Massapequa football has pride on its side with Long Island Class I title in sight Trickle down? Sure. But in Massapequa there also is a ‘trickle up’ effect. One can only begin to grasp this at a ’Pequa home game. Grade schoolers donning the jerseys of the Massapequa Mustangs youth program seem to be everywhere. Sometimes they lead the varsity onto the field. And often they are the water and ball boys. “I was one of those guys,” Diesso said. “So were Tyler, Kenny Gein and Billy Sciurba. AJ Molenko, Tommy Biggin, Connor Pineda and almost all the guys in my class . . . Wearing the varsity uniform is what we all wanted. I wanted to be a varsity football player my whole life.” In Massapequa, it’s not that something is in the water — it’s that something is in the bloodstream from a very early age. “Definitely 100%, it starts with the Massapequa Mustangs . . . a program that’s second to none,” Shippos said. “The Mustangs have been a huge part of our success and we do everything we can to keep it going. We invite those kids to be around the tradition, to lead us on to the field and be a part of our practices when we can. Our team does a clinic with them every August before the season.” Shippos said there are so many Massapequa kids interested in football that there are four teams in every age group that play in town in addition to the Mustangs travel team. @coach_ship 🤝 @PequaMustangs