LI Herald

By Karen Bloom There’s something quintessentially fall about wandering through an orchard, basket in hand, in search of the perfect apple. As September settles in, we wait for the air to turn crisp and the leaves to begin their colorful transformation. Meanwhile local orchards are coming alive with the sights, scents and flavors of harvest time. There are baskets to fill, cider to sip and plenty of reasons to gather family and friends for a leisurely day outdoors.

For Felicia Ivey-Toure, Sept. 11, 2001, did not end when the smoke cleared from Lower Manhattan. Two days after the attacks, Ivey-Toure went to Ground Zero as a volunteer counselor, spending about three weeks helping people who had been shaken by what they had witnessed. At the time, she never imagined she would one day be talking about her own cancer.

The Long Beach girls soccer team will be extra tested in the 2026 regular season. Coming off a 7-5-3 2025 campaign in which the Marines fell to MacArthur in the Class AA quarterfinals, Long Beach moved up to Conference I this season and will tackle some of the top AAA and AA schools on the road to the playoff. Long Beach is guaranteed a playoff spot in its new higher league and will look to use the stepped up competition as solid pay aration for a possible deep postseason run.

The Freeport boys soccer team is set to tackle a challenging league schedule as it seeks a return to the playoffs. The Red Devils are once again competing against Nassau County’s largest schools in Conference AAA and will look to reach the postseason for a second straight season and third time in four years by obtaining a .500 or better record.

By this point in her coaching career, Judi Croutier has become a jigsaw puzzle master. It helps, of course, that the South Side girls’ soccer coach has pieces that fit in numerous places. “We have the pieces of the puzzle,” Croutier said. “We just have to figure out where they’re gonna work best for each opponent. That’s our job now.

North Shore boys soccer weaved a grandiose 2025 campaign, rolling to a 6-1-3 record in Conference A-2. The Vikings nearly beat eventual Nassau Class A finalist Friends Academy in the quarterfinals. In fact, the Vikings held a 1-0 lead with 10 minutes left before letting it slip away in a 2-1 overtime loss. Four key players have graduated and now playing college soccer, including leading scorer Henry Cardozo at Mount St. Vincent’s.

After a subpar season, Valley Stream Central boys soccer coach Billy Miller is looking for his team to bounce back. “I think a lot of people are motivated to put last year behind us and are excited for a fresh start,” he said. He didn’t shy away from what the biggest changes were, from a 3-11 season to hopefully a winning, playoff-clinching season: the mentality going into the season.

Before last season, the last time the Carey boys’ soccer team made it to the playoffs was 2021. Last fall, the Seahawks beat Malverne/East Rockaway 1-0 before running into the buzzsaw of Garden City in Nassau Class AA’s second round. This season, Carey brings back leading goal scorer and senior winger Evan Cardoso, senior center midfielder Matteo Campoli and junior winger Ethan Joseph to run the offense.

Lawrence boys soccer enters the season with plenty of question marks but with no shortage of talent and a new place to call home. With the high school turf field deemed unfit for action last fall due to a decade and a half of wear and tear, the Golden Tornadoes were no strangers to bus trips and held their only two “home” games at Lynbrook North Middle School.

Oceanside girls’ soccer has gone from ending a 45-year championship drought to becoming the team everyone is chasing. Entering her third season as coach, Danielle Chiera has guided the Sailors to back-to-back Nassau County Class AAA championships and last year’s Long Island AAA title, secured with a 1-0 overtime victory over Northport. Now, Oceanside is aiming for another deep postseason run.