Last Two Hansen Award Winners Dylan Laube, Liam McIntyre Are Performing Well At The Next Level

Jaden AlfanoStJohn became the third consecutive Westhampton Beach football player to receive the Carl A. Hansen Award, named after the former Westhampton Beach football coach and athletic director and given to the top football player in all of Suffolk County, on December 2. He followed two prominent names that left indelible marks on not just Westhampton Beach, but Suffolk County athletics, in Dylan Laube and Liam McIntyre.

Laube just completed his sophomore season at the University of New Hampshire, while McIntyre just ended his freshman season at Long Island University. Just as they did during their high school careers, both Laube and McIntyre have already become big parts of their respective teams at the next level.

Laube shared the Hansen Award with Lindenhurst’s Jeremy Ruckert, who is now a tight end at Ohio State University, in 2017, the year the Hurricanes went undefeated and won Suffolk and Long Island Championships.

For the second straight season, Laube won the Joe Cipp Jr. Award, given to the top running back in the county. He was also named to the USA Today ALL-USA New York Football Team, and was picked to play in the Empire Challenge All-Star Game with teammate Nolan Quinlan, who has played the past two seasons at Wagner College.

Laube set the single-game county rushing record of 454 yards in a win over Eastport-South Manor, and also holds the mark for single-season rushing yards with 2,684 his senior season. He scored a Long Island-record 47 touchdowns and tied the record of six touchdowns in the Long Island Championship. Laube finished his career with 120 touchdowns and 6,495 rushing yards on 655 carries in four years as a varsity player.

After his record-breaking high school career, Laube had to take a bit of a back seat during his freshman season at UNH. After playing in four games for the Wildcats last season, Laube was redshirted — a new rule by the NCAA last season allowed schools to play freshmen in a maximum of four games before having to decide to redshirt a player or not. He was the only freshman on UNH’s roster to play in the four-game max.

Laube dove right into his redshirt freshman season this past fall at UNH and became what he said was its “Swiss Army knife,” doing a little bit of everything, from carrying the ball, catching passes out of the backfield and slot, to returning kicks. What the Wildcats saw in Laube’s first full season on the field for them was what he was during his four-year varsity career at Westhampton Beach: a complete and highly productive player.

Laube tied for the team lead in touchdowns (five) with sophomore wide receiver Brian Espanet; he became the lead kickoff returner for the Wildcats, taking 29 kickoffs for 675 yards; he was second on the team in receiving with 28 passes for 412 yards and four touchdowns; and he helped create what was a three-headed monster in the UNH backfield with senior Evan Gray and sophomore Carlos Washington Jr., rushing for 300 yards on 60 carries and a touchdown.

Laube finished third in the Colonial Athletic Association in all-purpose yards with 137.2 yards per game, finishing behind Maine’s Earnest Edwards and Rhode Island’s Dorsey Ahmere.

“It was a very good second year. As the season wore on, they gave me more and more of a role,” he explained. “They always called me a Swiss Army knife, I was basically everywhere. At the same time, me, Evan Grey and Carlos Washington Jr. were like a three-headed monster in the backfield. None of us got really jealous of the other guy. We were all so close and they helped me out a lot. It was awesome playing this year with them.”

Evan Grey is graduating this year and Laube, a Westhampton resident, plans to take on an even larger role in the UNH backfield along with Washington Jr. The goal next season, Laube said, is to take back the conference.

“We have a lot of good guys,” he said. “Our whole line is coming back, they’re awesome and young, we have a lot of freshmen, and we have our quarterback returning, so we have a lot of guys coming back.

“The culture and everything here, it reminds me a little like Westhampton,” Laube added. “It’s a top-tier program built off gritty, hard-nosed football and playing a full 60-minute game. The culture here is like a family, and my goal is to help my team win and be better for next year and I’m very excited. I’ll probably be back on kickoff returns, maybe punt returns, and running the ball more, catching more balls in backfield and slot.”

Laube said it was great to see Jaden AlfanoStJohn keep the Hansen Award in Westhampton Beach. He said he practically grew up with Jaden and his twin brother Jesse, and knew that they were going to be great players.

“As a defensive back, he had a crucial pick against Hills West in the Suffolk County Championship, and he definitely showed signs then he was going to be a great player,” he said of Jaden. “Ever since summer, winter workouts, me, him and Liam were the top guys, and I was definitely always trying to push him every day to be the best and he worked his butt off every single day. He told me, ‘My goal is to win a Long Island Championship and bring back the Hansen Award,’ and I said, ‘Do it, you have a chance.’ He did it, and it’s an awesome award for him.”

McIntyre was one of four finalists last season for the Hansen Award and it was his ability on both sides of the ball that eventually put him over the top.

As a starting fullback on offense his senior season, McIntyre ran for 913 yards and scored 15 touchdowns, and he also regularly left bruising blocks for his teammates when he was not running the ball.

On his more stronger suit on defense, as the Hurricanes leader as a middle linebacker, McIntyre finished with 107 tackles, including 42 solo tackles, 13 tackles for a loss and six sacks, and he added an interception in the county semifinal game against Kings Park.

McIntyre was a two-time First Team All-Long Island selection, Division III Most Valuable Player his senior year, and was the Hurricanes’ MVP selection in the Suffolk County Division III Championship, in which both teams are awarded an MVP in that game. He also was a Collotta Award finalist as the top linebacker in the county, as well as a finalist for the Burnett Award, given to the top defensive player in the county.

McIntyre, also a very accomplished high school wrestler, having been All-American and a two-time state placewinner, is now a volunteer assistant coach for the ’Canes during his offseason. He decided to continue his athletic career at Long Island University. Around the same time he decided to commit to the school, LIU was consolidating and pooling its resources and campuses to create one Division I program, which included football.

The Sharks had a rough go of it in their first full season as a Division I program, going 0-10 on the season in the Northeast Conference, but McIntyre had a very busy and successful freshman season. Starting all 10 games as an outside linebacker for LIU, McIntyre, an East Moriches resident, finished second on the team in tackles (49.5), including six for a loss, one sack, one fumble recovery and one pass breakup. In his college debut at South Dakota State, he had a team-high eight tackles and recorded his first ever sack.

“It was definitely a good building year as our first year as we transition into a Division I program, we just need to, and we are, recruiting a lot more Division I guys,” he said. “There were a lot of ups and a lot of downs, but as we move into the offseason, we’ll get a lot better.”

McIntyre said it was a big change moving up to the collegiate level.

“Both mentally and physically, it’s a big adjustment. The size and speed increases with the level of play. I had some growing pains at the beginning of the season. I was watching a lot of film and watching my film from my first to last game, you can see it in my body and the way I moved on the field, it’s a big difference. It’s a big adjustment and as I got coached up I got better.”

McIntyre is intrigued to be joined by Jaden AlfanoStJohn at LIU next season and he concurred with his former teammate in Laube that keeping the Hansen at Westhampton Beach was “awesome.”

“I remember after we won the Long Island Championship, I saw the film and everyone was talking about Dylan, Nolan and me, but Jaden played safety in that game and he had a really good game. I remember texting him and telling him, ‘You had a really good game, I know nobody said anything but I’m excited to see you next season.’ I knew by the end of that season he could really ball.

“I definitely talked him up here to the coaches who went and saw him in person. They liked him and I was telling him it would be awesome if you came here. You would have someone here you already know, you would get to play early. He texted me that he really wanted to commit and the next morning he did, and I’m very excited and I think it’ll be good for him to get in a big environment and see what he’s capable of.”