This year's crop of outstanding talent is as deep as we can remember in Suffolk county and that is why the anticipation for who would bring home the coveted Carl A. Hansen Award was as great as ever at this year's awards ceremony.
The Hansen Award is given annually to Suffolk’s top football player, and has been the most sought after award for 64 years.
This year's award winner is Joseph Filardi from Half Hollow Hills West. The quarterback fell just shy of the award last season and vowed to come back even stronger in 2024. He did just that. Filardi lead Hills West to the Suffolk Division III championship game and his record breaking stats just kept adding up.
Filardi threw for 3,102 yards and his 43 touchdowns to just three interceptions showed his decision making and QB play was not that of a gunslinger, but a seasoned signal caller. Filardi didn't stop there as he was a true dual threat. He rushed for over 1,200 yards and had 12 more touchdowns on the ground. That is an incredible 55 TDs he was a part of on the year.
Hills West offense was explosive all season averaging 47 points per game and he accounted for five touchdowns per game on average. He finishes his high school career with Long Island records for most career all purpose yards with 14,483 and his 151 touchdowns also set Long Island records.
Filardi is headed to Syracuse to continue his playing career in both football and lacrosse.
The other finalists were Sayville senior halfback Kyle Messina and Floyd junior halfback Ja’Quan Thomas, who both shared in the Joe Cipp award, given to the best running back in the county.