Courageous step in fallen coach's memory

(Garden City, Long Island - WABC, March 2, 2007) (WABC) -- A Long Island high school basketball game is making news tonight -- an unusual game because they're starting at the end of the second quarter.

That's when it was stopped on Tuesday after head coach Gregg Petrocelli died suddenly -- a devastating loss to the team and the school.

Eyewitness News reporter Jen Maxfield is there with the story.

The game started just after 6 p.m. and there was a moment of silence in a show of support for the Elmont High School girls. The players say they believed their coach is here in spirits and cheering them on.

The Elmont High School lady Spartans played through tears, just three days after their beloved coach, Gregg Petrocelli, collapsed during the middle of the game and later died.The girls basketball team is trying to win one in his honor.

"They just want to fulfill what he wanted," student Ian Furtado said.

In the wake of Petrocelli's untimely death, it's unclear if this county semi-final game would ever be finished. But the Elmont players told officials that Petro would want them to suit up and play hard.

"He was our best person in Nassau County basketball. He was just a great guy, a great role model and everybody loved him," said tournament official Stephanie Joannon.

There were less than two minutes left in the first half of the Elmont-Hicksville game Tuesday night when Petrocelli lost consciousness. The Nassau County medical examiner ruled the 38-year-old husband and father died from a rupture artery -- a long term complication of the adrenal cancer that he battled as a younger man.

"It's what he lived for. It's what he died doing. He loved basketball, he loved coaching the kids and that's why they're here today," said Elmont teacher Mike Indovino.

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