(Aug. 17, 2026) -- When the Rye City School District brought together 33 senior athletes during the final week of school for a signing ceremony, they represented a wide variety of sports offered by the New York State Public High School Athletic Association, ranging from football and field hockey in the fall to baseball and lacrosse in the spring.
However, their college choices demonstrate ever greater versatility. Aside from continuing careers in the recognized scholastic sports, many of the 33 have chosen to compete going forward in rowing, rugby, fencing, and even synchronized skating.
That speaks to the versatility and high level of skill that allowed Rye to capture the NYSSWA Kerr Cup All-Sport Championship for the 2025-26 school year.
Garnets teams captured NYSPHSAA titles in football, girls soccer, boys ice hockey, and boys lacrosse and scored in five other sports to roll up 89 points and fend off Massapequa (79) and Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake (62.4).
The winning total ranked second only to Fairport's 91 points in the 2023-24 school year, and Rye wasn't all that far off from cracking triple digits in the scoring. Aside from the other state tournament showings that included a trip to the boys soccer finals and appearances in the quarterfinals in boys basketball and girls lacrosse, Rye teams reached a Section 1 final in field hockey and won a sectional title in boys golf, which is a non-scoring event in the Kerr Cup.
Rye competes in Class AA. The Kerr Cup champions in the other classifications:
•Class AAA: Massapequa
•Class A: Westhill
•Class B: Marcellus
•Class C: Tuckahoe
•Class D: Bolton
For its part, Massapequa won NYSPHSAA titles in boys wrestling, lacrosse, volleyball, and baseball. Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake, a four-time past champion and perennial Kerr Cup contender, earned state championships in field hockey and boys cross country.
How we handled at-large berths
The NYSPHSAA's adoption of the Three Region Rotation last summer led to the introduction of at-large teams in some classes of many state tournaments. While not a new concept (boys ice hockey had been using at-large berths to fill our a bracket for many years), the adjustment introduced a new wrinkle as some sectional champions opted to take the at-large slot in the tournament bracket, leaving the team they just defeated to fill what would normally be the champions' place.
After examining several options for handling at-large teams in the Kerr Cup, we settled on the same policy that
