Chris Vaccaro is an award-winning journalist, author, and researcher from Holtsville, who since graduating from Hofstra University in 2007, has authored three books on Long Island sports.  His most recent book entitled “Long Island High School Sports” from Arcadia Publishing, strings together a pictorial history of the region’s oldest, most famous, and well-respected teams, coaches, and athletes. Vaccaro, who has written for more than 40 publications, spent some time with the Long Island Sports Report's Andrew Coen to discuss his latest book, his passion for Long Island sports, and what makes the region’s athletic culture very unique.

LISportsReport: What gave you the idea for your latest book “Long Island High School Sports” and describe for our readers what it is about?

Chris Vaccaro:  This is my third of four books about Long Island sports history. Being a Long Island native and sports enthusiast, I've taken great strides in making the history of the Long Island high school sports world come alive through history books. There's no doubt that Long Island is fond of its high school athletes, but there has been a big gap in the history from the early 20th century to today. I knew that Arcadia Publishing put out a great product, so I wrote up a proposal to do this book, it was accepted and about a year later the final product was finished.

The book itself is a photo history piece on the history of Long Island high school sports. Sporting more than 180 historical photographs and captions, the book dives into history from the 1880s to present day and has photos of everything from football, lacrosse, and wrestling to the professional athletes from Long Island, the legendary coaches, and interesting nostalgia from horseshoe teams to track and field pictures that are over 100 years old.

LISportsReport: You have also written Long Island high school sports books on football dynasties, such as the football traditions at Sachem and Bellport. Where does this passion for writing about Long Island high school sports derive from and when did you decide to try and create books on these topics?

Chris Vaccaro: My passion for sports, writing, and Long Island has been present since I was in high school. The original idea for the books was to create a medium that would put myself above the other writers, students, and journalists looking for jobs and attention. It was a way to show that I think outside-the-box, that I am a researcher, a historian, a photographer and certainly a journalist. I also have a strong passion for Long Island and its history. By researching a communities high school sports program, you learn a great deal about the development of that area and how certain things unfold from a political, social, educational, and environmental landscape.

LISportsReport: What makes Long Island high school sports unique compared to other parts of the New York state and the country?

Chris Vaccaro: Long Island is unique from the rest of the state because it competes in its own playoff system and bracket structure for high school football. It's the only sport that doesn't compete in the New York State tournament. New York as a whole doesn't produce a large amount of professional athletes - at least not in comparison to Florida, California, or Texas. But with the football structure the way it is on Long Island - the two days after Thanksgiving, when the Long Island Championship is played, makes for some of the most special athletic events of the year. There are countless reasons why Long Island will never make a name in the pro sports world like the southern states (though there are hundreds of pro athletes form the Island), but it still produces some of the top programs in the state for many sports.

LISportsReport: Are there any other Long Island sports topics you are exploring for books or other projects the near-future?

Chris Vaccaro: There are a few schools interested in having history books done around the Tri-State area and on Long Island. No deals have been signed yet, so I won't divulge that information. I'm usually very proactive in my approach to creating new projects for myself, so you'll see something pop up soon enough.

LISportsReport: What is your long-term goal in the sports media industry?

Chris Vaccaro: This goes along with previous question since I lump my projects into my full-time work day. I was recently hired by AOL as an editor for their new hyper-local news service called Patch.com. In short, there will be individual "Patch" sites popping up in Long Island communities in the next couple of months. These sites are a hyper-local gateway to all news - everything from politics, to high school sports, to events in the community. I'm helping with the coverage on Long Island and eventually will be running my own Patch in Suffolk County.

As far as my involvement in the "sports media industry," I'll always be a part of it somehow, whether from freelance writing, my books or projects that pop up. I'm very happy with AOL and the future of Patch, which is catching on nationwide very quickly. I have written for over 50 publications from ESPN, Newsday and the NY Daily News (where I was a sports editor), to Inside Lacrosse, Rugby Magazine, and many others. I try and write a couple of big features every month for publications all over the country, so at the very least I'll be involved with sports media as a freelance writer. More importantly with Patch, I'll be directly involved with the digital revolution that is shaping how the future of journalism is being shaped.

**Chris Vaccaro's new book can be found on Arcadia Publishing's website**