EN native Preston Carey commits to UGA at highly anticipated ceremony

East Northport native Preston Carey is one of the most highly recruited football prospects to come out of New York, and perhaps the most recruited from Long Island ever. The defensive lineman has amassed 50 Division I college scholarship offers – some of which he received before even entering high school. 

Last Monday, June 30, Carey – a 6-foot-five, 300-pound junior at IMG Academy, a boarding school in Florida dedicated to preparing student-athletes for college success – was the center of attention at a highly anticipated commitment ceremony at Oheka Castle in Huntington. 

There, Carey announced his choice: the University of Georgia (UGA), one of the most elite Division I football programs in the nation. Georgia’s recent dominance includes back-to-back national championships; 15 Bulldogs were selected in the 2022 NFL Draft, setting a record for draft picks from a single school in the seven-round draft era. 

Carey chose UGA over fellow top choices University of Florida, Auburn University and Rutgers University. 

Born in 2007, Carey joined the then Northport Youth Football Club in 2012, when he was five years old. His father, Benjamin Carey, became a league coach that same year. 

Shortly afterward, Benjamin became director of the Northport club and made some unconventional changes, including getting rid of participation trophies and instituting A and B teams. “It was not a popular move, especially by an outsider,” Benjamin told the Journal (he had moved to East Northport from Manhattan in 2005). “People loved and hated it.”

Around the same time, Benjamin co-founded the Long Island Elite Football program, home of the Long Island Elite National Team. Despite hundreds of such programs in states across the country, “there weren’t any opportunities for kids that wanted to play advanced level football” locally, Benjamin said. He partnered with Gerald Filardi, a former Penn State and Pittsburgh Steelers linebacker; the duo run the program to this day. 

“At the time, everyone locally said we were crazy to start such a program,” Benjamin said. “They said it was too intense and too competitive for seven-year-olds. The double standard was tremendous because there were lots of programs like this for lacrosse and soccer, but nothing for football.” 

While part of the program, Preston attended Fifth Avenue Elementary School “and had an incredible experience there,” Benjamin said. He credits principal Tom Harrison for having a profound impact on Preston, as well as the recently retired Maureen Petrone, who once called him “lightning in a bottle.”

Preston went to Long Island Lutheran (LuHi) for middle school. The summer after 8th grade, he attended college camps, where he was noticed immediately, Benjamin said, garnering his first college offers from multiple schools. 

“Since then he has worked obsessively and fanatically to chase his goal of being drafted to the NFL,” Benjamin told the Journal.  

At St. Anthony’s High School in South Huntington, Preston was the only player in history to start on defense as a freshman. Preston left St. Anthony’s after his sophomore year to take advantage of the once-in-a lifetime opportunity at IMG Academy. He’ll graduate from IMG next year, and will be eligible to sign his letter of intent for UGA in December. 

In addition to Preston, Long Island Elite has coached standouts KJ Duff, Ian Strong, Josiah Brown, Joseph Filardi, Will Hart, Caden Brown, Aaris Bethea and many others who grew up in the program and went on to receive Division I scholarships in football at some of the top programs across the country.

“I'm not only proud of Preston, but the 40-plus other players from our program that have gone on to play Division 1 football,” Benjamin said. “It is bittersweet!”

You can follow Preston Carey on Instagram here. A video detailing Preston’s journey can be found at the 49-minute mark on this video, with his formal announcement at the commitment ceremony at the 52-minute mark.