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AWARDS Page 8
Bayou Jones, lCK close amid Covid
lizzie’s Army raises $9,000
Autotroph returns to BMCHSD
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Vol. 23 No. 35
AUGUST 27 - SEPTEMBER 2, 2020
$1.00
We’re all in this together
By ToNy BElliSSiMo tbellissimo@liherald.com
Steve Levy got a taste of the “Monday Night Football” broadcast booth last September when he served as the play-by-play commentator for the Denver Broncos-Oakland Raiders game in Week One of the season. Now Levy, 55, a south Merrick native, one of ESPN’s sign at u re vo i c e s a n d a SportsCenter anchor, is preparing to begin his first sea-
son on the “Monday Night Football” stage after he was named the seventh play-byplay voice in the show’s 51-year history. “It is truly a dream come true,” said Levy, who graduated from Kennedy High School in 1983 and earned a bachelor’s in communications from SUNY Oswego four years later. “I’m still hearing from so many people. I’m very close to two of my Merrick friends, which dates back to the fourth grade. We’re getting a big
laugh at remembering [when] I [would] announce our street football games while playing in them way back then, and now I’ll be broadcasting one of the NFL’s most signature franchises.” Hired by ESPN in 1993 after stints at the MSG Network, WFAN radio and WCBS television, Levy emerged as one of the network’s leading play-by-play commentators for his work on the National Hockey League and college Continued on page 19
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JFK High School alum lands ‘Monday Night Football’ gig
2020-2021
Courtesy ESPN Images
STEVE lEVy, RiGHT, a south Merrick native and Kennedy High School graduate, leads the new “Monday Night Football” broadcast team, which includes Brian Griese, center, and Louis Riddick.
photographers, graphic artists, advertising account executives, press operators, drivers and managers. Now, more than ever, we are relying on you, our readers, to support us, as we have supported you through this crisis. Please consider taking an annual subscription to the Herald. See our subscription ad in this week’s paper on Page 20. If you are already a Herald subscriber, thank you for your support. We hope you are pleased with our coverage, and if you are, you might consider taking a two- or three-year subscription. If you’re new to the Herald, then you must know that our mission HERALD is to cover all the news of your neighborhood, from the schools to the Little Leagues, from houses of worship to veterans organizations. We also want to hear what you have to say about the issues affecting the Merricks. Please share your story ideas with Editor Alyssa Seidman or Reporter Andrew Garcia. Finally, you can make a taxdeductible donation to the Heralds to help support our newsgathering efforts by going to liherald.com/donate. CH
All of us at the Herald Community Newspapers were frightened by the coronavirus pandemic when it reached Nassau County in early March. Some of us were sickened by Covid-19, and some were even hospitalized. But we had a job to do. We were, as Gov. Andrew Cuomo called us, “essential workers,” relaying vital information people needed to know to stay h e a l t hy a n d s u r v ive t h i s potentially deadly disease. So we did what we knew h ow t o d o — reported the news, day in, day out, for weeks on end. Suddenly, we were no longer a weekly newspaper. We were a daily, publishing the news online at liherald.com and in our daily newsletter. Hundreds of thousands of people came to our website for the latest news. The pandemic stretched us to our limits, but we never broke. We were with you throughout, and our pledge is to remain with you until all of us return to normal life — or whatever our lives will be in the new normal. Producing the news, however, is a costly endeavor. We must pay the salaries of reporters, editors,
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