Chris Vaccaro, 21, is a senior at Hofstra majoring in print journalism. He's currently a reporter for the Southampton Press. He released "The Dynasties: Long Island High School Football" (Xlibris Publishers, 120 pages) in May and is available at Xlibris, Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Borders. One of the chapters focuses on St. Anthony's football. Friars Football dropped an email to chat with the author.

Why Long Island football? I've grown up on Long Island and have been covering high school football there for about eight years now.

What football programs are featured in the book? I'd like to say, but the fun part is keeping people surprised for when they actually get it. I can say, however, that St. Anthony's cracks the top 10 dynasties list.

What made you want to tackle such a big subject? I'm always looking for ways to better myself as a writer and further my career — you always have to be one step ahead of your competition in the communications world. Not many 19-, 20-, 21-year-olds have written books and I've certainly jumped ahead of the pack.

What's something surprising you learned while researching the book? I don't know if there is anything surprising, but there were a lot of interesting things. Just being able to meet Amityville's Lou Howard and become friends with an 82-year-old was special. Learning about how Hempstead had so many famous people, aside from just athletes, go through their football program. Understanding how much love Sal Ciampi and Joe Cipp have for the game of football. Hearing the stories and visualizing the game from guys like Howie Vogts, Rich Reichert and Buddy Krumenacker is pretty amazing.

What program, in your opinion, put together the most impressive dynasty? I'd have to say Bellport and St. Anthony's. Bellport, because their program isn't that old in comparison with some of the others and they've built a program on passion, family and hard nose football. St. Anthony's, because they're one of the premier programs in the Northeast…always have been, always will be. They rarely lose, and based on the last couple of years, may be one of the best dynasties ever.


"The Dynasties: Long Island High School Football" (Xlibris Publishers, 120 pages) is available at Xlibris, Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Borders.