Chaminade honors GC resident for contributions

Lifelong Garden City resident William Joseph Basel was honored with the first annual “Flyer Ring of Honor Leadership Award” on Saturday, February 11, at the Activities Athletic Center at Chaminade High School in Mineola.

Bill was honored by the school for being an esteemed coach who has contributed and led the students both on and off the field. He has been an inspiration to thousands of Flyers during his 43 years as a teacher and coach. Bill’s philosophy of “hard work paying off” has remained consistent.

Bill attended St. Joseph’s Catholic grammar school in Garden City from 1945–1954. He graduated from Chaminade High School class of 1958. As a student he participated in Chaminade athletics, playing basketball, baseball and football and serving as star quarterback of the 1957 football team.

Bill graduated from the University of Dayton and received his master’s in physical education from Adelphi. He was hired in 1967 by Chaminade High School as a coach and as a teacher. During his tenure at Chaminade, Bill ran the Physical Education Department, coached wrestling, basketball and football, before retiring from coaching in 2009. He led these teams to numerous league championships and won the league sportsmanship award in Basketball nine times.

Today, Bill serves on the Alumni Board and is the executive director of the Chaminade Golf and Tennis Open, which recently celebrated its 50th year of success.

Bill resides in Garden City with his wife Claire. He has five children William '83, Elizabeth, Peter, Suzanne, and Catherine as well as ten grandchildren.

Michael Siragusa, aka “Goose”, joined the fencing team in 9th grade as an Épée. He heard about the fencing team from his friend and fellow Boy Scout, Alex Pasqualina, who was a year older. Soon after joining the team, Michael was hooked. As a freshman, he earned the gold medal at the Nassau County Underclassmen Tournament under former coach Kevin Oliver. Michael worked hard to improve his skills at Long Island Fencing Club during the off season. During his freshman year, the team won Nassau County Championship and Michael was named épée captain at the end of sophomore year, a position he held his junior year and senior year, along with co-captain Louis Rivera. This year, Michael competed against other Long Island students at the Brentwood Holiday Tournament and made it to the Direct Elimination round. Michael is grateful for the constant support and cheering his team has given him throughout the past four years. Fencing has been an invaluable experience, both on and off the strip, and he hopes he was able to pass on some of the lessons he’s learned to newer fencers. Looking ahead, Michael has been accepted to several colleges and is weighing his options. He plans to study aerospace engineering and hopes to continue fencing on a club team.

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