes couldn’t buy a bucket (they shot 13 for 46, 8 of 23 3s) and Byram tacked on behind five points from Gendal and another hoop from Wolf to beat the halftime buzzer for a 31-11 lead. The rout was on with the Bobcats shooting lights out (27 of 41, 4 of 10 from distance) while holding a 36-16 edge on the boards.
Fox Lane (3-4) saw Arthur Shevick drop 16 points but open looks were tough to come by as the Foxes were forced to fire too many 3s and went 8 for 23 from behind the arc.
MAHOPAC threw a giant monkey wrench into the Class AA scene when the Wolf Pac upset then state-ranked (No.14) HORACE GRELLEY, 79-60, in the finals of the Mahopac Hoops Holiday Tournament.
“Great team effort,” Mahopac coach Matt Calabro said. “Greeley has been one of the better teams in the section thus far, so we knew we had our work cut out for us. They are great in transition and are a great passing and shooting team. (Coach) Matt Simone has done a really good job with this group.”
Calabro saw his Wolf Pac whole for the first time this season, getting contributions across the board, including the rare triple-double from tourney MVP Matt Reilly (12 points, 10 rebounds, 11assists, 4 steals), and All-Tourney choice Drew Lichtenberger (22 points, 8 rebounds), plus juniors Ethan Dedvukaj (17 points, 5 rebounds, 3 steals, 2 blocks) and Justin Beberman (15 points).
“It was the first time this year we had our full team and we were able to play well, which was good to see,” Calabro said. “We wanted to slow their guards down and make things tough on them to score, and I loved the way we competed and challenged them for 32 minutes. It is also an honor to win the Pac Holiday Tourney again.”
Greeley’s Jake Sheehy and Levi Sack were named to the All-Tournament team, as was Putnam Valley’s Zachary Gabriel and Carmel’s Connor Murphy. PV defeated Carmel in the consy round, 62-47.
ALL-NYS CROSS COUNTRY HONOREES
Congrats to HORACE GREELEY junior Ryan Sykes for being named to the Class A second team All-NYS cross country squad. He was joined by FOX LANE senior Marc Desforges as a sixth-team member. GREELEY sophomore Malina Santee was named to the girls’ Class A fourth team. PLEASANTVILLE senior Clara Shingler was named to the Class C sixth team while SOMERS senior Julia Duzynski was second team in Class B.
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