Lynbrook/East Rockaway Herald 04-22-2021

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Vol. 28 No. 17

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‘Just talk to us’ Parents rally amid impending Catholic school closures By NAkEEM GRANt ngrant@liherald.com

Nakeem Grant/Herald

DozENS GAthERED outSIDE St. Agnes Cathedral in Rockville Centre last Sunday to protest the closures of three Catholic schools.

The impending closure of three Catholic schools has sparked an outcry from a number of parents and parishioners. Because of declining enrollment and revenue, the Diocese of Rockville Centre will in June close St. Raymond School, in East Rockaway; St. Thomas the Apostle School, in West Hempstead; and St. Christopher’s School, in Baldwin. The announcement triggered a rally outside St. Agnes Cathedral in Rockville Centre last Sunday, as roughly three dozen parents, students and alumni gathered to recite the

rosary and protest. The diocese’s Department of Education and school leaders have helped students and their families find other schools to attend. St. Raymond PTA President Vanessa DelPezzo said that her two sons would attend Our Lady of Lourdes School in Malverne next year, but added that she was upset that the announcement of the East Rockaway school’s closure was so sudden. “My family and I have had such a wonderful experience here at St. Raymond,” DelPezzo said. “We’re well aware of the decline in student enrollment in recent years, but there was never any mention of the Continued on page 3

History-making continues for female wrestler By MIkE SMollINS msmollins@liherald.com

After making wrestling history in the past for Lynbrook, Ally Fitzgerald will once again be a trailblazer in the sport, after accepting a scholarship to help launch the new women’s team at Sacred Heart University. Fitzgerald, 17, who gained attention as the first girl to win in her weight class at a boys’ high school wrestling tournament in Nassau County as a freshman in 2018, said she was “humbled and blessed” to join the new program at Sacred Heart, which launched last September.

“With SHU being one of the first D-I teams in the Eastern Intercollegiate Wrestling Association to add women’s wrestling, I’m grateful to have the opportunity to be a pioneer on and off the mat,” she wrote on social media. Sacred Heart, in Fairfield, Conn., followed Presbyterian College, in Clinton, S.C., to become the second NCAA Division I school to start a women’s wrestling program. Being a pioneer is nothing new for Fitzgerald. After winning in the boys’ tournament at South Side High School in Rockville Centre in 2018, she was part of the first girls-only bracket in

I

’m grateful to have the opportunity to be a pioneer on and off the mat.

Ally FItzGERAlD

Lynbrook/Long Beach wrestler the 42-year history of the Eastern States Tournament at upstate Sullivan County Community College in January 2020, where she won the 113-pound weight class. She then became the first girl to qualify for the Nassau County

boys’ sectional tournament in 2020 for Lynbrook, where she placed third in her county qualifier by winning four matches, two by pin, before losing her first two tournament bouts in the 120pound weight class. Fitzgerald’s road to success began when she was a victim of bullying in first grade, and her parents signed her up for jujitsu

classes to build her confidence. She joined the Lynbrook Titans Wrestling program at age 9 after watching her younger brother, Liam, wrestle, and has mostly competed against boys during her high school wrestling career. She said she had no qualms about joining a maledominated sport. Continued on page 23


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