Bethpage High School


Bethpage High School is the only high school in Bethpage, New York. Located in Nassau County on Long Island, the school is situated at the corner of Stewart Avenue and Cherry Avenue, across from the Bethpage Community Park. On average, each class size is between 25 and 30 students. Bethpage High School was once ranked by Newsweek at number 267 of the Best High Schools in America.
As of the 2014-15 school year, the school had an enrollment of 941 students and 76.5 classroom teachers, for a student–teacher ratio of 12.3:1. There were 71 students eligible for free lunch and 31 eligible for reduced-cost lunch.

Extracurricular activities

Performing arts

On January 16, 2007, the Bethpage High School Performing Arts Center was unveiled. The Center is home to the Bethpage Masquers Guild.

Spanish Club

Bethpage High School's Spanish Club embraces both Spanish culture and community service. Each year, the club works to organize cultural trips to museums and volunteers time at Winthrop Hospital at the Hispanic Health Fair. The club also sends aid to Spanish countries and holds an annual Foreign Film Night. The club is open to all students, regardless of language class taken or heritage.

Student Civic Association

The Bethpage High School Student Civic Association is a community service association composed of current attendees of Bethpage High School, open to all those students willing to join. It holds an annual philanthropic talent show and numerous blood drives, and participates in national support programs including Hurricane relief, the annual Marty Lyons Christmas Party for terminally ill children, and various other altruistic endeavors.

Long Island Challenge appearance

In 2006, Bethpage High School was chosen to compete on The Long Island Challenge, an academic quiz show featuring Long Island high schools. Team members included Raman Madan, Karan Sabharwal, Jeff Katz, Vinod Kasturi, and Steve Secchio.

Bethpage Robotics

The Bethpage Regal Eagles Robotics team was founded in 2009, and compete annually in the FIRST Robotics Competition, specifically at the New York City and SBPLI Long Island Regionals. For the first time in 2017, they will be competing at the new Hudson Valley Regional. The head mentors of the team include Dan Zabell and Eric Kay. The current Captain is senior Sam Perkowsky and the Co-Captain is Smiti Shah. They have won 3 notable awards: Woodie Flowers Finalist Award, Dean's List Finalist Award, and Rookie Inspiration Award. Their current sponsors include Altice USA, UTC, Plethora, Northrop Grumman, and TechClash.

Athletics

Bethpage is widely known across Long Island for their athletic program each year. Some sports Bethpage is recognized for are football, lacrosse, track and wrestling. Football was coached by Howie Vogts, who helped the teams with 5 Long Island titles, 3 Rutger Cups, and 29 Regular Season or Conference Championships. Besides being predominantly known for Football, Lacrosse and Wrestling are second to football for most popular sport. Each year anywhere from a handful to about a dozen of players go on to play collegiate lacrosse. Track and field has almost always been a sport that Bethpage High School has excelled in. Bethpage sends a handful of players to the New Balance Nationals during the winter season, and plenty of athletes to the New York State Championship in the spring season. Wrestling is another sport where Bethpage receives respect with the help of Coach Ron Abitelli who is entering his 32nd season who has coached over 30 Nassau County Champions &/or Finalist and 18 All-State wrestlers.

Varsity Kickline

The Golden Girls are a kickline/dance team which has won multiple awards. The team participates in the Kick, Pom, Jazz, and Hip Hop Categories. In 2006 and 2007, the Varsity Kickline became National Champions in the POM Category, and in 2008 placed 6th at the National Dance Alliance Championship, where the team also placed 2nd in Kick in 2005. In 2009, the Golden Girls & Company won the Eastern Dance Association's National High Kick Title, as well as the All-Around Champion title, with a 2nd-place finish in the Large Pom category. In 2010, the Golden Girls placed 2nd in Kick, and won the Large Pom title.

Lacrosse

The lacrosse team has had success throughout the years that is evident by players committing to play collegiate lacrosse every year. Since 2000, over 20 boys have gone on to play Division I and over 40 more players to play at the Division II & III levels. Here are some notable alumni that either achieved All-American or that have gone on to play Division I College Lacrosse; Todd Lawson, Tom Poggio, AJ Haugen, Rob Coscia, Dave Kelly, Brian Cerci, The Testa Brothers, Brian Solliday, Matt Rekowski, Trevor Michaelsen, Thomas John Michaelsen, Jordan Levine and many others. We have also had the pleasure to watch around 10 players that have gone on to play professional lacrosse. In 1996, Bethpage won their first and only State Championship Title which was helped by then, Assistant Coach Erwin Dill but then took over as the Head Coach from 1997 to 2014.

Wrestling

Ron Abitelli is the current Head Wrestling Coach after Lou Candito in 1981 then Al Blau from 1972-1980 then Frank Melone in 1972 & then Al Blau again from 1967 – 1971. They have successfully helped over 100 county place winners ranging from Champions to Six Place Finishers and 18 All-State wrestlers.

Soccer

Bethpage Soccer has been improving since the early 2000s after they won 4 consecutive conference championships from 2001-2004 and during the 2002 season, the team went undefeated.

Notable alumni