Carle Place's Ryan Leary and Sachem East's A.J. Vurchio each put the time in during the offseason, and it's paying off now

Ryan Leary’s numbers are astonishing.

The 6-3 Carle Place junior guard was averaging 27.6 points through Monday, ranking as the No. 2 scorer in both Nassau and Long Island boys basketball. He had 30 threes and six 30-point games. He has over 1,000 career points and regularly posts double-doubles.

Leary averaged 18.4 points as a sophomore and has been on the varsity since the end of his eighth-grade season. This season’s surge has come after he made a “dramatic difference” to his shot in the offseason.

“You’ll always hear, ‘Let’s compete, let’s compete,’ ” Carle Place coach John Cantwell said. “I said, ‘What you need to do in the offseason is really live this sport — not love it, you got to live it — and you’ve got to find out exactly what you’re not good at’ . . . Now what you do is you’re not competing, you’re separating and dominating.

“That’s basically what he’s doing right now.”

Leary learned that steady shooting comes from strong legs, an advantage he has as a soccer state champion and Newsday All-Long Island first-teamer.

As a freshman, Leary’s release was toward the right side of his head. His sophomore year, his legs were “messed up” and his release point was lower with more of a one-handed motion and a hitch.

Now?

“It’s just one fluid motion,” Leary said. “My guide hand’s perfect, and it’s one fluid motion from my legs, above my eyes and it’s just a flick of the wrist.”

Leary will try to guide the Class B Frogs (8-5, 4-1 Nassau A/B-VIII) to their first county title game victory since 2005. (They lost in the 2022 Class C Long Island championship but were unopposed in Nassau.)

“I think once I’m over half-court, like on the volleyball line, I could shoot,” Leary said. “And I feel like that just stretched out my game.”

Vurchio standing out for Sachem East

Dan Celentano thinks rather highly of A.J. Vurchio.

“I think we have almost every night the best player on the floor,” the Sachem East coach said.

Vurchio averaged 17.2 points last season. The 5-9 senior guard has improved this season, averaging 24.2 points through Tuesday’s play. That included a 39-point game, a 38-point game and two with 31. He had hit 38 threes for a team that stood at 6-6.

“Part of it is he worked his tail off in the offseason,” Celentano said. “He’s shooting the ball better. He’s doing more of the little things offensively, working harder off the ball and also [we have] more sets for him. We have whole new starters besides him. He’s just a fantastic player.

“I wish he could hit more foul shots. That’s his one Achilles’ heel this year. But he’s just doing more overall and finishing a lot better at the basket than he did last year.”

Vurchio has been attracting attention.

“Most of the time, we’re seeing the diamond-and-one or the box-and-one defense,” Celentano said. “Pretty much every game we play, [there are] double or triple teams for A.J. The rest of our guys are young, but they’ll step up and start hitting shots for us and help us out.”