Noah Avallone of Montauk, who has numerous national and regional snowboarding trophies to his credit, this past weekend won the under-14 (menehune) longboard division at the Eastern Surfing Association’s East Coast championships in Nags Head, N.C.
He won the tournament’s sportsmanship award as well, for having helped a fellow competitor paddle in to shore after his leash broke in heavy surf.
Thursday, October 4
GOLF, Westhampton Beach vs. East Hampton, South Fork Country Club, Amagansett, 4 p.m.
BOYS SOCCER, East Hampton at Rocky Point, 4:30 p.m.
GIRLS SWIMMING, West Babylon vs. East Hampton, Y.M.C.A. East Hampton RECenter, 5 p.m.
FIELD HOCKEY, East Hampton at Southampton, 6 p.m.
Friday, October 5
GIRLS SOCCER, Center Moriches at East Hampton, 4:30 p.m.
Saturday, October 6
BOYS VOLLEYBALL, East Hampton at Westhampton Beach tournament, 8 a.m.
GIRLS VOLLEYBALL, East Hampton at Elwood-John Glenn invitational tournament, 8:15 a.m.
GIRLS TENNIS, Division IV individual tournament, rounds one and two, Shoreham-Wading River High School, noon.
Sunday, October 7
MOUNTAIN BIKING, Serpent’s Back Duathlon, 2.4-mile run, 12.5-mile mountain bike, and 2.4-mile run, Ed Ecker County Park, Navy Road, Montauk, 10:30 a.m.
Monday, October 8
GIRLS VOLLEYBALL, East Hampton at Rocky Point, 10 a.m.
GIRLS TENNIS, Division IV individual tournament, quarterfinal and semifinal rounds, Shoreham-Wading River High School, 9 a.m.
Tuesday, October 9
GIRLS TENNIS, Division IV individual tournament, finals, Shoreham-Wading River High School, 2 p.m.
GOLF, Pierson vs. East Hampton, South Fork Country Club, Amagansett, 4 p.m.
FIELD HOCKEY, Shoreham-Wading River at East Hampton, 4:30 p.m.
BOYS SOCCER, Westhampton Beach at East Hampton, 4:30 p.m.
GIRLS SOCCER, East Hampton at Copiague, nonleague, 5 p.m.
FOOTBALL, East Hampton junior varsity at Mount Sinai, scrimmage, 5 p.m.
BOYS VOLLEYBALL, Sachem East at East Hampton, 6:30 p.m.
Wednesday, October 10
GIRLS SOCCER, East Hampton at Babylon, 4:30 p.m.
MEN’S SOCCER, 7-on-7 league, Maidstone Market vs. Tortorella Pools, 6:30 p.m.; Sag Harbor United vs. F.C. Tuxpan, 7:25, and Hampton Construction vs. Hamptons F.C.-Pool Shark, 8:20, Herrick Park, East Hampton.
BADMINTON, pickup games, Amagansett School, 7-9 p.m.
I-Tri, an empowerment program for middle school girls here that recently received international recognition, is to benefit on Oct. 13 from 25 and 60-mile bike rides from and to the Channing Daughters Winery on Scuttlehole Road in Bridgehampton.
Donations of $150 will entitle participants to the ride of their choice and a picnic lunch and wine tasting afterward at the winery, at 1927 Scuttlehole Road. The fund-raiser will be overseen by Sarah Piampiano, a professional triathlete and I-Tri board member. Registration, through itrigirls.org, has been extended through Monday.
Theresa Roden’s “transformation through triathlon” empowerment program for adolescent girls took its first steps at the Springs School in 2010, and now, on the verge of its 10th anniversary, I-Tri’s stride has greatly lengthened and strengthened.
It is her vision that I-Tri’s reach should extend well beyond the East End, in this country and abroad.
Roden was recently chosen from among numerous nominees worldwide as the winner of an award of excellence from the International Triathlon Union’s women’s committee. At the union’s world championships and congress in Australia, a convocation that drew representatives from 120 countries, Roden had a chance to share her vision.
To wit, that the confidence of hitherto-unathletic middle school-age girls soars and their reluctance to tackle athletic and academic challenges fades when exposed to the I-Tri model that mixes triathletic training in swimming, biking, and running with nutrition, fitness, and self-esteem sessions.
The goal is to help participants triumph over self-doubt by training for and finishing a triathlon (300-yard swim, 7-mile bike, and 1.5-mile run in I-Tri’s case). Having done that, and having been buoyed by friendships with I-Tri teammates — some of whom they might not otherwise have befriended — it has been said that the girls have broken two major barriers to growth and success at a young age, and thus have come to know that they can do anything.
“I was in my 30s when I began doing triathlons myself,” Roden said last week. Her daughter, Abby, “was 6 then. I had the idea for I-Tri when she was 11 and just entering middle school. That’s when I remembered how tough adolescence is, and that if I’d learned at her age what I’d learned in my 30s through triathlon training, my life would have taken a much different path. . . . I never used to think of myself as an athlete, but I still remember how I felt when Steve Tarpinian said, before one of the Mighty Man triathlons in Sag Harbor began, ‘Okay, all athletes to the beach.’ He was talking about me — I was an athlete!”
“It’s about overcoming fear,” I-Tri’s founder continued. “Some of our girls can’t swim, some can’t ride a bike when they begin, and even for proficient swimmers, getting into the water with a hundred others and swimming in open water is a daunting task.”
“Facing fear is what sets us apart. By overcoming fear you become stronger. Even in the classroom we’re giving them the tools to overcome fear, to achieve goals that at the beginning seem absolutely impossible, and the result is that they become transformed.”
And while triathloning is an individual sport, “we are a team, we support one another. At the end of the day, that’s what they take with them, not who was first, but that we all finished. And the most celebrated girls are always the last girls to finish; they are working so much harder. They’re not only applauded, but girls who finished way ahead of them run back a half-mile so they can run with them to the finish line. That’s what I-Tri is about.”
The program already exists in seven schools. Should the Riverhead middle school, one additional middle school in the William Floyd district, and Bridgehampton be added this year, as is planned, the I-Tri population will grow to around 150, said Roden. It began with eight — Abby Roden, Hana Islami, Alexa Berti, Alana Ellis, Karla Gomez, Kirsten Clarke, Kattie Fragola, and Kimberly Grullon.
“They are 20, 21 now and continue to stay in touch. For our 10th anniversary we are planning some great events and hope to get all of our alums to share their stories.”
As for going national, Roden said that Evan Harrel, a Montauk consultant, is working with the board and staff to develop a strategy. Roden is stepping into more of a C.E.O. role, though she’ll continue to oversee the Springs School group, where, because it was the first, her heart and soul is.
It is a daunting venture, but one that at the same time is “incredibly exciting,” she said. “We’re pretty unique in what we do — we were recognized for that in Australia. It was great to hear representatives from other countries, Mexico in particular, say they were anxious for us to stay connected.”
The nonprofit recently received a $40,000 grant, its biggest ever, from the Heisman Foundation “to help us create a science of triathlon curriculum that will be integrated into everything we do,” the goal being to understand the physical forces at work and to maximize performance. “What better way to feel an inclined plane than to bike uphill? Or to experience the effect of drag than by swimming in a pool?”
I-Tri, she added, will be among the nonprofits benefiting from One Island Giving Day, an online fund-raiser, on Oct. 25. “This is our biggest fund-raiser of the year, our annual appeal. Our board is energized and we will be reaching out via email and social media to provide our girls with all the training and equipment they need to be successful in 2019.” Donations can be made through itrigirls.org.
Further concerning her vision, I-Tri’s founder said, “We can’t stop. We were picturing just the other day in a brainstorming session a girl living in a faraway country who doesn’t even know this is coming her way, or that some day, through I-Tri, her life will be changed.”
East Hampton High’s junior varsity football team gave pretty much as well as it got in Monday’s game here with Port Jefferson, which wound up a 28-20 winner as night was about to fall.
The Bonackers scored on their first possession, owing to a long run by Christian Johnson, to which Kevin Bunce Jr. tacked on 2 more points, but were held scoreless throughout the rest of the half.
Port Jefferson made it 14-8 six seconds before the break, thanks to a long touchdown reception, but midway through the third John Forrester, the free safety, intercepted the visitors’ quarterback and ran the ball back 30 yards to tie it at 14-14.
Following another long scoring pass play by Port Jeff, Danny Ortiz tied the count again, at 20-20, carrying the ball in from the 20 after Rene Criollo had recovered a fumble.
A 58-yard hook-and-ladder play that ended at East Hampton’s 20 served to do the Bonackers in in the game’s final minutes as, with first-and-goal at Bonac’s three-yard line, the Royals’ quarterback dived into the end zone. He then passed for 2 more points, upping the visitors’ lead to 28-20 with 56 seconds remaining on the clock.
“It’s not over yet,” a Bonac parent was heard to call out in the gloaming. But it was.
In other high school sports action this past week, the girls swimming team improved to 2-0 in league meets by defeating Sayville 91-77; the girls volleyball team continued undefeated as the result of defeating Islip, Miller Place, and Sayville; the girls tennis team bageled Shoreham-Wading River 7-0 and edged Eastport-South Manor 4-3; the field hockey and girls soccer teams each won twice, while the boys soccer team lost twice, to Sayville and Islip, by 1-0 scores, and the boys volleyball team, which as of Monday had yet to win a match, lost 3-1 to West Islip.
The golfers, on Sept. 26, lost their first match of the season, 8-1, at the hands of Westhampton Beach, the home team that day. They’ll get a chance to avenge themselves this afternoon at the South Fork Country Club in Amagansett.
Sophia Swanson was named swimmer of the Sayville meet last Thursday after having won the 200 individual medley and having swum legs on two winning relay teams. She placed third in the 100 butterfly, East Hampton’s coach, Craig Brierley, said, “even though her goggles filled with water, causing her to pull them off mid-swim.”
Julia Brierley, in the 50 freestyle, and Darcy McFarland, in the 100 backstroke, turned in county-qualifying times that day. As of Tuesday, seven of the team’s swimmers have turned in county-qualifying times.
Aside from Swanson, other Bonac individual winners at the Y.M.C.A. East Hampton RECenter last Thursday were Oona Foulser, in the 50 and 100 freestyle races, and Jane Brierley, in the 100 backstroke. Two of East Hampton’s three relay teams won — Caroline Brown, Julia Brierley, Swanson, and Foulser in the 200 medley relay, and Foulser, Caroline Hoff, Swanson, and Julia Brierley in the 200 free relay. East Hampton, with Olivia Brabant, McFarland, Emma Wiltshire, and Camryn Hatch, placed second in the 400 free relay, but forwent the points.
In the girls volleyball team’s 3-1 win over Sayville Monday, Elle Johnson, the setter, had 40 assists and 18 digs. Mikela Junemann had 15 kills, Madyson Neff 12, and Ella Gurney eight. Gurney, the middle hitter, was also credited with seven blocks. Molly Mamay, the libero, had 30 digs and served three aces.
The set scores were 25-18, 25-23, 24-26, 25-19. As of Tuesday, Kathy McGeehan’s team led League VI at 7-0. The Bonackers were 8-0 over all.
James Bradley, a seventh grader who was a welcome addition to East Hampton High School’s golf team this fall, recently advanced, through a regional qualifier on the Winged Foot course in Mamaroneck, to the national Drive, Chip, and Putt finals at the Augusta National Golf Club next April.
Similar to the National Football League’s Punt, Pass, and Kick competition, whose finals take place in January at the stadium of an N.F.L. team playing host to a playoff game, Drive, Chip, and Putt grew out of a United States Golf Association-Augusta National collaboration five years ago “to grow the game.”
Bradley, who is 12, won the regional 12-to-13 boys competition with relative ease, amassing 139 points over all vis-à- vis two runners-up tied at 127.
Four young golfers represented the Met region, said Kevin Smith, who often plays rounds at Montauk Downs with Gina and Scott Bradley’s son.
Asked later on the first fairway what his teacher had said he needed to work on, Bradley said, “Everything?”
Not really. Smith had said, “Stability . . . balance.”
“I don’t talk to him about the golf swing,” the head pro said as he and James walked toward their first-hole tee shots, on what was a perfect day for golf. “Physical balance leads to mental balance — they’re intertwined.”
Smith, as has been the case with others, said that Bradley was “a hard worker and he’s a nice young man, very respectful of his elders and peers.”
The regional qualifier, contested by a dozen boys in Bradley’s group, began with three drives that in order to count had to stay within a 40-yard-wide area, and then moved on to three 20-or-so-yard chips toward a circular bull’s-eye target on a green. “I got 20 points on my first one, 15 on the second, and five on the third,” Bradley said.
Putts from 6, 15, and 20 feet closed out the competition. Bradley “drained the first, and came to within four inches on the second and third ones.”
“I’m proud of him,” said his father, who’d driven him to the Downs from their house in Springs. “He works very hard.”
James said he thought he would become better balanced when he grew more. “I’m small now, but when I’m bigger and stronger, it will be easier to hit.”
Smith said Bradley would be up against nine other regional qualifiers in the finals, on the 2019 Masters’ tournament’s first Sunday, April 7, a day in which he might well get to meet some of the contending pros.
“I know it’s his goal to win the Masters some day,” said Smith. “He’s working hard toward it.”
Asked about the high school’s team, whose coach is Rich King and whose record was 5-1 as of Monday (its sole loss having come at Westhampton Beach), Bradley said, “As long as we can beat Westhampton when they come to us, we’ll be all right.”
Turner Foster, the team’s number-one, the county champion two years ago, and Nate Wright, the number-two, both seniors, had greatly helped him and the two eighth graders, J.P. Amaden and Trevor Stachecki, when it has come to analyzing the courses on which they’ve been playing this fall.
Bradley plays number-three. J.P. Amaden, he said, was playing four, Zach Barzilay, a senior, five, and Stachecki six.
Westhampton Beach is to play here today at 4 p.m. at the South Fork Country Club in Amagansett.
While Monday wasn’t homecoming — this coming weekend is — it seemed as if it were: Five of East Hampton High School’s teams played here that day, with three of them, girls volleyball, field hockey, and boys soccer, winning, and with two of them, girls tennis, which had been undefeated, and junior varsity football, losing.
All in all, it looks as if it will be a winning fall for the great majority of East Hampton’s 11 fall teams.
Girls volleyball and golf appear to be especially strong, and girls swimming, girls tennis, field hockey, and boys soccer don’t seem to be far behind. The cross-country teams — Kevin Barry, with more than two dozen, has the largest boys team he’s ever had — were to have made their debuts in multi-team meets at Cedar Point County Park Tuesday.
The junior varsity football team made its home debut Monday, losing 26-12 to Bayport’s jayvee, though Joe McKee, East Hampton’s coach, said, making allowances for some mistakes owing to inexperience, the young Bonackers, who trailed 14-12 at the half, played well.
Christian Johnson, a running back on offense and an outside linebacker on defense, scored one of East Hampton’s touchdowns as the result of a long pass reception, and Danny Ortiz, also a running back, scored the other, on a short run up the middle.
“In the second half,” said McKee, “they returned an interception for a touchdown, which put them up 20-12, and then they scored late in the game after we’d had several opportunities that we couldn’t capitalize on.”
Topher Cullen, the lefty quarterback, “had a good game,” the coach added.
McKee’s squad, which numbers 22, is to play this week’s homecoming game tomorrow on the turf field at 6:30 p.m. with William Floyd.
The girls tennis team, which had been 6-0 over all, met its match in Westhampton Beach, with the Hurricanes winning 6-1. Of those who lost, Juliana Barahona, a recent arrival from Colombia who goes to Pierson High School in Sag Harbor and plays second singles for East Hampton, put up the best fight, in a match that went all the way.
Rose Hayes, a Westhampton ninth grader — and an all-state player — who won among the females in the Great Bonac 5K in Springs on Labor Day, defeated Becca Kuperschmid at number-one. In the exchanges it was clear that Kuperschmid could stay with her younger opponent, but repeated unforced errors did her in.
Boys soccer, in a nonleaguer, shut out Babylon 2-0 with Alex Vanegas, a midfielder, getting both goals, one in the first half and one in the second.
The girls volleyball team easily defeated Amityville 3-1. Kathy McGeehan, East Hampton’s coach, put subs on the court in the third set, which East Hampton wound up losing 25-17. With the starters back in, the high-flying Bonackers won the fourth 25-11.
Field hockey’s 4-0 win over Hampton Bays was pretty much a rout, with Grace Myer (two), Emily Hugo, and Catherine Wicker getting the goals, three of which came in the second half.
It was the third straight win for Nicole Ficeto’s team. Since losing in a shootout to Port Jefferson on Sept. 7, the Bonackers have defeated Babylon (2-1), Southampton (2-1), and, as aforesaid, Hampton Bays.
Following East Hampton’s win over Southampton here on Sept. 12, Ficeto, who’s in her first year coaching the team, agreed that it was “huge,” inasmuch as the Mariners and Bonackers go way back as rivals.
“We scored off a corner!” Wicker was heard to say in the postgame huddle.
Versus Babylon, Myer got the first goal, with an assist from Emily Hugo, and Hanna Medler, a ninth grader, got the game-winner, with an assist from Kailey Marmeno.
“We’ve got a lot of speed,” Ficeto said when questioned. “We used to hold the ball, but now we play a two-touch game . . . now we pass and cut. And we’re playing together, exchanging positions at times, so backs become attackers and vice versa.”
And finally, golf. Rich King, the former boys soccer coach, who has taken over from Claude Beudert, a recent retiree following a very successful coaching career, said Monday that as his top three he’s got Turner Foster, a senior who won the county championship two years ago, Nate Wright, also a senior, and James Bradley, a very promising seventh grader.
Ryan Bahel, a senior, Zach Barzilay, a senior, Aiden Cooper, a sophomore, Charles Goldsmith, a sophomore, and Trevor Stachecki and J.P. Amaden, eighth graders, are vying for the three, four, and five positions.
The team was 2-0 as of Monday, with wins over Center Moriches and Southampton.
Don McGovern and Kevin McConville, East Hampton High’s boys soccer and girls tennis coaches, have good teams, but they were thinking this week of ways in which they could become even better.
Girls tennis, which was to have had a showdown here with Westhampton Beach Monday, was 6-0 over all as of earlier that day, while boys soccer, at 3-1, was in second place in its league, behind only Amityville, which was 4-0.
During the halftime break in Saturday’s soccer game here with Rocky Point, McGovern told his players, a number of whom are familiar with futsal, soccer’s indoor version, that the outdoor game was different, that instead of playing the ball up in the air, they should bring it quickly down for passing on the ground. Leaving the ball in the air, McGovern said, was “a defender’s dream. . . . They get to play the ball and your body.”
The team’s 1-0 win was thanks to a perfect left-to-right cross by Sebastian Fuquen onto an onrushing Liam Leach, who buried it in the 50th minute of play. Asked afterward if the Bonackers had heeded his halftime advice, McGovern said, “Not all that much, but they’re improving. . . . I’m optimistic. Their ball-handling skills are superior, and they seem to be learning how to deal with these less-skilled, physical teams, which try everything they can to be disruptive and to score on counters and set plays where they can take advantage of their height. You saw how it was in that game with Sayville. Since then we’ve beaten Miller Place and now Rocky Point.”
Though McConville’s team was 6-0 going into Monday afternoon’s match, the opposition had not been all that great, he said earlier that day at the Hampton Racquet club, where he is the head pro.
When this writer said he thought the girls’ second serves could be improved pretty much across the board, the coach agreed, saying that in his opinion the second serve was “the most important shot in tennis. . . . They’re reluctant to accelerate the racket head across the ball. They’d rather swing slow than fast, and so they tap it. Becca [Kuperschmid, his senior number-one] and Juliana [Barahona, his sophomore number-two] have good second serves, but that’s about it. We’re working on it.”
With Kuperschmid, Barahona (a recent arrival from Colombia), Caroline Micallif, and Katie Annicelli, as its singles players, and with the doubles pairings of Olivia Baris and Chiara Bedini, Kaylee Mendelman and Samantha Schurr, and Annelise Mendelman and Eva Wojtusiak, East Hampton has been winning by lopsided margins, but McConville — who, in his first season here coached the boys to a share of the league title last spring — is not willing to let matters rest. “I’ve been working with a lot of them here” at the Racquet club, he said, “and I’ll continue to.”
The doubles teams, he said, had bought into the stagger system he’d taught to the boys last spring, with the teams’ players positioning themselves so as to take advantage of opportunities to close out points at the net, rather than contenting themselves with one player covering the baseline while the other stands statue-like at the net.
His first, third, and fourth singles players had been “rock solid,” McConville said, and the second, Barahona, who as yet speaks little English, has great potential.
He first became aware of her “on our first day of tryouts. . . . She was playing with the jayvee. . . . I heard sneakers squeak squeaking — ah, the sign of an athlete! I called her over to play in our tiebreaker winner-learner matches that we have. If you’re up in the tiebreaker when I blow the whistle, you stay on the court, if you’re trailing, you move down one. Juliana started out on the last court and moved all the way up to the top one where Becca beat her.”
McConville was told that Barahona’s father, Julian, who has played with the topflight men’s soccer teams here, “was a semipro player in Colombia.” “When I asked her if she was a ninth grader or a 10th grader, I said I was hoping she was a ninth grader, for then I’d have her for four years. She hits good topspin groundstrokes from the baseline, and she can slice her backhand too. She’s a fighter and she can move. We’re working on down-the-line, forcing approach shots and dropshots that take her opponent out of her comfort zone when she gets short balls.”
Similarly, Bedini has been working her way up in the doubles lineup, starting as a member of the third team.
The coach said he was thinking of reconstituting his first doubles team Monday, given its disappointing loss to Eastport-South Manor, the result of being sucked into too many moon ball exchanges. “The other team had nothing to hurt my girls. . . . We weren’t picking the right ball to attack. We’d either get into playing their game or get impatient and hit everything hard . . . and either bury our shots in the net or hit them out.”
East Hampton has two sister pairings, the Annicellis, Katie being a junior and Casey being a ninth grader, and the Mendelmans, Kaylee being a junior and Annelise being a senior.
Cathrine Lefevre, a sophomore, is also on the roster, as are Nicole Lopez, Eve Marsden, and Sara Morgan, who have largely been playing on Fausto Hinojosa’s junior varsity team.
Back to boys soccer, Leach’s goal, a career-first, which proved to be all the team needed to beat Rocky Point, was picture-perfect as he deposited the low cross from Fuquen into the lower right corner of the nets with 30 minutes left to play in the game. Zane Musnicki, a wide-roaming senior defender, a force on both defense and offense, had a number of good opportunities thereafter, but could not finish.
The senior goalie, Kurt Matthews, was his usual staunch self, punching out free kicks and corner kicks. He was downed in so doing in the 56th minute, but after lying on the ground for a while, remained in the game. His best save was his last, when, with a half-minute left, Matthews foiled a Rocky Pointer’s credible bid for a tie.
“It was a great effort,” McGovern told the team afterward. “It came down to who wanted it more. Liam buried that shot. Who’s it going to be in the next game? It takes a team.”
McGovern agreed that East Hampton did not have a scorer along the lines of Mario Olaya, Ernesto or Esteban Valverde, or Nick West this fall, “but there are guys who are stepping up. We’re beginning to play well as a team, I think we’ll continue to grow.”
Musnicki, off a throw-in, Fuquen, with an assist from Musnicki, and Brian Gonzalez, with an assist from Christopher Pintado, had scored in the win over Miller Place, the coach said.
Kathy McGeehan, the veteran coach of East Hampton High School’s girls volleyball team, said in the first week of the season that this edition had the potential to be one of her best. She probably should have said had the potential to be her best, period.
McGeehan has had some terrific players in the past and some very good teams, one of which made it to the state finals in Glens Falls, but this one is firing on all cylinders, whether it be hitting, serving, digging, setting, blocking . . . you name it.
Going into Monday’s match here with Amityville, McGeehan’s crew had been shredding the opposition, no mean feat considering that two of its three wins as of that day had come at the hands of last year’s league co-champs, Sayville (3-0) and Westhampton Beach (3-1).
The team plays with exuberance and grit. Rarely did the ball hit the floor undefended in Friday’s match here with Rocky Point, which the Bonackers won 3-0.
The first set was tied at 5-5 when Elle Johnson, the senior setter, began to serve. By the time she was done it was 10-5. Molly Mamay, the junior libero, served aces for 15-7 and 16-7, and Johnson capped the 25-11 win with an ace of her own.
East Hampton, with Madyson Neff, Hannah Hartsough, a Springs sophomore who comes off the bench, and Johnson serving — the latter serving four aces in her five attempts — jumped out to a 12-2 lead in the second set before the visitors crept back a bit. A resounding kill by Neff made it 23-9, and, at 24-10, Hartsough, again coming off the bench, served it out.
With McGeehan subbing freely, the third set was more closely contested than the first two. A quick hit by Ella Gurney put the home team up by 13-10, after which, with Neff serving, a tip by Mikela Junemann, a sophomore who is East Hampton’s chief hitter, and more aces by Neff extended the lead to 18-10 before Rocky Point sided out.
With the score 22-13, Faith Fenelon, a hard-hitting ninth grader, served an ace to the floor. Junemann’s ace at 24-16 capped the sweep, after which the team extended its celebratory mood by celebrating the 26th birthday of McGeehan’s assistant, Alex Choi.
Afterward, when questioned, McGeehan, who got everyone in the match that day, said of her team, “They’ve been working hard, all through the summer. They all went to a camp at Penn State and practiced two mornings a week. We’ve got very good leadership. . . . We’re three deep at opposite” — the left-side hitter diagonally opposite the setter when the six-player team takes the court. “Molly, who has a fantastic volleyball I.Q., is always thinking . . . and, as you say, we’re quick — quick to react, quick to the ball. Credit Rocky Point, though. They were scrappy, ready to play; they were going hard.”
As for the stats, Junemann had 14 kills, Neff had seven, and Gurney four. Johnson had five aces, 25 assists, and seven digs. Mamay had 12 digs, and Johnson, as aforesaid, and Neff each had seven. The dig list included Zoe Leach, with five, Junemann, with four, and Julia Kearney, with three, as well.
Johnson, with 13 all told, and Mamay, with 10, led the team in aces going into Monday’s match. Junemann, with 36, Neff, with 25, and Gurney, with 17, were the top three when it came to kills. As for digs, Neff had 37 over the course of East Hampton’s first three matches, Mamay had 30, Leach, 29, and Junemann, 26.
On Sept. 12, the Bonackers won in four at Westhampton Beach, losing the third set 25-23 after winning the first two 25-13 and 25-15. They closed it out at 25-18.
“Yes, it was a big win,” McGeehan said afterward. “We didn’t serve and pass as well as we had against Sayville, but part of that was because they were putting pressure on and we were trying to force the ball away from their all-state libero. Our serving percentage was 77 at Westhampton; it was 86 against Sayville,” and 88.9 against Rocky Point.
“We didn’t serve well in the set we lost, but then we got back on track, and played well across the board. . . . It’s been four years since we’ve beaten Westhampton. I guess you can say [regarding East Hampton’s chances this season] the cat’s out of the bag.”
While the world of professional golf will soon focus on the Ryder Cup competition in France, an event contested by teams from the United States and Great Britain, a similar event unfolded this week at the Maidstone Club in East Hampton.
It was not, however, your typical P.G.A. or local charity tournament, but one that matched a very select group of people who have shared and overcome very trying challenges far removed from the plush green fairways of a golf course.
The Simpson Cup, which annually brings together 13-player teams of injured servicemen from the U.S. and Great Britain to compete in a Ryder Cup format, teed off at Maidstone in the rain and wind Tuesday. The two-day event raises money for the On Course Foundation, a charitable organization that helps men and women injured or otherwise debilitated in the line of duty to rebuild their lives through golf.
In its seventh year, the Simpson Cup is the organization’s marquee event. It has been held at some of the most noted courses in the world here and abroad. Next year, it will be played at St. Andrew’s in Scotland, the sport’s birthplace.
Chad Pfeiffer, the U.S. team’s captain, who lost his left leg when the Humvee in which he was riding rolled over an improvised explosive device in Iraq in 2007, said, when questioned, that golf had saved his life, and added that “the Simpson Cup offers an amazing opportunity for everyone involved to be with other wounded veterans from both sides of the Atlantic. The camaraderie we develop helps all of us realize we aren’t alone in battling the issues that face us. The relationships that we form in these tournaments last a lifetime.”
Hari Budha-Magar, of Great Britain’s team, a Nepali who served with the U.K.’s 1st Battalion Royal Gurkha Rifles for 15 years, suffered life-threatening injuries caused by an improvised explosive device in Afghanistan in 2010. The double above-the-knee amputee, who made his debut here, after being medically discharged in 2014 set about seeing what he was able to do despite having lost both legs. The very long and impressive
list includes sky diving, alpine skiing, biathlon, archery, wheelchair table tennis, rugby, hockey, kayaking, javelin throwing, mountain climbing, and, ultimately, golf — “a great sport that has done wonders for my self-confidence.”
“I’m so proud,” he added, “to be a part of Team Great Britain and to be here at Maidstone.”
Budha-Magar, who lives in England now, made history last September by becoming the first double amputee to reach the 21,300-foot summit of Mera Peak in the Himalayas. He now has his sights set on scaling Everest, the world’s highest peak, a feat that no double amputee has ever attempted before.
“Climbing Everest is a dream and goal of mine,” he said. “I’m fully aware of the risks, but I know I can do this, and I’m looking forward to it.”
For Alex Happer of Team U.S.A., Maidstone has a special meaning, as he grew up about 50 miles away, in Medford. A scratch golfer, Happer served in the 3rd Battalion, 7th Infantry Regiment in a variety of roles for four years.
“I am beyond honored to represent the United States, and to be part of such an amazing event and organization,” he said Monday afternoon following his practice round. “It’s also so special to play on a course like Maidstone — it’s the most beautiful course I’ve ever been on.”
Happer, who at 24 was the Simpson Cup’s youngest competitor, took up the game when he was 4 years old, hitting Wiffle balls in his backyard, and later honed his skills in Raleigh, N.C., to which the family moved after his father, a New York City detective and 9/11 first responder, retired.
He led his high school team there to the state championships and won the A.A.U. North-South junior tournament, but owing in part to the memory of his father’s selfless service on 9/11, enlisted in the Army rather than accept college scholarship offers.
A rifleman, grenadier, fire team leader, and commander’s radio telephone operator, Happer sustained a traumatic brain injury and severe spinal, hip, and ankle injuries during his deployment in Afghanistan, and later had post-traumatic stress disorder.
He left the Army two years ago and decided to return to the Carolinas, where he had experienced such early success in golf. “I could barely afford to buy new clubs, but the G.I. Bill helped pay off the costs of attending the Golf Academy of America in Myrtle Beach.”
There he met Shawn Whitmore, the On Course Foundation’s national program coordinator, and with Whitmore’s and the charity’s help next week he will begin work as an ass-
istant pro at the Trump National Doral Golf Club in Miami.
“It’s a dream come true. I can’t wait to start, but the Simpson Cup [which was to have ended yesterday] comes first. . . . Some of these guys have lost their legs or arms in battle, or have suffered in other ways, but we all stand together and support each other.”