ESPN broadcasters return to Kennedy

With the lights dimmed in the auditorium at Kennedy High School in Bellmore, students chanted the well-known ESPN SportsCenter theme song. The buzz was electric as more than 200 students, faculty members, parents and alumni eagerly awaited the arrival of ESPN broadcasters, and Kennedy alumni, Steve Levy and Adam Schefter.

Levy, 46, an alumnus of the class of 1983, and Schefter, a 1985 graduate, returned to their alma mater last Thursday to speak about their paths from Kennedy students to ESPN broadcasters.

The event was coordinated by the Kennedy student government, led by senior class President Michael Schwartz and social studies teacher Brad Seidman, and was hosted by Jonathan Dell’Ollio, the dean of attendance, and Craig Papach, the school’s athletic coordinator. Seidman also credited students Heather Hulkhower, Melissa Coluccio, Blake Lipman, Jenna Coluccio and Samantha Finkel for their roles in organizing the event.

Levy, a SUNY Oswego graduate, has been an ESPN anchor since 1993. Schefter, a Michigan graduate, was hired by ESPN in 2009 as an NFL insider.

While sitting on stage, Schefter and Levy, with a Kennedy Cougars helmet on the table next to them, discussed a myriad of topics, including their days as students at Kennedy during the 1980s, and their thoughts on returning to their high school. "It's almost an indescribable feeling. I came down the wrong street, I'll be honest,” said Levy, who went to Levy-Lakeside Elementary School and Merrick Avenue Middle School. “And I did pass the stop sign where I received my first ever moving violation.”

Levy said that, as a student, he used to spend a lot of time with friends at the Holiday Park Shopping Center on Merrick Road, where he used to frequent an Italian restaurant called Violetta’s. 

"I just remember being a typical high school teenage student hanging out with my best friends,” Schefter said. “We would venture into New York City. And back then, I was far more capable of staying up a lot later than I am today.”