They put the “win” in Baldwin.
The Nassau school’s girls and boys basketball teams have much to look forward to in the 2025-26 campaign after the Lady Bruins took home a state title and the fellas won the Long Island championship last season.
“Every day, we talk about going back-to-back,” senior forward Leah Williams told The Post.
“Last year definitely taught me that it starts right now. It doesn’t start in March.”
Williams attributes the local powerhouse’s perfect ending — a thrilling 50-48 defeat of Aquinas Institute of Rochester — to the senior leadership initiative that the team lacked in 2023, which led to its loss in the counties that year.
“We knew we needed people to step up,” said 12th-grade guard Alyssa Polonia.
It quickly worked, as a tremendous bond formed among the team as Williams said, “The seniors became my best friends,” who had her back through thick and thin.
“They were really close to me, and whenever I have something going on in my personal life, I would always lean on them, and they would always be there,” she said.
A key to the girls’ success was not only seniors leading by example and through camaraderie, but also keeping things light on the court.
“It didn’t feel too serious; they kind of took the pressure off,” added Polonia.
“I was having fun with it at the same time.”
From cub to Bruin
Now players like Williams and Polonia are stepping up to pay it forward for the newest group of Lady Bruins, players they say need a little more on-the-nose mentorship from time to time.
“I feel like they kind of need that somebody just to push them and keep them going,” added Polonia, who fell in love with the sport at a young age to beat her brothers at it.
“We play very fast, so they need to be able to handle that and play hard,” she said.
Ultimately, the senior stars are also passing along their own insights and experience on what it takes to finish the job.
“We’re just talking about our experience and what we had to go through,” said Williams, whose dad played for the Bruins as a teenager.
“And how we think that our group, especially because not every group is the same, is going to get to that level.”
Bear down
The girls’ success is palpably felt on the other side of Baldwin’s gym, where the boys are still in quest of the team’s first state title.
“I think them wearing the state championship motivates us even more toward the state championship this year,” said junior guard Mical St. Jean, who played varsity last season.
“I think we have the same grind as them. I love their team … but the one thing I don’t like is losing.”
Boys varsity knocked on the door last season with much to celebrate by winning the LIC over Amityville, 75-56, but fell short in the state regionals’ opening round to Tappan Zee, 44-38.
“Now we know what to expect because that was our first time being there as a team,” said senior center Gabriel Phillips, who is out all year with a torn ACL.
Point guard Ethan Sainsbury feels the same mode of confidence, saying, “A rematch against them, I think we’ll win.”
The upcoming season will require significant adjustments with Phillips sidelined, but he will still maintain a substantial influence from the bench, in a way similar to how the Lady Bruins do business.
“The people that are taking my spot, it’s on me to show them the way and what to do right, what not to do wrong,” he said.
“Just become a role model to them, help them persevere.”
Baldwin bling
Longtime head coach Darius Burton is also helping his team see success — literally.
Burton had a jeweler friend enlarge his Long Island title ring to an NBA Championship-caliber size, and it glistens inside the gym.
“I never leave home without it,” he said.
“I want them to know that’s the ultimate prize. Not a day goes by that they don’t see me have it on at practice and at games.”
The team has certainly taken notice.
“It motivates me, for sure,” St. Jean said.
“Going back-to-back on Long Island, that is the goal — and then some more.”
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