| Somers High School | |
| Established: | 1962 |
| Address: | 120 Primrose Street |
| State: | New York 10540 |
| Principal: | Pete Rodrigues |
| Head Label: | Asst. Principals |
| Head: | Brian Carroll,Tara Kearns[1] |
| Teaching Staff: | 96.24 |
| Ratio: | 10.18 |
| Students: | 980 (2022–23)[2] |
| Grades: | 9-12 |
| Colors: | Red, White and Black |
| Newspaper: | Tusker Times |
| Website: | https://www.somersschools.org/ |
Somers High School is a public high school in Lincolndale, New York.
Somers High School offers a New York State regents curriculum augmented by Advanced Placement courses and a variety of electives. The school has local chapters of the National Honor Society and National Foreign Language Honor Society.
For the 2006–2007 school year Somers had a graduation rate of 100% with 97% receiving a regents diploma and 61% receiving a regents diploma with advanced designation. Of graduating students: 77% enrolled in a 4-year college, 18% enrolled in a 2-year college, 5% became employed full-time, and less than 1% joined the military.[3]
In 2008, Alexander Saeboe won 2nd place in the team competition at the prestigious Siemens Competition in Math, Science & Technology.[4]
Somers High School's mascot is an elephant, and teams' nickname is the Tuskers, both in honor of the town being known for hosting the first American circus.
The baseball team had won league titles in 1972, 2000 and 2001. In 2007 the team won the Class A title. The team followed up with another Sectional title in 2008. In 2009 they won the Section 1 Class A crown.
In 2007 Rob Sanzillo, a Somers High School graduate (class of 2003), was drafted in by the St. Louis Cardinals.[5]
Despite being a respected program during the 20th Century, Somers had never won a Section championship. That unfortunate streak came to an end when Somers hired eventual longtime coach Tony DeMatteo in 2000, following his successful career as the head coach of Roosevelt High School (Yonkers, NY) where he won the Class AA State Championship in 1996.[6] Somers won their first Section championship in 2000 during Coach DeMatteo's first season; a season that featured eventual Somers football coaching hire Anthony DeMatteo as a sophomore.[7] [8]
Somers would wait 12 years for their next Section championship victory, which came at home against Sleepy Hollow in a 42-13 win, following the impact of Hurricane Sandy.[9] Somers would not have to wait long for their next Section championship, as they avenged their regular season loss to Rye High School, who were undefeated coming into the championship game, to win the 2013 Section championship by a score of 20-7.[10] During the season, Coach DeMatteo surpassed the 300-win milestone as a head coach.[11]
Despite success in Section 1 play, Somers had struggled to translate it into victories in the state playoffs. However, the 2016 season proved to be different when Somers began the quest for their first state championship with a victory over Yorktown High School, who had been undefeated entering the contest and had beaten Somers earlier in the season, in the Section championship by the score of 42-6.[12] Somers then dispatched state playoff rival Cornwall High School, who had previously beaten Somers in the 2012 and 2013 Regional State Playoffs, by a score of 28-7 to win Somers' first Regional championship.[13] Somers made their first state championship game appearance when they traveled to Syracuse University at the Carrier Dome for a faceoff against then-undefeated Greece Athena High School from Rochester, NY. After a back-and-forth game, Somers were victorious by a score of 25–17 to claim their first state title in football.[14] This was also the first season that Somers had a player named as the NY State Player of the Year, senior wide-receiver, and University of Rhode Island football commit Matt Pires.[15]
Somers would win their fifth Section championship in the shortened 2020 season (due to the COVID-19 lockdowns), in which they defeated John Jay Cross River High School, at John Jay's field, by a score of 17-14.[16] There were no state playoffs that year.
In November 2021, The Tuskers won the Section 1 Class A championship. Somers defeated Rye High School 26–23 in the fog bowl at Arlington High School.
The former varsity coach, Tony DeMatteo, has the most victories of any head coach in Section 1 New York State football history and has been named high school football's most motivational coach of all time by the NFL.[17] [18] Coach DeMatteo retired in 2021 and left Somers in second for all-time wins by a head football coach in the state of NY.[19]
The Somers ice hockey team is merged with that of North Salem High School. In the 2007–08 season, Somers/North Salem had their winningest season in either school's history by finishing 16-9-1 and winning their first ever sectional game against rival JFK/Putnam Valley.
The boys' lacrosse team has been to eight sectional title games from 2000 to 2010, winning in 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2006 and 2009. The team was also defeated in the NY State semifinals in 2000-2002 and 2006 and in the state title game in 2003.
Since 2002, nine Tuskers have earned All-American honors.
By year: 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016.
2009: The Tuskers run to their last Sectional Championship.
The girls' soccer team has won five sectional titles and reached the NY State Class A State Semi-Finals in 2006 and 2011. The girls won the Class A New York State Public High School Athletic Association State Championship in 2014. The boys' soccer team won the Section 1 title in 1998 and finished the season ranked fifth in New York State. In 2016, they won the State Championships.
The school's only Track state championship came cross country in 2004. The cross country team also won the sectional title in 2005, 2007, and 2016. The indoor track and field team won the section championship in 1984, 1998, 1999, 2001, 2005–2008, and 2010.
Somers won its first state championship in 2009 in the 103 pound weight class, and won another state championship in 2011 in the 135 lb weight class.
In 2022, Somers School District Superintendent Dr. Raymond Blanch removed an English teacher from the classroom mid-lesson after parents of those students reported being upset at the content she presented as part of an optional activity on racial identity using excerpts from Me and White Supremacy by Layla Saad.[20] On November 10, 2022, the Somers Central School District issued a letter from Blanch in which he admitted "The English Department was not specifically prohibited from using this text after it had been removed from the summer reading list in June 2021."[21]