Pirates capture trio of championships

Lynbrook High School’s Anthony Mackie, number 26, played shortstop for the championship-winning 18u Pirates team.

The 16u Long Island Pirates team celebrated its championship win at Firemen’s Field in Valley Stream. The team was coached by Henry Daverin.

Courtesy Angela Shirian

Vito Friscia, 16, a soon-to-be junior at Valley Stream Central High School, handled the 18u Pirates’ catching duties and led the team in seven offensive categories, including batting average, hits and homeruns this summer.

Courtesy of Long Island Pirates

Three Long Island Pirates teams, including the 14u team, above, took home three National Junior Baseball League championships this summer. The Pirates is a Valley Stream-based travel baseball program.

Courtesy of Long Island Pirates

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Three teams. Three championships. Such was the case this summer for the Long Island Pirates, a Valley Stream-based travel baseball program that takes a “no nonsense” approach to the game.

The Pirates were started by former Adelphi University teammates Frank Alesia and Henry Daverin in October 2011 and fielded the first team last summer. Alesia, a teacher at Valley Stream Central High School, is also the school’s varsity baseball coach.

The two longtime friends said they had talked about establishing a travel baseball program for years and finally decided to go for it. They held their first workouts in the winter of 2011-12 and fielded a 16-year-old and younger (16u) team last summer. Alesia said the program got started through word of mouth. The team went on to make it to the championship series of the Long Island-based National Junior Baseball League before losing.

In the fall of 2012, the Pirates fielded a 14u team as well and this summer an 18u team was added to the mix. “We’re trying to separate ourselves from just the average travel team,” Alesia said. “Not only are we preparing you for baseball, we’re preparing you for life, we’re preparing you for college.”

There are no parent or volunteer coaches on any of the three teams and each coach has a minimum of college baseball playing experience. Alesia manages the 14u team while Daverin heads up the 16u and 18u teams. “We present a product that’s no nonsense,” Alesia said. “It’s all about accountability, attitude [and] effort.”

The coaches said they’d like to add more teams in the future, including for younger players, and expand existing teams. But for now, Alesia and Daverin look back on the Pirates’ summer season in awe, which ended with the three teams as the best in Nassau and Suffolk counties. “We didn’t think there was any chance we’d sweep it like that,” Daverin said of winning all three championships.