Boys Lacrosse Player of the Year: Nick Galasso

West Islip (N.Y.) senior and North Carolina-bound star finished career with 500 points, four state crowns and MaxPreps national award presented by the U.S. Air Force.

WEST ISLIP, N.Y. - What’s the longest two minutes in sports -- not including the end of a close NBA game?

 
How about trying to keep the ball away from the greatest dynasty in the history of New York high school sports while protecting a one-goal lead in the state final? And, oh yeah, you’re an eighth-grader at the time and playing in just your fifth varsity game.
 
“We were a senior-oriented team, but the coach put me on the field because he said I was one of our best stick-handlers,” Nick Galasso said this week as he recalled West Islip's 7-6 victory over 15-time state champion West Genesee (Camillus, N.Y.) in 2006. “It was nerve-wracking but it was exciting, too.”
 
In the four years that followed, “nerve-wracking“ and “Nick Galasso” belonged together like peanut butter and jelly, LeBron and Kobe, and Kim Kardashian and fashion catastrophes. Galasso’s magic on the field frayed the nerves of countless opponents en route to three more New York State Public High School Athletic Association boys lacrosse championships, 500 career points, and a scholarship to North Carolina as the most coveted recruit in the country.

Nick Galasso

Photo by Alan Schaefer

 
It has added up to the senior attackman’s selection as the MaxPreps National Player of the Year following Galasso’s goal and six masterful assists last weekend in his West Islip farewell, a 13-5 victory over Fairport.
 
 “He was frustrated early this season as we were replacing last year’s seniors,” Lions coach Scott Craig said.  “He said, ‘Coach, I can’t believe we’re not finishing (scoring opportunities).’ I said hang in there, it’ll get better.”
 
The situation got better, and so did Galasso . He was at his absolute finest coming down the home stretch of his career, piling up 18 goals and 19 assists over six postseason games this spring to finish with 66 goals and 70 assists in 22 games as a senior. In the process, he capped his transition from precocious 14-year-old rookie to leader of one of the nation’s most successful high school teams in any sport.
 
As the season wound down, it was easy for him to look at the sophomores on the field and envision them leading the way to more championships for West Islip in the coming seasons, making the same leap in performance and leadership that Galasso did from 2006 – when he benefited from playing next to Ryan Flanagan (North Carolina), Justin Turri (Duke) and Brian Caufield (Albany) -- to the present.
 
 “I remember feeling like a little kid playing alongside men,” he said. “A lot of guys would like to have that experience, and I was lucky enough to live it.”
 
Luck had little to do with winning four state titles or setting the Long Island record for career points. He was the best player on the field as a freshman when he score a hat trick against West Genesee in another final victory, and it was more of the same against Orchard Park when Galasso posted  four goals and four assists in a 10-5 win.
 
Growing up as the youngest of five sports-crazy brothers taught him to compete, he Galasso played lacrosse alongside boys a year or two older than him each step of the way through youth leagues.
 
“He learned early and he learned well,” Craig said.