Friday, 17 February 2012 00:00

The Syosset Central School District announced that two Syosset High School students, Sida Chen and Daniel Chui, have been selected as candidates for the United States Presidential Scholars Program. Scholars are chosen based on outstanding academic success, artistic excellence, leadership, and involvement in school and the community.

The U.S. Presidential Scholars Program serves to recognize and honor the nation’s most distinguished graduating high school seniors. Each year, 3,000 candidates are named based on broad academic achievement and SAT and ACT scores.

Friday, 17 February 2012 00:00

Legislators discuss public safety issues

An overflow audience packed into the Nassau County Legislative chambers on Monday, Feb.13 as that body held a public hearing on a proposal to close four police precincts in the county and transform them into community policing centers.

The hearing focused on public safety issues. It featured a long presentation by Acting Police Commissioner Thomas Dale who maintained that the plan would not compromise public safety, while noting that certain usages of advanced technologies have helped to reduce crime in the county.

Dale said the consolidation would result in a “more effective and efficient” police department, while also addressing the county’s budget situation. The precincts in question are the First, Fifth, Sixth, and Eighth Precincts.

Friday, 17 February 2012 00:00

Qualifies for Diving Nationals for second year in a row

With every step, hop and dive off the board, he zones in on the task at hand. With each ladder climbed and dive finished, he awaits the score. Some scores mean more than others, but one hit home with ninth-grade Syosset High School diver Nicholas Woska.

His nickname growing up was “Tigger” because like his bounce off the diving board, Woska never stopped bouncing off of anything.

Woska broke the long-standing high school 11-dive record by scoring a 366 in this year’s Nassau County High School Championship. SHS Alum Richard Gorle previously held the record but, tragically, passed away in a traffic accident last year.

Friday, 17 February 2012 00:00

Fifth grader Andrew Zheng from George A. Jackson Elementary School in Jericho likes to compare the sport of fencing with the swordfight between Zorro and Sgt. Garcia. It only takes Zorro a few clever moves to cause the fat Sgt. a lot of mayhem, especially when Garcia supposedly weighs “only 50 pounds.” Fencing, also called “physical chess,” is one of the four sports that have been featured at every modern Olympic Games. The sport is divided into three weapons: Foil, Sabre and Épée. It is a physical as well as a mental sport. Not only does a fencer need to have agility, strength and speed, he or she also needs to be cunning, to be able to figure out what the opponent’s next intention is, all within a split of a second.

The United States Fencing Association (USFA) sanctioned Super Youth Circuit (SYC) was held at the National Harbor, Maryland during the weekend of Feb 3-5. More than 800 youth fencers from all over the country participated in about two-dozen events with more than 1200 individual entries. According to the organizer of the tournament, this year’s is the largest ever-Super Youth Circuit in U.S. fencing history. Andrew fenced in two events and won a Jefferson Cup for his first place in Youth 10 Men’s Foil (age of 10 or younger, the youngest age group), and a medal for the 7th place in Youth 12 (age of 12 or younger) Men’s Foil events.