The NYHS varsity team lost in the finals of the district tournament against Evergreen on February 21, 2026. This ended their season with 16 wins and 11 losses.
“I thought the boys really, really grew and matured throughout the year, and that made me really proud,” Coach Steve Bunin, the athletic director and the coach of the varsity team, said.
For the past two years, NYHS has won the sportsmanship award, a league award for the team that shows the most sportsmanship, but this year they didn’t.
Instead Evan Kaufthal, one of the co-captains of the varsity team, won the first team all conference. The first all conference award is the best out of the 10 schools geographically closest to NYHS. This award is voted on by the coaches on who is the best player in the league.
“I would say Evan was the biggest reason he was the leader of the team. And so when the leader of the team is your hardest worker, it makes everyone else want to work hard as well,” Bunin said. “As a coach, I would say Evan is probably the biggest reason we were a lot better.”
The last time that someone in NYHS in basketball won this award was Paulina Gamel, an alumna of NYHS, in 2024. In men’s basketball, someone hasn’t gotten this award in four years.
“I think it [the all-team conference award] was a testament to the season we had as a team and the season Evan had,” Sam Chernicoff, a senior and the co-captain of the varsity team, said.
To add on to the first all team conference award Kaufthal got top 10 in the state. The last time someone got this award was four years ago with Yoel Kintzer. This is another award where coaches vote for who they think was the best in the state. This award is out of 65 schools in the whole state.
It’s really rare when someone gets top 10 in state, Bunin said.
Kaufthal led the team with 16 points, eight rebounds, seven assists and four steals per game. Also he got two triple doubles, meaning 10 plus points, 10 plus rebounds and 10 plus assists, in one single game.
“I think he has an all around impact,” Chernicoff said. “Getting himself involved in the offense, but also getting his teammates involved, hustling on defense, getting rebounds.”
One of the highlights of the season for the coaches was the game against Auburn Advendist Academy. The last time NYHS varsity and Auburn played was two years ago and NYHS lost by around 50 points.
“Well, they’re probably one of the best teams in our league. Also they’re a bigger school than we are,” Coach Aaron Hanan, the assistant coach of varsity and head coach of JV, said.
In the offseason Hanan thought that if they play hard for the whole game, the team would get better. “Sometimes the players think if I play hard at the very start of the game. I’ll be tired at the end, but that’s just not the case.”
The junior varsity team this year played 17 games with an average of 42.7 points per game. They won eight games and lost nine games. This year, the boys JV team played more games than last year’s six games.
“We won five in a row at the start of the season when everyone was healthy,” Coach Hanan said.
He said that was a highlight of the season.
“We lost a couple close ones at the end of the season, but I was proud of all the boys,” Hanan said about JV. “Everyone got a lot better throughout the year.”
