Introducing: The Top 10 teams in Brooklyn sports for 2013-14

September 19, 2014 By Rob Abruzzese Brooklyn Daily Eagle

When anyone thinks about the top teams in Brooklyn, the Lincoln Railsplitters are atop that list.

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Brooklyn is king when it comes to New York City sports and here is a list of the very best the borough has to offer in basketball, softball, baseball, football, soccer and volleyball (apologies to the St. Francis Water Polo team. The Nets and Cyclones were eligible for this list, but didn’t make the cut.

Fall Sports

LIU Brooklyn women’s volleyball (Last year’s record: 23-8 overall, 14-0 in conference): These Blackbirds can really fly. Led by the two-time Norteast Conference Player of the Year Annika Foit, LIU Brooklyn has won back-to-back NEC titles and is expected to easily win a third this year. Its next challenge is to make some noise in the NCAA tournament.

St. Francis College men’s soccer (12-6-1 overall, 4-1-1 in conference): Last year’s St. Francis Terriers’ squad was one of the best in the school’s history as it won its first NEC title in 15 years behind the amazing play of Kevin Correa, the strong defense of Andy Cormack and gritty determination of Gabriel Bagot. This season will be a bit tougher as it lost some of its stars, but head coach Tom Giovatto thinks Jack Binks is the best goalkeeper in the conference.

Poly Prep High School football (8-1): Poly Prep’s football team has become one of the top programs in the nation and last season was no different as it barely missed a perfect record with a loss in the final game of the season. They’re still well respected thanks to kids like defensive end Jay Hayes, who is currently playing for Notre Dame.

Lincoln High School football (13-0): If you haven’t noticed, Brooklyn is becoming a hotbed for high school football and Lincoln is a huge part of that. It had a perfect record on its way to a city title last season and it sent multiple kids to Division-I colleges including All-American Thomas Holley, who went to Florida. It’s looking likely that Lincoln could be undefeated again this year.

Winter Sports

Nazareth girl’s basketball (21-7): Ever since the late Apache Paschall brought his program to Brooklyn after St. Michael Academy closed in Manhattan, this team has been a nationally ranked powerhouse that consistently produces some of the best talent in the country. Last year’s class was headlined by All-American Bianca Cuevas, who will play basketball at South Carolina this year.

Lincoln boy’s basketball (21-1): Stephon Marbury, Sebastian Telfair and Lance Stephenson have come out of the Coney Island school in recent years and expect All-American Isaiah Whitehead’s name to be added to the list of NBA players out of Lincoln as soon as he’s done at Seton Hall. Whitehead led an amazing team last year that came one win short of the championship, but that was loaded with talent. Whitehead and coach Dwayne “Tiny” Morton are gone now, but the tradition will stay alive.

South Shore girl’s basketball (16-2): Unfortunately, the Lady Vikings lost in the finals at the Barclays Center last season, but this team has dominated girl’s basketball in Brooklyn recently. They have been the Brooklyn AA Division champs going back to 2010 and Brianna Fraser will be the next in a long list of D-I athletes to come out of the program.

Spring Sports

St. Edmond’s softball (14-0): Coach Rowena Motylewski arrived on the scene at St. Edmund in 2008 and has turned the program into a constant winner. Last year the girls won their second-straight Brooklyn/Queens Diocesan A championship and a move up to the AA division is expected this year.

Poly Prep baseball (22-3-1): Talk about domination. The Poly Prep baseball team has now won four Ivy League titles in a row and some of the talent it has produced has been simply amazing including its current class that included star Rob Calabrese and sophomore Nicky Storz, who was recently ranked as the No. 5 prospect in the class of 2017 in the country by PerfectGame.

Xaverian baseball (22-4-1): Every year Xaverian is among the top baseball teams in the city. Even last year when it was expected to have a down year, the Clippers managed to shock everyone and won a city title behind the amazing pitching of Anthony Sigismondi. That’s some down year.