There’s a line you don’t cross in Sachem — and it runs tackle to tackle.
The Suffolk district’s North and East high schools, whose players are friendly off the field but fierce rivals on the gridiron, have offensive lines that double as the Great Wall of China for the 2025 season.
“When it comes to our lineman development program, we say you have to stick them in a slow cooker … they go from a piglet to a hog over four years,” Sachem North head coach David Caputo told The Post.
“They get weighed in 52 weeks of the year, and we are constantly monitoring their calorie intake. There’s a pathway laid out for them as ninth graders,” he said.
Senior lineman Valdey Pierre is the perfect example, as he weighed less than 200 pounds in ninth grade and is now a muscle-filled 268.
“They just really, really build you up from being a small guy,” the 6-foot-1 athlete said.
Hogging it up
The Arrows have been orchestrated around trench warfare for decades, dating back to the days of Giants and Jets great Jumbo Elliott, a member of the class of 1983.
The school also recently graduated four Division 1 offensive linemen — including guard Joe Cruz of Syracuse, who will get a huge start against Tennessee this weekend — and one running back, Lucas Singleton, now playing at Army, who reaped the benefits of the big guys up front.
“It makes me want to perform at my highest level that I can,” Sachem North junior center James Chirichella, who stands about 6-3, said of his school’s legacy.
“The coaches work us really hard. But that’s why we are who we are,” he added.
Offensive line coach Vincent Juliano first brought in the hog roast mentality — players proudly wear shirts with the phrase at school — after hearing it used by Giants center Shaun O’Hara years ago.
He realized it was the perfect way to describe the years of meticulous commitment that come with the dirtiest and grittiest position on the field, something all the players have deeply embraced.
“Those big bodies have all fallen in love with the game. They just enjoy it and they end up being pretty good because of it,” Juliano said.
“I think one of the biggest compliments you can get is when an opposing coach calls you after the game and says, ‘Oh my goodness, coach, you guys are really physical,’ ” he added.
Meanwhile, Caputo is licking his chops already for the next generation — four freshmen who already stand taller than 6 feet before being part of the proverbial pig roast.
“I’m intrigued by them,” he said with a smile.
4.0 stance
A few miles down the road, Sachem East has its own brick wall led by Princeton-bound left tackle Jack Martines, the team’s first Ivy League football player this century.
“My mom didn’t want me to play tackle football,” the towering 6-5, 285-pound 17-year-old joked.
As Martines is vying for the Zellner Award for Suffolk’s best offensive lineman of the year, East’s two starting quarterbacks are counting their lucky stars to have such a guardian in front of them.
“They know that I’m going to put blood, sweat and tears into protecting them. I feel very good about that,” the senior said.
That sentiment is not lost on junior QB Ryan Pickersgill, who said, “I have time in the pocket to make the passes and get the job done.”
Pickersgill’s father, head coach Ray Pickersgill, added that Martines’ truculence is bringing a better reputation to football on the island.
“In the past, people have kind of glossed over Long Island. … People are starting to realize the quality of football, especially linemen, now is very good here,” he said.
The coach added that he is doubly relieved as a dad to know Martines is blocking for his boy.
“Jack is an outstanding kid. He’s very smart. He does all the right things,” Ray Pickersgill said. “He’s a great leader on the football team.”
And for Martines, playing around and training so many powerful local linemen — including from crosstown rival North — means that iron sharpens iron.
“It makes you better being around them,” he said.
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
