Bellmore-Merrick Central District, Community Parent Center to offer college recruitment workshop

The college application process, with its myriad academic requirements and deadlines, can be mind-boggling. Then comes the financial aid application, which can seem as daunting as a 1040 income-tax form on steroids.

So, for high school athletes looking to play college sports, adding the recruitment process to an already harried college application process can be a seemingly insurmountable mountain to climb.

Saul Lerner, the Bellmore-Merrick Central High School District athletics director, said that, yes, the recruitment process can be trying, but it is not impossible, as evidenced by the high number of Central District athletes who have gone on to play college sports in recent years.

To educate Bellmore-Merrick student-athletes and their parents about the recruitment process, the Central District is teaming up with the Bellmore-Merrick Community Parent Center to offer a free seminar, “Does Your Child Dream of Playing College Athletics?” The workshop, featuring a panel of speakers that includes college coaches from Divisions I, II and III and the athletic directors of each Central District high school, will review the ins and outs of the recruitment process.

The seminar will take place in the Mepham High School auditorium on Tuesday, Dec. 10, from 7:30 to 9 p.m. Mepham is at 2401 Camp Ave. in North Bellmore.

“We’re going to give people the tools and knowledge they need to have their kids recruited at no cost,” said Lerner.

Guest speakers will include Seth Tierney, Hofstra University’s head lacrosse coach; Susan Cassidy, Molloy College’s athletic director and softball coach; Tom Azzara, SUNY Farmingdale’s associate athletic director and golf coach; Paul Schmitt, Nassau Community College’s wrestling coach; June Spruyt, Calhoun High School’s athletic director and a former Division I basketball player at Hofstra; Craig Papach, Kennedy High School’s athletic director and a former Division III football and lacrosse player at SUNY Cortland; and Anthony Cracco, Mepham’s athletic director and a former Division I football player at Central Connecticut State University.

To register, email Parent Center Executive Director Wendy Tepfer at cpc1260A@hotmail.com or fax her at (516) 771-9356.