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Bridgehampton Hall of Fame Inductee Feels Blessed

Bridgehampton Hall of Fame Inductee Feels Blessed

Mary Anne Jules, Bridgehampton’s former A.D.
Mary Anne Jules, Bridgehampton’s former A.D.
"You always felt like you could make a difference"
By
Jack Graves

Mary Anne Jules, the former athletic director who is to be inducted into the Bridgehampton School’s Hall of Fame tomorrow evening, said recently from her home in Water Mill that she felt blessed to have been able to spend virtually her entire 32-year teaching, coaching, and administrative career there.

“I was out of college and subbing in Syracuse when my parents, who used to come out to Hampton Bays, learned that Bridgehampton was looking for a phys ed teacher. My mother said I should go for it. That it was a small school attracted me — I could teach everyone, from kindergarten through 12th grade. You’re on the floor one moment, acting like an airplane, and the next you’re with high school kids. . . . You know what, retirement is nice, but I miss the kids.”

“Bridgehampton was very close-knit,” she continued. “We were there to meet the needs of the kids. We all knew what was going on with them. You always felt like you could make a difference, whether it was a kindergartner or a senior. It was wonderful, it’s what makes teaching so worthwhile.” 

“And because it was a small school, we’d have to step up. I’ve subbed for the principal, I’ve cleaned the floors . . . which is fine. That’s what made it so great.”

The honoree, who played four sports at Baldwin High School and two at the State University at Cortland, saw to it early on in her tenure that Bridgehampton students, who before her arrival in 1982 had been limited to basketball and golf, could through a shared sports program she promoted play any of the sports offered by neighboring districts.

“It was one of the smallest schools in the state, and I thought there was no reason why the kids — there were maybe 160 or so in the whole school — couldn’t have the opportunity to play every sport, whatever they wanted.”

Her shared-sports effort — she became the school’s athletic director in 1991 — was the subject of a John Valenti column in Newsday on May 8, 1992, a column that made particular mention of Sandy McFarland, who has since been inducted into East Hampton’s and Bridgehampton’s Halls of Fame. 

“Sandy would not have had what she had without shared sports,” the former A.D. said. “It enabled her to run track at East Hampton and to get a full scholarship to Syracuse. . . . She’s a big success story. Like Nick Thomas, who’s coaching at Center Moriches. They both had difficult childhoods to overcome, and they did. Sandy [whom Jules had recommended for East Hampton’s Hall of Fame] held a relay record at Syracuse for a long time. It was broken, I think, either this year or last year. Like Nick, she impressed me not just as an athlete, but as a person. She’s the principal of a brand-new elementary school in North Carolina now.”

“Kids need to feel loved and safe,” the interviewee said. “ ‘What kind of kid are you? How can I help you?’ But as an educator you’ve got to include discipline too — there has to be that combination. You don’t want to do too much enabling.”

Jules’s list of professional honors is a long one. She is a past president of Section XI, the governing body for high school sports in Suffolk County, she has twice won Bridgehampton’s teacher of the year award, and she was Section XI’s athletic director of the year in 2014, the year of her retirement, the same year that she was cited by SCOPE Education Services for having been of outstanding service to her district.

Asked if she was still running — Jules has for years been a familiar sight along the highway in her neighborhood — she said she was, “though it’s hard to run fast anymore. . . . I’ve been running since I’ve been 12. I like going out for an hour’s jog — it clears the head. I run about six miles twice a week, four miles two times a week. Once a month, I’ll do seven or eight. I ran the Marine Corps Marathon once, in 1989, in 3:54. My memory’s not been very good lately, but I can remember that! My best half-marathon was 1:43.”

As for having been named to Bridgehampton’s Hall of Fame, “I feel humbled by it. I don’t feel like I did anything extraordinary, but I was devoted to my job. I did it the best I could.”

She was pleased, she added, to know that Bridgehampton, some of whose residents campaigned to have the school closed 25 or so years ago, would finally get the addition it deserved, including a new gym — the old undersize one, home to the nine-time-state-champion Killer Bees, having been deemed illegal when it came to playoff games. 

“We’ve had these plans for so long, since before I retired, waiting for the right time. It passed by a good margin — the community always comes together; when you need them they come out. There’ll be a cafeteria, new classrooms, a tech upgrade, new locker rooms, a fitness room . . . I used to have weights on the stage with a Universal machine, a treadmill, and a stationary bike. I did the best I could. The kids deserve it. I’m glad it’s happening. Finally we’ll be able to host playoff games and basketball tournaments. They’re going to break ground soon.”

In sum, said Jules, “I feel blessed. It was the perfect school for me.”

Sports Briefs: 12.06.18

Sports Briefs: 12.06.18

Local Sports Notes
By
Star Staff

Madison Hoops Tourney

The boys basketball teams of East Hampton, Bridgehampton, Southampton, and Mattituck High Schools will vie in the Kendall Madison Tip-Off tournament at East Hampton’s gym tomorrow and Saturday.

Bridgehampton (which defeated Babylon 74-47 in its debut Monday) and Southampton are to get it going at 5:30 p.m. tomorrow, with Mattituck and East Hampton following at 7. On Saturday, Bridgehampton is to play Mattituck at 5:30 and Southampton and East Hampton are to play at 7. 

Junior varsity games are to be played as well, all but Saturday’s 1 p.m. game between East Hampton and Mattituck at the East Hampton Middle School. The Greenport and Southampton jayvees are to play there at 6 p.m. today. Tomorrow, Bridgehampton and Southampton’s jayvees are to play at 4:30, with Mattituck and Greenport to play at 6.

The daily admission fee will be $5. The Kendall Madison Foundation provides four-year mentoring scholarships to selected East Hampton High School seniors each year.

 

Volleyball Honors

Kathy McGeehan, East Hampton High School’s girls volleyball coach, has been named as League VI’s coach of the year by the Suffolk County Volleyball Coaches Association. 

In addition, Mikela Junemann was named as player of the year in League VI, was named to the all-county team, and was fifth team all-state; Nicole Cummings was named as the league’s junior varsity coach of the year; Junemann and Molly Mamay were named to the all-tournament team; Elle Johnson was named to the all-classification team and was fifth team all-state; Mamay, Ella Gurney, Nicole Realmuto, and Madyson Neff were named to the all-league team, and Connie Chan and Erin Decker were all-county academic.

The Lineup: 12.06.18

The Lineup: 12.06.18

Local Sports Schedule
By
Star Staff

Thursday, December 6

BOWLING, Rocky Point vs. East Hampton, All Star Lanes, Riverhead, 4 p.m.

BOYS BASKETBALL, Kendall Madison Tip-Off tournament, junior varsity, Greenport vs. Southampton, East Hampton Middle School, 6 p.m.

 

Friday, December 7

GIRLS BASKETBALL, East Hampton at Westhampton Beach, 4 p.m.

BOYS BASKETBALL, Kendall Madison Tip-Off tournament, varsity, Bridgehampton vs. Southampton, 5:30 p.m., and Mattituck vs. East Hampton, 7, East Hampton High School.

 

Saturday, December 8

BOYS BASKETBALL, Kendall Madison Tip-Off tournament, junior varsity, Mattituck vs. East Hampton, 1 p.m.; varsity, Bridgehampton vs. Mattituck, 5:30, and Southampton vs. East Hampton, 7, East Hampton High School.

 

Tuesday, December 11

BOWLING, East Hampton vs. Riverhead, All Star Lanes, Riverhead, 4:30 p.m. 

BOYS BASKETBALL, East Hampton at Bayport-Blue Point, 4:30 p.m.

GIRLS BASKETBALL, Elwood-John Glenn at East Hampton, 6:15 p.m.

 

Wednesday, December 12

WRESTLING, West Babylon at East Hampton, 6:15 p.m.

Masters Squad Shines, Bonac Boys Team Plunges In

Masters Squad Shines, Bonac Boys Team Plunges In

The Y.M.C.A. East Hampton RECenter squad that competed in a recent masters swim meet included, from left, Joe Viviani, Angelika Cruz, Mike Wootton, Tim Treadwell, Ellen Clark, Andrey Trigubovich, Kelly McKee, Dick Monahan, and Ed Mulderrig.
The Y.M.C.A. East Hampton RECenter squad that competed in a recent masters swim meet included, from left, Joe Viviani, Angelika Cruz, Mike Wootton, Tim Treadwell, Ellen Clark, Andrey Trigubovich, Kelly McKee, Dick Monahan, and Ed Mulderrig.
Mike Bottini
“Our showing provides proof that swimming is a lifelong sport"
By
Jack Graves

A squad of masters swimmers from the Y.M.C.A. East Hampton RECenter registered a number of impressive finishes at the Dr. Bill Ross Memorial Masters (18-and-over) meet at the Nassau County Aquatic Center last month.

Among the local Y’s competitors, whose ages ranged from 30 to 77, were:

Angelika Cruz, who won her age group’s 50-meter butterfly and the 200-meter individual medley, placed second in the 100 I.M. and 100 freestyle, and was a member, along with Tim Treadwell, the squad’s coach, Mike Bottini, and Andrey Trigubovich, of the 160-199-year-old 200 free relay. (Treadwell said in an email that the ages of the quartet from here equaled 196.)

Ellen Clark, who won her age group’s 50, 100, and 200-meter butterfly races, and placed second in the 100 breaststroke.

Dick Monahan, the team’s senior member, who won the 100 backstroke, the 100 free, the 200 free, the 400 free, and the 800 free.

Bottini, who was first in the 200 I.M., second in the 200 breaststroke and in the 400 I.M., was third in the 100 free and the 50 breast, and, as mentioned above, was a member of the winning 200 free relay team.

Kelly McKee, who was second in the 100 free and third in the 50 fly.

Treadwell, who, aside from being a member of the winning 200 free relay team, was first in the 50 breast and third in the 100 free.

Mike Wootton, who won the 50 free and 50 back, placed second in the 100 free, and was third in the 100 I.M.

Trigubovich, who won the 50 fly, and, as aforesaid, was a member of the winning 200 free relay team.

Joe Viviani, who was second in the 50 breaststroke.

And Ed Mulderrig, who was third in the 50 breast. 

“Our showing provides proof that swimming is a lifelong sport,” said Treadwell, who oversees masters swim sessions at the Y here. 

The meet raised money for pancreatic cancer research. Both of its honorees, Dr. Ross and Terry Laughlin — for whom a relay was named — were lifelong top-flight swimmers in the metro area until they died of pancreatic cancer in their mid-60s. 

Treadwell, who oversees a masters meet at the home of Bill and Dominique Kahn in East Hampton each summer to raise money for the Lustgarten Foundation for Pancreatic Cancer Research, lost his mother to the disease, as, he said, did Wootton.

There were, said Treadwell, 151 competitors at the meet, ranging in age from 18 to 88.

In related news, Craig Brierley, who coaches East Hampton High’s boys swimming team, said this week that the team’s captains, chosen by their teammates, are Ryan Bahel, Ryan Duryea, Ethan McCormac, and Jordan Uribe. 

A Maroon and Gray intrasquad meet — won by the Maroon team 53-48 — was held at the Y Saturday morning, followed by a breakfast provided by the swimmers’ parents. 

Brierley said Nicky Badilla was named by Bahel and Duryea as the Gray team’s swimmer of the meet; Callum Menelaws was named by the Maroon team’s captains, McCormac and Uribe, as its swimmer of the meet.

East Hampton’s season was to have begun here yesterday with Ward Melville, a nonleague opponent. A new scoreboard, donated by the East Hampton Kiwanis Club, was to have been dedicated before the meet began.

Sas Peters at Top of His Ultimate Game

Sas Peters at Top of His Ultimate Game

Sas Peters keeps up with far younger fellow Ultimate competitors through plyometrics, lifting weights, and riding a stationary bike.
Sas Peters keeps up with far younger fellow Ultimate competitors through plyometrics, lifting weights, and riding a stationary bike.
UltiPhotos/Kevin Leclaire
A silver medal winner in the national Ultimate championships in Sarasota, Fla.
By
Jack Graves

Sas Peters of Amagansett, who has extended the competitive career of Ultimate Disc players many years by founding three divisions for men and women — grand masters (over-40), great grand masters (over-50), and legends (over-60) — won a silver medal recently, as a member of Surly, a great grand masters team, in the national Ultimate championships in Sarasota, Fla.

Surly, he said during a conversation the other day at The Star, was a Minneapolis-based team, “with a few ringers from out of state.”

Surly and the Boston-based Death or Glory, whose players, Peters said, were six-time national champs earlier in their careers, locked horns in Sarasota.

“We beat them 15-11 the first time out, but in the final on Sunday, unfortunately, they beat us 15-13. It could have gone either way, but we made some throwing errors and they converted.” (In Ultimate, a thrown disc that hits the ground results in a turnover.)

“There were several great teams there, but Death or Glory was really amazing.”

The gold medalists had several ringers too, New Yorkers who formerly played with Peters’s team. “What can I say?” he said, with a smile. “I’m a ringer too.”

All summer long he had played “against 20-year-olds,” the 62-year-old Peters said when asked how he was able to continue playing in the younger divisions. “I ride a stationary bike, lift weights, do plyometrics, the German sprint drills. That’s the reason, by the way, that East Germany, a tiny country, was able to dominate in the sprints for years. The drills involve skipping, hopping, jumping, and sprinting. They enable us old white guys to jump three feet in the air and to sprint like 20-year-olds.”

“It’s so important that we keep it up, not only for our bodies, but also for our brains. Aging athletes have an advantage over their peers who are sedentary. . . . Most of the games last an hour and a half to two hours, and in these tournaments you play three games a day, seven on a team, playing offense and defense.”

The multi-division national tournament in Sarasota — Peters’s team won the great grand masters division last year — was, he said, the season’s penultimate one, the Turkey Bowl in Bridgeport, Conn., over the Thanksgiving weekend being the last. 

When told that the silver medal he wore to the interview looked like gold in the office’s light, Peters said, “I wish it was.”

He would continue, he said, to “break barriers” insofar as extending the competitive lives of Ultimate Disc aficionados. “I’m working with U.S.A. Ultimate to include a demonstration legends [over-60] division in the national championships next year. Everybody wants to play this [non-refereed] sport [whose players acknowledge their fouls] — we need this. We don’t slam each other into the ground or cavort ridiculously after we score the way they do in football. . . .”

Every year, the week before Memorial Day, Peters, who has won numerous national and international titles, oversees an Ultimate Disc tournament for the three older divisions he founded on the John M. Marshall Elementary School fields. “This was its 19th year,” he said. Play in all of the aforementioned divisions “began here, in East Hampton,” he said. “East Hampton’s where it all began. . . . Ultimate is the fastest-growing team sport there is, and East Hampton is at the center of its growth. We held the first grand masters tournament here 15 years ago, and now there are world championship and  national championship tournaments for these teams.”

Ultimate has not been Peters’s only sport: Trained by Andre de Leyer, Joe Fargis, and Conrad Homfeld — the latter two Olympian medalists — he rode horses competitively for a decade when he was younger, he said, on the Northeast jumper circuit. 

“I still ride, on a sweet old guy, a paint named Merlin, at Rita’s Stables in Montauk. He has one blue and one yellow eye. We gallop on the beach at Ditch Plains late in the late afternoon light, which is spectacular.”

Trial by Fire at Sprig Gardner Wrestling Tournament

Trial by Fire at Sprig Gardner Wrestling Tournament

Santi Maya, foreground, an East Hampton freshman who lost to a county champion in the quarterfinal round of the Sprig Gardner tournament here Saturday, “has a very, very bright future.”
Santi Maya, foreground, an East Hampton freshman who lost to a county champion in the quarterfinal round of the Sprig Gardner tournament here Saturday, “has a very, very bright future.”
Craig Macnaughton
Weight losses by some wrestlers may lead to wins
By
Jack Graves

Anthony Piscitello’s wrestlers, several of them new to the sport, were thrown into the fire at East Hampton’s Frank (Sprig) Gardner invitational tournament Saturday, and while the team finished last, the third-year coach said his charges (he’s got 16 on the squad) “did pretty well.”

The tourney was held a week earlier than in the past, which effectively prevented some of the Bonackers from wrestling at the lighter weights they would settle into in the near future, he said.

Three, for instance — Marco Rabanal, Brian Barrera, and Carson Tompkins — were bunched in the 160-pound division; two — Danny Suculanda and Alejandro Pantosian — were at 152; two — Brahian Usma and David Alvarez — were at 145; two — Ben Barris and Caleb Peralta — were at 132, while East Hampton had no entries in the 99, 113, 120, 126, 138, 195, or 220-pound divisions.

During the season, Piscitello, who is subbing at the high school now and is free therefore to promote wrestling in the halls, expects to have three holes — at 99, 113, and 195. 

The main thing, he said, was to give his charges as many chances to wrestle this winter as he can, which meant giving preference to dual-meet tournaments over individual ones, “where you might go one-and-out and have to sit in the stands for the rest of the day.”

East Hampton had three fourth-place finishers in Saturday’s tourney, named after “the father of New York State wrestling,” who coached briefly at East Hampton High School in the early 1930s before leading Mepham to storied heights, after which he retired here.

The fourth-place finishers were Santi Maya, at 106, David Peralta, at 182, and Aniello Facendola, at 285. 

Maya lost 11-5 to the defending Division II county champion, Bayport-Blue Point’s Joe Sparacio, in a quarterfinal-round match, just missing a pin in the third period — a result that left him shaking his head afterward. “There was no shame in the loss,” Piscitello said. “He had the kid on his back and the kid rolled through. Santi went 2-2 in the wrestlebacks. He’s only a freshman — he’s got a very, very bright future.”

Peralta, a first-year senior, one of several such on the team, “is raw, but strong, like Danny Villa, who wrestled for me last year. He’ll be good. I wish he’d come out two years ago. . . . He’s very coachable — he’ll get better.”

Caleb Peralta, a freshman, placed fifth at 132, avenging himself in the wrestlebacks on a Hampton Bays wrestler, River Orlando, who had defeated him in the first round of the main draw. “There were only 11 kids in Caleb’s bracket, but he got to wrestle five matches — that’s what I’m looking for,” said Piscitello.

Ben Barris, a sophomore, also wrestled at 132. “He’s a tough kid — he’ll do better at 126,” East Hampton’s coach said.

Usma, who was “one match shy of all-league last year,” went 0-2 at 145. “He was in the same boat as Santi — he had the other kid on his back, but the kid rolled through.” Bonac’s other 145 entry, David Alvarez, was “a first-year wrestler, but he’s learning quickly.”

Suculanda, a first-year senior, had the misfortune, said the coach, of wrestling the 152-pound division’s top seed, Danny Horton of Bayport-Blue Point, in the first round.

At 160, Rabanal, a senior who’s been helping Piscitello with recruiting this year, and Barrera wrestled each other for fifth place, with Rabanal prevailing 4-3. Tompkins, a freshman, the other East Hampton entry in that division, went 0-2, but “has a bright future if he sticks with it.”

Sebastian Cruceta, a first-year senior who wrestled at 170 Saturday, “will 

become more confident when he wrestles at 160.”

Ward Melville won the tournament, followed by Westhampton Beach, Longwood, Bayport-Blue Point, Hampton Bays, and East Hampton.

East Hampton’s first league meet will be here on Wednesday with West Babylon, a team it defeated last season.

Winter Sports: The Y’s Pool Is Full

Winter Sports: The Y’s Pool Is Full

With about 40 swimmers in three lanes at the Y.M.C.A. East Hampton RECenter, the boys team’s coaches, Craig Brierley and his assistant, Brian Cunningham, shown above, may have to make some cuts.
With about 40 swimmers in three lanes at the Y.M.C.A. East Hampton RECenter, the boys team’s coaches, Craig Brierley and his assistant, Brian Cunningham, shown above, may have to make some cuts.
Jack Graves
“I think he’s pushing 40 kids,” Joe Vas said of Craig Brierley's boys swim team
By
Jack Graves

Last Thursday, with its mix of rain and snow, seemed a good time to talk with the East Hampton School District’s athletic director, Joe Vas, about winter sports.

To begin with, bowling, after an absence of four or so years, is back, thanks in large part, Vas said, to Scott Rubenstein, who is letting the team practice at the Clubhouse at East Hampton Indoor Tennis. Mike Vitulli is coaching the coed team, along with Anthony Roza.

Because the string pinsetting system the Clubhouse uses has yet to be officially sanctioned nationwide, the team’s home matches will be played at the All Star bowling lanes in Riverhead.

Vitulli, who’s overseeing a squad of about 15 boys and girls, said of Scott and Holly Rubenstein, “They’ve been fantastic . . . great.”

“Scott is amazing,” Vas said, “and not only for what he’s done for us, by letting our tennis teams, and now our bowling team, practice at his club, but he’s a true Bonacker who really loves this place. . . . We’re thrilled that bowling is back. It’s one of those lifetime activities, like tennis and golf, that we’re happy to promote.”

Speaking of golf, the A.D. said that Turner Foster, East Hampton’s number-one player, who won the county championship as a sophomore and was the runner-up last year and this, was to sign on Tuesday a letter of intent to attend Loyola University in Maryland. The golf team shared the league championship this fall.

That feat was noted, Vas said, at a fall athletic awards ceremony on Nov. 13, as were the facts that the girls swimming and girls volleyball teams had gone through league seasons undefeated.

The following won M.V.P., most improved, and coach’s awards that night: Ryan Fowkes, Luke Tyrell, and Avery Martinsen, boys cross-country; Ava 

Engstrom, Bella Tarbet, and Sydney Salamy, girls cross-country; Catherine Wicker, Tia Weiss, and Rorey Murphy, field hockey; Turner Foster, Trevor Stachecki, and Nate Wright, golf.

Kurt Matthews, Matthew McGovern, and Anthony Quito Huanga, boys soccer; Lucy Short, Lillian Minskoff, and Valeria Marin Suarez, girls soccer; Sophia Swanson, Oona Foulser, and Emma Wiltshire, girls swimming; Rebecca Kuperschmid, Kaylee Mendelman, and Annelise Mendelman, girls tennis; Logan Gurney, Luc Campbell, and Henry Garneau, boys volleyball, and Elle Johnson, Erin Decker, and Ella Gurney, girls volleyball.

Dan White will be in his third year as the varsity boys basketball coach, and, as was the case year, he’s being assisted by Marcus Edwards. Joe McKee and Howard Wood, an S.E.C. “Legend” who played at the University of Tennessee before turning pro, are again coaching the junior varsity. 

Krista Brooks, who coached the girls basketball team some years ago, has returned as that team’s coach, replacing Kelly McKee. Nicole Fierro is her assistant.

“Thirty-two are trying out,” Vas said when asked how the girls team’s numbers were. He had heard, he added, that there were some good young players in the pipeline. 

Kaelyn Ward, inarguably one of the best female players ever to come out of East Hampton, is coaching now at St. John the Baptist.

The boys finished at 8-8 in league play and 10-10 over all last winter, and made the playoffs, losing 92-89 in triple overtime to John Glenn in a Class A outbracket game, a game in which Jack Reese, East Hampton’s senior point guard, who’s now playing at Baruch, scored a team-leading 24 points.

That team, which had on it a half-dozen juniors and sophomores, was “one step away from being a legitimate playoff contender,” White said following the riveting outbracket loss, adding that he expected Malachi Miller, Max Proctor, Turner Foster, Jeremy Vizcaino, and Bladimir Rodriguez Garces all to return for the 2018-19 season.

As for boys swimming, Craig Brierley, the coach, told Vas on the first day of practice (Nov. 13) that “the pool is full.”

“I think he’s pushing 40 kids,” the athletic director said.

Meanwhile, Brierley left here last Thursday for the Nov. 16 and 17 state girls swimming meet in Ithaca with four qualifiers — Swanson, Foulser, Julia Brierley, and Jane Brierley — as well as an alternate, Darcy McFarland.

The numbers in boys and girls winter track were good too, Vas added — “about 20 in each.” Ben Turnbull and Yani Cuesta have returned as the coaches.

Wrestling, whose numbers have been rather low lately, is to have 16 to 17 on the varsity, “about the same as last year.” Anthony Piscitello, the head coach, will have Bryan Mott and Jim Stewart, the varsity’s former longtime coach, as his assistants.

East Hampton’s Frank (Sprig) Gardner wrestling tournament is to be held here on Saturday, Dec. 1. The Kendall Madison Foundation boys basketball tournament, with varsity teams from East Hampton, Southampton, Bridgehampton, and Mattituck, is to be contested here on Dec. 7 and 8.

Bridgehampton and Southampton are to play at 5:30 on the 7th, followed by East Hampton and Mattituck. Bridgehampton is to play Mattituck at 5:30 the next night, with East Hampton and Southampton to follow.

Because Bridgehampton doesn’t have a junior varsity, that tournament, to be played on Dec. 6, 7, and 8 at the East Hampton Middle School, will include Greenport with the above-mentioned schools.

Chris Pfund’s Montauk Bike Shop Rides Into the Sunset

Chris Pfund’s Montauk Bike Shop Rides Into the Sunset

The biking industry nationwide, not just in Montauk, has been taking big hits, Chris Pfund says.
The biking industry nationwide, not just in Montauk, has been taking big hits, Chris Pfund says.
"The cycling industry is taking big hits."
By
Jack Graves

Chris Pfund, when he began Friday morning to talk about the looming end of the Montauk Bike Shop, which he is liquidating after 31 years, choked up a bit.

“But,” he said, “I have been very fortunate. I’ve been able to make a living while following my passions. I first began working on rental bikes and mopeds when I was 8 and my father had a hardware store here. So it will be one less sandbox to play in: I’ll still have my sound company and EventPower,” a triathlon promotion company that he heads, along with his wife, Christina Fatsis, and Vicki and Pete Ventura. “And I’ll continue to give corporate bike tours. But it’s the end of an era. . . . It’s sad.”

“The store’s been here since 1963, and we began renting out bikes from the very beginning,” Pfund continued. “Kevin Koltz, who was putting himself through college, had the idea. He supplied hardware stores from Westhampton to Montauk with bikes that summer people would ride, three-speed English racers, and split the profits. It was a good idea. People were a lot more active then. He’d come around and maintain them once a month.” 

“We were the first out here to have bikes and surfboards for rent, and custom T-shirts, and umbrellas and chairs and mopeds. . . . We had 30 or 40 bikes to begin with, and when the hardware store was liquidated in 1999, we spun into bikes.”

When this writer said he remembered fondly riding an American Flyer through the streets of Pittsburgh as a preteen in the early 1950s, Pfund motioned him down to the basement storeroom where, in the back, were, among many other bikes hanging from ceiling racks, two of them.

He, himself, used to ride a bike all the time as a youngster, he said, with a guitar on his back that every now and then he’d play while riding along. There were photos of him doing that, he said in answer to a question, but not immediately at hand.

Kids weren’t riding bikes anymore, he said, and that was to a great degree why he’d made the decision finally to close the Montauk Bike Shop down.

“I used to teach classes on cycling at the high school, for about seven years, and there were kids, at least one or two per class, who had no idea how to ride one! The people you see riding along the shoulders are all older — the younger generation isn’t doing it. It’s not just Montauk, it’s countrywide. The cycling industry is taking big hits. It’s the same in triathlons and golf. Ask Tom Dess at the [Montauk Downs] golf course. He says you can easily get a tee time there in July.”

He had been trying for a couple of years to turn his business around, trying to make it work, “but all the hotels have fleets of 20 of their own bikes now and give them out to their guests for free. Rentals had been our cornerstone. How do you compete? Their insurance must be expensive, I know it is for me, and they’re not even giving them helmets! I’ve tried to make up for it with sales, but it’s not been enough.”

Pfund said he had missed just one day of riding, mostly off-road, on his mountain bike, in the past nine years. He’s been a triathlete since 1984, “and,” he said with a smile, “I always finish fourth.”

“Just out of the money.”

“Just out of the money . . . usually by seconds. My wife will say, ‘Did you do your job?’ ‘Yes,’ I’ll say, ‘I got fourth place.’ I did get second once, at the Schiff [boy scout] reservation in Wading River, in an off-the-road duathlon — run, bike, run. I’d been hit by a car on my bike three days before and broke three ribs. My brother Kurt and I decided to do it anyway. I did the runs, Kurt, who was out of shape, did the bike. I was third in on the first run, and Kurt didn’t lose any time on the bike, so I had to go for it. I swallowed some aspirin and went crazy on the last leg and came in second.”

Yes, he agreed, there were still bike shops in East Hampton and Sag Harbor and Southampton, “but Montauk is different. It closes down about now. You do the summer thing, you make money and you’re feeling fat at around Thanksgiving time before you start sweating buckets again. . . . If I could figure out how to keep this place going I would, but I can’t do one more winter with this place open.”

There were, he thought, about 100 bikes, all brand-new, in the store. He had sold a bunch the day before, including one to Kai Costanzo, whom he sponsored when Costanzo, then 19, set a record in the Montauk Lighthouse triathlon that still stands. Pfund said he expected this past weekend to be busy. A liquidator is overseeing the sell-off.

The family, he said, owns the building. He would be seeking a tenant, “somebody who wants to move in on January 1.”

He wouldn’t move to Charlottesville, Va., as his mother and brother had, he said in answer to a question. “I love Montauk, especially in the winter. If it’s snowing I’ll go cross-country skiing or mountain biking . . . and you don’t have to talk to anybody. It’s the spring I hate,” he said with a smile. “March and April are nasty.”

25 Years Ago in Bonac Sports: 11.29.18

25 Years Ago in Bonac Sports: 11.29.18

Local Sports History
By
Star Staff

November 18, 1993

Ellamae Gurney, the right wing, whose goal enabled East Hampton High’s field hockey team to upset the high-riding Miller Place Panthers in the county small schools final, came through again in Saturday’s Long Island championship game with Carle Place, netting a corner-play shot five minutes before halftime. And that proved to be all Bonac needed to keep the Frogs from turning into a Final Four team.

Tom McGlade, a 29-year-old triathlete who lives part time in Amagansett, made a notable marathon debut in New York on Sunday.

Despite an inevitably slow start amid the crush of 27,000-plus bodies coming off the Verrazano Bridge into Brooklyn, McGlade wound up finishing 347th (330th male) in 2 hours, 51 minutes, and 54 seconds.

. . . It was not the fastest New York marathon run by a South Forker — Ray Charron, who now lives in Hawaii, holds the unofficial record at 2:37:33. But McGlade’s time drew plaudits from two veterans: John Conner, a Springs developer who holds the world 55-to-59-year-old indoor mile record (4:53.02), and Cliff Clark of Shelter Island, who trains just about every serious runner out here, of whatever age.

“Spectacular,” said Conner, “considering it probably took him five minutes to get to the line, and considering the heat. When Ray did it, there were about half the people they have now. When I ran, in ’78 and ’79, there were 11,000 and that was a zoo.”

. . . Asked to compare marathoning with triathloning, McGlade said, “A marathon breaks your body down. In a triathlon run, even in the half-Ironman I did, you’re not pounding away at a six-minute pace. It’s a totally different feeling.”

It took McGlade “about 10 minutes to get through the first mile,” and after that, he knew he wouldn’t be able to meet his 2:45 goal. It wasn’t until the second mile that he got into a 6:00-to-6:15 pace.

 

November 25, 1993

With 29 seconds to go in the first overtime period in a New York State Class C field hockey semifinal played Friday under the lights on Hartwick College’s AstroTurf field, Akron’s Andrea Zurio’s corner-play shot caromed sharply off a defender’s stick, beating Erika Vargas to the right side of the cage, leaving Bonac’s players and faithful (over 200 East Hampton students and parents had made the trip upstate) stunned. 

Sudden victory, sudden death . . . call it what you will, East Hampton’s season was suddenly over.

Bridget Behan’s goal, which tied the score at 1-1 with little more than a minute left in regulation, was her 15th of the season, one shy of Jennifer Vish’s school record. That goal and her “terrific all-around play” that night earned her a berth on the all-state tournament team.

“We played with a lot of heart,” Ellen Cooper, East Hampton’s coach, said. “One thing we have is guts — you can’t take that away from a team. They showed me they had it when they came back. If we’d lost 1-0 in regulation, it would have been devastating, but that goal made everything okay. We dominated the [10-minute] overtime, and lost on a stupid penalty corner. What are you gonna do? In my book, we won.”

The Lineup: 11.29.18

The Lineup: 11.29.18

Local Sports Schedule
By
Star Staff

Friday, November 30

HALL OF FAME, induction dinner, Bridgehampton High School, 6 p.m.

Saturday, December 1

WRESTLING, Sprig Gardner invitational tournament, East Hampton High School, from 9 a.m.

Sunday, December 2

MEN’S SOCCER, over-30 league, Charruas 1950 vs. Hampton United, Hampton Bays High School, 2 p.m.

Monday, December 3

BOYS BASKETBALL, Pierson at East Hampton, scrimmage, 4:30 p.m.

OMAC PARTY, honorees Dan Farnham, Angelika Cruz, Ryan Fowkes, Rebecca Kuperschmid, and Ethan McCormac, the Palm restaurant, East Hampton, 6-9 p.m.

Tuesday, December 4

BOWLING, East Hampton vs. Sachem, Coram Country Bowl, 4:30 p.m.

Wednesday, December 5

BOYS SWIMMING, Ward Melville vs. East Hampton, mandatory nonleague, Y.M.C.A. East Hampton RECenter, 5:30 p.m.