The Garden City Trojans’ unparalleled success is anything but a myth.
Earning a 10th consecutive Nassau County title, fifth straight Long Island championship, and keeping a record-setting 54-game win streak alive all hang in the balance starting this Week 1 for head coach Dave Ettinger’s profound bunch.
“Winning never gets boring,” Ettinger, who’s 109-3 leading the Trojans, told The Post as Garden City practiced for its Saturday opener at Long Beach.
“It’s a lot of pressure on the players to see what the teams before them have done… but they give us every ounce of effort that they have throughout the entire season,” Long Island’s version of Nick Saban added.
The key to the team’s success is not resting on its laurels and legacy of old, but instead drilling down, day in and day out for months on end to earn greatness, players say.
“Nobody expects to win,” said Harvard football-bound senior left guard Zach Olson, who boasts that another ring would be the ideal Ivy League sendoff.
“We just try to drill down… and keep the energy up, our energy is the biggest thing,” added Olson, who was part of the past three varsity titles since ninth grade.
Herculean efforts
The team voluntarily gave up days of summer vacation for sleepaway football camp in Connecticut and, during the season, will spend at least two nights a week together for team dinners to blow off steam and decompress from high expectations left by the previous generations.
“We owe it to the guys before us to give it everything in practice every single day and always work,” said senior Merit Ruckh, who shifts between running back, wide receiver and defensive back on the near 50-player roster.
Ruckh’s gridiron role is an ideal example of the hustle culture Ettinger has followed through with in 11 seasons at the helm.
“He definitely demands excellence … he tells us face-to-face if we’re doing what we’re not supposed to be doing,” added the senior, who is heading to the University of Tampa for lacrosse.
“Sometimes he yells, sometimes not, but either way, we know what’s expected of us.”
Oftentimes, the onus for setting a higher standard is self-imposed, such as the case of the Trojans’ all-state kicker, Christopher Desiderio.
“Last year, I missed two kicks, so my goal is to not miss a kick this year,” said the senior, who nailed around 60 through the uprights.
“Since being a little kid, you see all these championships they’ve won. That’s really all you want to do when your time comes, so when you get here, you work as hard as you can — together,” added Desiderio, who doubles as a wideout.
While Ettinger sees to it that the bunch grinds out every second on the field, he’s undoubtedly grateful for the group he has, which makes his job easier and his tenure that of legend.
“Preparation is everything. Attention to detail is everything… and we have smart kids,” he said.
“We have a system, and it’s been working, so we stick to it.”
Trojan war
However, he added that the team’s only three losses in the past decade — one against Wantagh in 2015, another against MacArthur in 2019, and a falter against Lindenhurst in the LI Championship that season — were teachable moments in their own ways.
“Nobody likes to lose, ever,” he said.
“But sometimes you learn more when you lose than you do when you win,” added Ettinger, who said those sparse losses ultimately helped the Trojans do the little things closer to perfection.
As Olson said, no player is taking the 2025 campaign for granted.
As it is, the team was bumped up from Conference III to the larger II, which complicates things.
“Some teams are familiar, some are different, and not having that familiarity from playing them last year, it really matters,” said Ettinger, who called Long Beach “a tough opponent.”
The Trojans’ approach is like that of the teams’ past — take it one week at a time and commit all attention to the task at hand instead of envisioning November glory prematurely.
“Our only focus right now is Long Beach on Saturday,” Ettinger said.
“We’re just trying to prepare as hard as we can to send the seniors off as winners.”
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
