Tortorella Pools and Hampton F.C.-Pool Shark were to have faced off at East Hampton’s Herrick Park last night for the Wednesday evening 7-on-7 spring championship. 

They became the finalists after winning semifinal clashes at the park on Aug. 1 — Hampton F.C. had a rather easy time of it in bageling Sag Harbor United 3-0, though the Tortorella-Maidstone game, tied at 2-2 after regulation, had to go to penalty kicks.

Maidstone, which is hard to beat when it is at full strength, won last spring’s championship, defeating Bateman Painting, and, likewise, won the fall trophy, defeating Hampton F.C. 3-1.

This time it was not to be as Tortorella’s shootout lineup of Nick Escalante, Eddy Juarez, Leonel Uchupaille, and David Rodriguez proved to be dominant, all but Uchupaille beating Maidstone’s goalie, Alex Mesa, from seven yards out. The Market’s only penalty kick scorer was Antonio Padilla. The attempts by Miguel Bautista, Angel Garces, and Mesa were foiled by Tortorella’s goalie, Craig Caiazca, who had a wonderful night.

Leslie Czeladko, Tortorella’s manager and the league’s spokesman, said in a website account afterward that Caiazca merited an M.V.P. award.

In the opening minutes, Tortorella’s Eddy Lopez caught Mesa flat-footed, booting the ball into the mostly open cage from within the penalty area.

Ernesto Valverde, who teamed with Xavi Piedramartel and Antonio Padilla on Maidstone’s front line, almost evened it up moments later, but Caiazca made a beautiful one-handed save of his blast.

With 10 minutes remaining in the 30-minute half, Lopez again came up big, banging a free kick in off the left post from about 15 yards out, which treated Tortorella to a 2-0 lead.

At the other end, Valverde continued to launch rockets, but Caiazca foiled him twice more before the half was to end. Tortorella’s keeper was high-fived by his teammates as they came off the field.

Maidstone went into the second without one of its starting defenders, Mathew Ramirez, who was red-carded after he’d remonstrated with the referee. 

The Market came right back when the second half began as Correa, who had sneaked in close at the right side, deposited a Valverde crossing pass into the left corner of the nets. Moments later, the Market struck again as Piedramartel slipped in behind Caiazca, whose attention was directed elsewhere, to boot home another crossing pass from Valverde. The score was 2-2 with 21 and a half minutes to play.

And yet neither team could score in the time remaining in regulation. Padilla came closest when, finding himself unmarked at the right side of Tortorella’s goal in the final minutes, he blew a chance to convert a Valverde pass.

With 14 seconds left on the clock, Escalante, who had been tripped, earned a free kick within good range, but, rather than let the play proceed, the referee let the clock run out before the free kick could be taken, a decision that drew protests from Tortorella players and fans.

Overtime periods were eschewed in favor of penalty kicks, which, as aforesaid, Tortorella’s kickers were to dominate, winding up with three goals to Maidstone’s one — and thus the victory.

Fittingly, Mesa and Caiazca faced off in what proved to be Maidstone’s last go, with the latter coming up with the save that advanced Tortorella to the final.

Hampton F.C. pretty much had its way in the first semifinal, blanking Sag Harbor United 3-0 thanks to goals by Juarez and Danny Bedoya (two).

Wilson Chavez played staunchly in Sag Harbor United’s goal. It would probably have been 6-0 otherwise.

Hampton F.C., as aforesaid, last appeared in a 7-on-7 final last December. It’s been a while since Tortorella has played in a 7-on-7 final.

Saturday, August 18

SWIMMING, We Swim for You two-mile, one-mile, and half-mile races benefiting Fighting Chance, Havens Beach, Sag Harbor, 6-9:30 a.m.

SAILING, Antigua & Barbuda Hamptons Challenge race, Noyac Bay, Sag Harbor, 10 a.m., tentative; awards party and celebration of Rob Roden’s life, Havens Beach, 5-8 p.m.

BASKETBALL, Hamptons Hoops Academy clinic with Rondae Hollis-Jefferson for 7 through 16-year-old boys and girls, to benefit United Way of Long Island, Sportime Arena, Amagansett, 10:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m., with a “family fun” party at East Hampton Indoor Tennis’s Clubhouse at 4. 

TENNIS, the Hampton Cup junior tournament benefiting Project Most, Hampton Racquet, Buckskill Road, East Hampton, 11 a.m.-3 p.m.

ARTISTS-WRITERS SOFTBALL GAME, benefiting the Eleanor Whitmore Early Childhood Center, Phoenix House Academy, the Retreat, and East End Hospice, throw-bat-run skills challenge for 5 through 11-year-olds, 10:30 a.m.-noon; home run challenge for hitter-pitcher combinations, 1-2 p.m.; batting practice, 2-3, and Artists-Writers game, 4-6, Herrick Park, East Hampton.

Sunday, August 19

ELLEN’S 5K RUN, Stony Brook Southampton Hospital Parrish Memorial Hall, 9 a.m.

BASKETBALL, Marcus Edwards clinics for first through eighth-grade boys and girls, Sportime Arena, Amagansett, 11:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m.

Monday, August 20

MEN’S SLOW-PITCH, playoffs, Terry King ball field, Abraham’s Path, Amagansett, from 7 p.m.

Tuesday, August 21

MEN’S SLOW-PITCH, playoffs, Terry King ball field, Abraham’s Path, Amagansett, from 7 p.m.

Wednesday, August 22

MEN’S SLOW-PITCH, playoffs, from 7 p.m.

Double Dip Tourney

A highly competitive eight-team five-on-five basketball tournament, a benefit for the LuMind Research Down Syndrome Foundation and the IDEAL School of Manhattan, was held at the Sportime Arena in Amagansett Saturday, with Jason Grossman’s White Team, which included Nick Tuths of East Hampton, emerging as the winner. The Whites defeated the Purple Team, on which David Locascio, formerly of Sag Harbor, played, 11-5 in the final. Tuths had a lot to do with the White Team’s success, blocking shots and knocking down shots from long range. Others on the winning team were Cliff Teller, Sam Teller, Reese Grossman, and Andrew Chung. 

Anthony Provident puts the tournament on and is the host of a fund-raising party in the evening. Besides Tuths, other former East Hampton High School basketballers who played were Brandon Kennedy-Gay (the day’s high-scorer), Kyle McKee, Brian Marciniak, and Will Shapiro. While the games were hotly contested, only one player, Ethan Feldman, who is on New York University’s team, came to grief, suffering an ankle injury crashing into the boards after making a layup.

Sailing Race Is On

The Antigua & Barbuda Hamptons Challenge sailing race in and around Noyac Bay is to be held in Sag Harbor Saturday, with a tentative starting time of 10 a.m. The winner’s prize, said to be the largest sailing prize offered between Maine and Florida, is to be an all-expense-paid trip to Antigua for the captain and crew to Antigua’s Sailing Week in 2019.

Rob Roden, the race’s founder, died Saturday, at the age of 70, though his wife, Theresa, has said the race will go on. Roden’s life will be celebrated at the awards party, which is to be held at Havens Beach from 5 to 8 p.m. that day. Proceeds will benefit Theresa Roden’s popular I-Tri “transformation through triathlon” program for adolescent girls.

Runs Scratched

The East Hampton Rotary Club’s 5 and 10K road races scheduled to be held at Fresh Pond in Amagansett at 9 a.m. Saturday were canceled, the timer, Bob Beattie, said, because of an electrical storm. The decision, he said, was made at 7 a.m. Soon after, he added, a house nearby was struck by lightning. Beattie said, in reply to a question, that the races may be rescheduled for October. “It takes 30 days to get a permit,” he said.

Add a Paddler

In reporting the results of the recent Paddle for Pink paddleboard races in Sag Harbor, Josette Lata’s name was omitted in listing the winners: She was the first female among the 14-foot stand-up paddleboarders in the 6-mile race. Kim Nalepinski was the top female paddler in that category in the 3-miler.

Saturday promises to be the sportiest weekend day of the summer inasmuch as four events here, namely Fighting Chance distance swims, the Artists and Writers Softball Game, a Hamptons Hoops Academy basketball clinic with the Brooklyn Nets’ Rondae Hollis-Jefferson, and the Hampton Cup junior tennis tournament at Hampton Racquet, a benefit for Project Most, are vying for attention.

Not to forget that Ellen’s Run, now in its 23rd year of raising money that’s been spent here for breast cancer prevention, treatment, and counseling, is to be held Sunday at Stony Brook Southampton Hospital’s Parrish Hall, at 9 a.m.

Back to Saturday, two-mile, one-mile, and half-mile We Swim for You swims to benefit Fighting Chance, a free cancer counseling center in Sag Harbor, are to be held at Sag Harbor’s Havens Beach from 6 to 9:30 a.m. East Hampton Village Ocean Rescue Squad members will be on hand to assure that the swimmers are safe.

The Artists-Writers’ beefed-up offerings will include a throw-bat-run skills challenge for 5 through 11-year-olds from 10:30 to noon, a home run challenge for registered hitter-pitcher combinations from 1 to 2, batting practice from 2 to 3, and The Game, from 4 to 6, a starting time two hours later than in the past.

The Artists lost to the Writers last year by a score of 9-6. It was the second win in five encounters, however, for the Writers, who still hold the lead in the modern fund-raising era that dates to the late 1960s.

Mike Lupica, a Writers’ stalwart, limped off the field last year with a pulled quad muscle, but the victory, he said, had allayed the pain. “I’m icing it all the way back to Connecticut,” he said, beaming, as he left the after-party at Dopo.

The cradle of The Game is said to have been Wilfrid Zogbaum’s front yard in Springs, where, beginning in 1948, antics ran rampant, and Philip Pavia, the late heavy-hitting sculptor, smashed to smithereens a grapefruit painted to look like a softball. Though when it comes to verisimilitude, Leif Hope, The Game’s impresario, has come to prefer a turnip.

One never knows who will show up. Dick Cavett, Carl Bernstein, Paul Simon, Chevy Chase, Alec Baldwin, Gerry Cooney, Bill Clinton, John Irving, Jay McInerney, Kristin Davis, Rod Gilbert, Josh Charles, and Pelé, among others, have in the past.

Also beginning at 10:30 Saturday is the Hamptons Hoops Academy’s clinic with Hollis-Jefferson for 7 through 16-year-old boys and girls at the Sportime Arena in Amagansett. The clinic is to go from 10:30 to 1:30. A “family fun” event at the Clubhouse, in Wainscott, which is to include mini golf, bowling, a game arcade, and bocce, is to begin at 4.

A flier put out by the Academy’s Nick Worrall says that United Way of Long Island is to benefit from the $150-per-child fees. “Scholarships will be available,” the flier says. Prospective clinic-takers can register with Worrall by calling 631-394-5796.

The junior tennis tournament for boys and girls from 5 on up at Hampton Racquet, a tourney that is, as aforesaid, to benefit Project Most, is to be contested from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. According to a flier, the $40 entry fee is to include a barbecue. Non-players can partake of the barbecue for $25.

Julie Ratner, who launched a foundation after her sister, Ellen P. Hermanson, died of breast cancer almost a quarter-century ago, said during a conversation at The Star this week that she’s proud of the fact that virtually all the money raised by Ellen’s Run and associated events has stayed here, the Ellen P. Hermanson Breast Center at Stony Brook Southampton Hospital being the chief result.

“I feel it’s my responsibility to give back to the community that supports me,” she said. “I think this is a beautiful community, and I love it that people come out to help others here, whether you know them or not.”

While research obviously was critical, “this is where you need the money, where it can impact and transform lives. And that’s what we’ve done. We’ve paid for two state-of-the-art tomosynthesis 3-D mammography machines, one at the Ellen Hermanson Breast Center and one for the satellite center in Hampton Bays. It’s the same equipment you’d expect to find at Memorial Sloan-Kettering or Weill Cornell.”

“This year,” she added, “we have several goals. One was to fund 10 chemotherapy chairs at the Phillips Cancer Center, which is being built in Southampton. They’re $10,000 each, and we’ve funded all of them. Another is to boost Ellen’s Well, our outreach program to reduce anxiety that includes the services of a full-time oncological social worker.”

In that regard, she was happy to announce that through State Senator Ken LaValle’s efforts, “we’re due to receive a $75,000 grant from the state for Ellen’s Well. Because of that we’ll be able to fund so many more services for women.”

There once was some concern that traffic would prove a dampener for East Hamptoners driving to Southampton for the race, which originally had been held at East Hampton High School.

“But, as we all know by now, there’s nobody out and about on Sunday mornings,” Ratner said. “There’s no line at Starbucks, it’s a clear shot. It takes 20 minutes from my house in Northwest. And when you arrive, we’ll greet you with open arms and lots of love.”

The Hive was swarming Friday as Shaquille O’Neal shot hoops with youngsters and who, prior to a screening of Ben and Orson Cummings’s documentary on the 2015-16 Bridgehampton High School boys basketball team, the Killer Bees, and the inspiring tradition behind it, told the crowd that he, too, had gone to a school like Bridgehampton.

Recounting his appearance afterward, Ben Cummings said, “Shaq said he also had had a relationship with his high school coach that reminded him of the dynamic that existed between Carl [Johnson] and the boys in the movie.” 

“And he said he was happy to support a film that addressed so many of the nation’s problems, but which at the same time showed how sports can steer young people in the right direction, can help them value such things as teamwork, cooperation, and discipline, which he said were crucial if a young person were to successfully navigate the turbulent waters of the country’s present political and economic situation.”

Jimmy Fallon, the talk show host — and honorary Killer Bee who has known Johnson for a number of years — was there too, amiably dueling from the free-throw line with Ellajah Miller, a player on one of the former state-champion Killer Bee Darryl Hemby’s Eastern Shore Playaz youth basketball teams, who had made the trip up from Virginia, the first time about half of them had been out of their state.

“Meeting Shaq and Jimmy Fallon was a once-in-a-lifetime for them,” Hemby’s wife, Nicki, said in an email Monday. “You don’t get opportunities like this where they’re from . . . they woke up as local celebrities this morning on social media.”

“Endless car washes, bake sales, and fund-raising,” she said, had enabled the boys, who wore the black-and-gold Killer Bee colors, to accept the Cummingses’ and Carl Johnson’s invitation.

“The Eastern Shore,” she continued, “is one of the poorest counties in Virginia, and has many of the same issues that Bridgehampton has been dealing with for 40 years or so. So having the boys watch the film really hit home in so many ways.”

O’Neal’s visit to the Bee Hive was, said Orson Cummings, “historic for everyone who loves this place and the culture of the school and the [nine-time state champion] Killer Bees team. Many felt it was surreal, it was hard to fathom that Shaq was really there. He’s such a tremendous presence, and he’s so warm and playful with the kids. We all found it a bit overwhelming. And then when Jimmy Fallon, who is good friends with Shaq, came in, people’s minds were kind of blown. It was off the charts.”

Among those in the packed gym were players of the 2015-16 team, and — the Cummingses were very happy to say, because they have been lifelong friends of his — Julian Johnson, a star of the pluperfect 1986 state-champion Killer Bees, who later spent years in the Elmira Correctional Facility, having been incarcerated as the result of a minor drug conviction. An interview the Cummingses did with him at Elmira is in the film — as was one with Southampton Town Justice Deborah Kooperstein, advocating judicial reform in this regard. 

“We’re so excited to see Julian as a free man now, with his family, which includes a brand-new baby girl,” said Ben. “We’ve known him for many years, and venturing up to Elmira to speak to him was emotionally difficult for us. We wish him well in this new chapter in his life.”

Following the documentary’s premiere at the Hamptons International Film Festival last fall, the only cavil, it seemed, centered on the seniors’ educational futures. Were they all college-bound? Were some not going? The question left hanging inspired some former Killer Bees, including the team’s present coach, Ron White, to hold a forum of Killer Bee alumni young and old soon after in the Hive, a lively give-and-take making the point, in sum, that there indeed was life after the Killer Bees.

Coach Johnson, when questioned Friday, said all six of the 2016 team’s seniors had gone on to college, but that Josh Lamison and Tylik Furman, the team’s best players, who had been attending the University of New Haven, “experienced financial problems and had to come back after two years.” Asked if they’d continue their education, Johnson said, firmly, “They’d better.”

“Everyone is putting their heads together to figure out what needs to be done to get them back into school,” Ben Cummings said. “The community, especially Carl, has taken this situation very seriously, and we are hopeful for a positive resolution. We hope the film has contributed in some way to people’s awareness of situations like this one and therefore its solution.” 

“To screen the film in the Hive, with Julian there and so many of the people from the community, including the players from the movie, was overwhelming,” said Orson Cummings. “Coach Carl,” the film’s central figure, who stands alone as the only person to have played for three New York State-championship teams and to have coached four of them, “was very emotional about the experience as well. It made him really proud and happy to be able to bring this story to the community, and to be able to spend some time with Shaq. They huddled up and spoke about life and basketball for a while when we went to dinner afterward.”

Orson added that the film “enjoyed an extremely successful release [at Cinema Village in New York City and at Monica Film Center in Los Angeles] three weeks ago. The New York Times made it a Critic’s Pick, which is a huge thing for any film to receive. The Los Angeles Times also gave it a terrific review, as did the Film Journal International magazine, a very important trade publication. So, we’re thrilled with how things went, and are now excited about having the movie available on VOD everywhere. That includes iTunes, Amazon, Google Play, and more.”

“Bringing these boys to the Hive,” Nicki Hemby said, “was an honor for us all. Our boys have heard so much about Bridgehampton basketball that they were beginning to think it was an urban legend. . . . No matter how old or how young, whether you still live in Bridgehampton or are hundreds of miles away, once a Killer Bee always a Killer Bee. I know it sounds like a cliché, but it’s the truth. I doubt you can find any alumni who will tell you differently.”

Thursday, August 2

BENEFIT SOFTBALL, Travis Field memorial tournament begins, Terry King ball field, Abraham’s Path, Amagansett, 5 p.m.

Friday, August 3

BENEFIT SOFTBALL, Travis Field memorial tournament, Terry King ball field, Abraham’s Path, Amagansett, 5 p.m.

Saturday, August 4

LIFEGUARDING, East Hampton Town junior lifeguard tournament, Indian Wells Beach, Amagansett, 8 a.m.-2 p.m.

PADDLING, Paddle for Pink races to benefit Breast Cancer Research Foundation, 3 and 6-mile courses, Havens Beach, Sag Harbor, 8 a.m.

BENEFIT SOFTBALL, Travis Field memorial tournament, Terry King ball field, Abraham’s Path, Amagansett, from 9 a.m.

Sunday, August 5

LIFEGUARDING, East Hampton Town junior lifeguard tournament, Indian Wells Beach, Amagansett, 8 a.m.-2 p.m.

RUNNING, Walk of Hope and 5K to Defeat Depression, Southampton Cultural Center, 25 Pond Lane, Southampton, 9 a.m.

BENEFIT SOFTBALL, Travis Field memorial tournament, Terry King ball field, Abraham’s Path, Amagansett, from 9 a.m.

BASKETBALL, Marcus Edwards clinics for first through eighth-grade boys and girls, Sportime Arena, Amagansett, 11:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m.

HOOPS 4 HOPE benefit dinner, 673 Sagaponack Road, Sagaponack, meal curated by FeedFeed, with live African music, tickets available online at hoopsafrica.org, 6-9 p.m.

Monday, August 6

LIFEGUARDING, recertification test, Indian Wells Beach, Amagansett, 9 a.m.

MEN’S SLOW-PITCH, playoffs, games at 7 and 8:15 p.m., Terry King ball field, Abraham’s Path, Amagansett.

Tuesday, August 7

WOMEN’S SLOW-PITCH, playoffs, games at 6:45 and 8 p.m., Terry King ball field, Abraham’s Path, Amagansett.

Wednesday, August 8

MEN’S SOCCER, 7-on-7 final, Herrick Park, East Hampton, 7 p.m.

East Hampton’s 10-11-year-old Little League all-star softball team did itself proud in a state tournament this past week, finishing as the runner-up among the Final Four contenders.

It was the first time that a Little League team from Bonac had played for a state championship. Little League baseball teams from here have won regional games, but none have made it off the Island.

“These girls are athletes,” William Kuneth, one of whose daughters, Katie, pitched all five games in which the young Bonackers played. “There’s some real talent on this team, at all the positions — there are real hitters, real pitchers, real catchers, and real competitors. You’re going to see a strong high school team here in the near future.”

“You could see the pride oozing from the parents,” he said, adding that “just about all of them, about 30 in all,” had made the six-hour trip up the Thruway to Glens Falls, where the tournament was played from July 25 through Saturday. Tim Fromm, an assistant principal at East Hampton High School, who was vacationing with his family at Lake George, also was there, said Kuneth.

East Hampton lost its first two games, by scores of 3-1 and 17-9 to LaGrange and Pearl River, the eventual champion, but came back to defeat Snug Harbor of Staten Island 11-6 before topping LaGrange 8-6 in their second meeting in the semifinals. With two runners on, one out, and the potential winning run at the plate in the bottom of the sixth inning, Katie Kuneth closed it out with two groundouts.

Andy Baris, who assisted Mike Ruddy in coaching the team, said afterward that “the girls didn’t know what to expect when they first got up there, they were a little bit apprehensive, but they stepped up to the plate and finished as the second team in the state. It was a helluva ride. The girls played with a helluva lot of heart. It’s something they’ll remember for the rest of their lives.”

“We had a great experience going to the states,” Ruddy said in an email. “All 13 of our talented kids contributed to our success. Our regular-season Little League coaches deserve credit for how well prepared the girls were.” Six of the 13, he said, were Montaukers coached in the regular season by Heather Payne, one of his traveling team assistants, who is in her fifth year as a Little League coach. “Our Little League board led by Steve Minskoff and Lara Siska does a great job in organizing our league,” he added.

“They came together beautifully as a team,” said Payne, “from starting off as Reds, Giants, Blue Jays, and Diamondbacks in the beginning to ending up as fiercely competitive Bonackers cheering one another on. When Sophia Rodriguez made that great double play in the third game they all made that double play, when Katie Kuneth dug deep to get a needed strikeout, they all got that strikeout, when Susie DiSunno didn’t allow anyone to steal home in the final, they were all strong at the plate. It was a great experience for them and for the parents and coaches as well.”

Snug Harbor, which Pearl River finished off in three innings in Saturday’s other semifinal, “had some big hitters, they were huge, but we beat the pants off them,” Baris said of the win that had vaulted East Hampton into the semifinal matchup with LaGrange. 

“One of the keys,” said Baris, “was that Mike, who thought we needed more batting practice, found a batting cage. We used it Thursday, Friday, and Saturday mornings. After those batting practice sessions we were ready to go.”

“The tournament director said that our second game with LaGrange was the most competitive one he’d seen in the tournament. Sienna Salamy, our right fielder, made two great catches in that game, which if she hadn’t made them would have been game-changers.”

Pearl River downed East Hampton 6-1 in the final, Baris said. “We were a little tired going into it, an hour after our second game with LaGrange, but we did respectably, especially when you consider they’d ‘mercied’ everyone else. They were a good team.”

Kuneth added that “East Hampton was the only team in the tournament to take Pearl River the full six innings and keep them under 10 runs. . . . We’re considering it a win.”

Gabrielle Payne, who led the team at the plate, with 14 hits in 17 at-bats, was the recipient of the tourney’s sportsmanship award, Baris said. “Katie was excellent, she kept us in games. She was given a game ball. Gabby was given a game ball too. . . .”

The elder Kuneth said, “We had a number of triples and a handful of double plays . . . it was really exciting to see the girls, who came from different parts of our town — some of them didn’t even know each other before the postseason began — playing as one.”

“I don’t know who had more fun — the parents or the children,” he continued. “We all stayed at the Holiday Inn Express. In between the games was pizza, miniature golf, and ice cream. We all went out for ice cream at Lake George after the last game.”

Baris agreed. “There was a lot of downtime, so the parents and the kids did a lot of things together. That was a great part of it.”

Aside from the above-named, East Hampton’s roster comprised Kerri O’Donnell, Sophia Rodriguez, Georgia Kenny, Harper Baris, Lila Ruddy, Susie DiSunno, Julia Kuneth, Amina Guebli, Cloe Ceva, and Paige Herlihy.

The on-again, off-again East Hampton football program is on again, Joe McKee, the varsity coach, said in a conversation Friday at The Star, but only at the junior varsity level.

He had hoped to field a varsity team this year — there wasn’t one last fall — but because relatively few players have been showing up for the three-night-a-week summer workouts, he was persuaded this past week, he said, to abandon plans for a varsity again.

Last winter, about two dozen showed up at an informational meeting he held at the high school cafeteria, a number that included nine juniors, seven sophomores, and eight freshmen, but didn’t include any eighth graders, who are to be freshmen this fall. 

“We’ve got 24 at the moment, but only 10 on average have been turning out for the workouts with Lorenzo Rodriguez and my brother Kelly, and sometimes it’s not even 10. You say beach and work may be reasons. It’s not the beach because the workouts don’t begin until 6. I don’t know what it is. It’s been frustrating, I’ll tell you, very frustrating.”

It wasn’t just East Hampton, McKee said. The football programs at other East End schools have also been struggling numbers-wise, though of its opponents in Division IV — the county’s smallest-enrollment one, which Section IX allowed East Hampton to join even though its enrollment would normally place it in Division III — only East Hampton, McKee said, lacks a varsity at the moment.

“If we were to have a varsity,” he added, “we’d be making sophomores and freshmen play at that level, so, given the lack of experience, I figured that it would be in our best interest to go with a jayvee only.”

McKee is about to enter his fourth year as the head football coach here. A jettisoned program in 2014 had persuaded him to try to turn it around.

The 2015 team, whose star was Brandon Johnson, a collegiate and developmental league rugby player now, went 2-6, though McKee said at the time that “we could very well have ended the regular season at 4-4, maybe even 5-3.”

The 2016 team went 1-7, but was competitive despite injuries that reduced its numbers from 29 to 20, and it went out on a high note, upsetting playoff-bound Bayport-Blue Point 36-21. 

The plug was pulled again last summer, again because of a lack of numbers. There was talk then of combining with Southampton, but East Hampton’s historical rival reportedly nixed the idea because Bonac’s added enrollment would have kicked it up from Division IV to III, “the black-and-blue division.”

“Since I’ve taken over,” McKee said, in reviewing the situation, “we were up and going for the first two years, and then in the third year the walls came tumbling down. As I say, it’s been frustrating.”

Asked what it was he loved about football, the coach, who is in East Hampton’s Hall of Fame, said, “It’s the biggest team sport there is. As you say, you’ve got to do your job, help your teammates. . . . I loved competing and the friendships I made.”

Did he have a quarterback? “Yes, we do, a lefty from Montauk, Topher Cullen. He’ll be a sophomore this coming fall. He played in junior high and he’s been showing up at all of the practices. We’ve got a big kid too, Nick LaValle, who’s been at every single workout. Nick Wyche, who’s also a strong kid, has been coming too. Those two will be juniors. That’s about all I want to say about players for the moment.”

The first official practice session is to be on Aug. 14 at 6 p.m., with physicals to be given at the high school on Aug. 6 and 7 from 4 to 7 p.m.

The minimum to field a team, varsity or jayvee, is 16. McKee will have to wait until then for the final answer, though, as aforesaid, the plan at the moment is to have a junior varsity team. Regarding whether to fish or cut bait, “We’ll know in the first week,” he said.

Games are to be played on Monday afternoons, by and large, with Hampton Bays, Bayport-Blue Point, Wyandanch, Port Jefferson, Mount Sinai, Greenport, Center Moriches, and Southampton, the same opponents the varsity would have faced.

McKee is to be assisted by Rodriguez, who has been a volunteer in the past, and by his brother Kelly.

Ed McGintee, who had been one of his assistants, “is going to step back for a bit . . . maybe he’ll volunteer. . . . Lorenzo really deserves to be a full-time assistant. He’s put in a tremendous amount of time, gone above and beyond. He’s put in so much work in the off-season with these guys.”

Dave Fioriello will continue to coach the East Hampton Middle School’s seventh and eighth-grade team, though there has been a steep drop-off in junior high numbers too. “The middle school numbers have gone from the 60s to the 50s to the 40s to the 30s to 20, the number they had last year,” McKee said.

Flag football, by contrast, for kindergarten through sixth-grade boys and girls, apparently continues to be a strong draw.

“We had 60 to 70 kids the first year and 120 last year,” the coach said. “It begins the first week of school. Practices will be Mondays and Wednesdays with games on Friday nights under the lights at Herrick Park. With that being said, we are looking for volunteers to help out as coaches and assistant coaches. They can email me at [email protected].”

When Marcus Edwards, who is overseeing intensive Sunday morning Hoop Hampton basketball workouts for kids at Amagansett’s Sportime Arena, was a young boy himself, living with his mother on the Poospatuck Reservation in Mastic, he realized, he said during a conversation the other day, that if he were ever to make something of himself he’d have to do it on his own.

And so he did, with help from others, among them Terrell Dozier, his former Amateur Athletic Union coach, Tim and Debbie Brenneman, whom he came to regard as parents, Bill McKee, the late Ed Petrie’s assistant when Edwards played a decade ago on the East Hampton High School boys basketball team, Jolie Parcher of Mandala Yoga, who, after he’d been certified as a personal trainer, put him in touch with Ari Weller of the Philosofit fitness studio here, and Weller himself.

“My father died when I was a year old, in a motorcycle accident. I was raised by my mother and grandmother,” he began.

“No,” he said with a smile when asked if he’d been spoiled. “Not at all. We were poor, we didn’t have a thing. I started working at 10, raking leaves, two hours after school. I made $50 a week. I realized that when it came to buying clothes and things, my mom couldn’t do it. She was a single parent. If I wanted anything I had to figure out a way to do it.”

He attended Center Moriches schools from first through ninth grade, becoming through hard work, he said, “the only black kid in the good classes,” but with that came the chagrin of being broadly labeled by white parents as the prime suspect whenever one of his fellow students’ iPhones or iPads went missing.

He was playing with Ed Petrie’s grandson, Mikey Russell, on Dozier’s A.A.U. East End all-star basketball team at the time. “Everyone thinks I moved to East Hampton to team up with Mikey, but that’s not so. It was because of the way I was being treated at Center Moriches. It was for personal reasons that I moved in with Terrell, who became my legal guardian.”

“I was so excited to move to East Hampton. The change of scenery was good; it was a good move.” One that was to result in a singular basketball career here (the Bonac teams on which Edwards played with the Russells, Mikey and Jerome, Hayden Ward, Liam Lee, Jarred Bowe, and others went 62-7 in a three-year span during which the team, one of East Hampton’s best ever, won numerous championships) and a college scholarship.

“I went to an all-academic camp in Jersey, in my junior year, the only camp I ever went to. Bill McKee paid for me to go. There were 200 players there, and I was one of the ones picked for the second string, the worst, but I worked hard, I had the passion, the fire, and I ended up in the top 20, playing in the all-star game, winning the Mr. Hustle award, and getting recruited by Babson College,” where he was to play on the team for two years and earn a bachelor’s degree in business administration.

Rather than the business field, Edwards, acting on the advice of his aunt and Debbie Brenneman, earned a personal trainer’s certificate in Baltimore, where his girlfriend is a medical student at Johns Hopkins. 

“Several times I wanted to give it up, but when I saw how hard my girlfriend — she wants to become a psychiatrist — was working, I thought there’s no way I can quit! I couldn’t find any well-paying jobs there, so I came back here. That was three years ago. That was when Jolie Parcher, whose kids I’d given basketball lessons to — I’ve known her since I was 15, I consider her an aunt — introduced me to Ari Weller.”

“He wasn’t sure I’d be a good fit, but he invited me to watch and observe. It was like an apprenticeship. I went to Philosofit every single day . . . I was soaking it up. One day someone quit, and, even though I didn’t feel prepared, I was hired and thrown into the 

fire. . . . It’s interesting how things happened. It worked out really, really well, and I love working there.”

Back to basketball, Edwards, who assists Dan White in coaching East Hampton High’s team now, said, in answer to a question, that he’d love it if he could inspire kids, kids who have the same passion for work and for basketball that he has, to raise the level of their play to what it was when he was growing up.

“We always played,” he said, “every day, either at the senior citizens center or at Herrick Park. We were always playing, the year round, which is what you have to do. We didn’t put the ball in the closet after the season was over.”

“I always ask my basketball students what their grades are, to get an idea of how passionate they are. I think it translates.  If you work hard in school you’ll work hard on the court. . . . So many of them are playing video games now. I just want the kids who are interested. I want to help them develop the confidence and skills they’ll need, I want to light that fire. If you’re only training once or twice a week that’s not enough. Max Proctor, one of the varsity players now — he’ll be a senior — has it. He works hard, I don’t have to tell him. Jeremy Vizcaino has it too.”

“I want to get East Hampton basketball back to the level it was at when I was playing. To do that you start with the kids. If you can instill confidence at a young age, if you light the fire, they’ll go.”

Maleek Harris, who also grew up on the Poospatuck Reservation, helps his cousin with the two-hour Sunday morning clinics, which include drills and free play. The clinics cost $40 per session ($20 an hour), and for boys and girls looking to improve their games, it’s money well spent, as this writer, the grandfather of 12 and 7-year-old boys from Perrysburg, Ohio, can attest.

Edwards said he’d recently read a book, “People Over Profit,” which maintained that “the more people you help, the more rewarding it is for the person who’s helping. . . . It’s not about the money. I want more kids to play. We can have exciting games again. We’ve got to get that standard back up. When I played with Mikey we were expected to win, but now I feel that that winning culture has depreciated, that it’s been diminishing. That’s why I started Hoop Hampton.”

Sharks to Combine

Charlie Collins, a spokesman for the Montauk Rugby Club, said this week that the Sharks, who have, like the East Hampton High School football program, a numbers problem, will combine with the Suffolk Bull Moose club of Farmingville to play in the Empire Geographical Union’s Division III fall season. 

“Whenever we’ve played away games with Bull Moose in the past it’s been on a field in Center Moriches, but there will be a couple of games played here,” Collins said, at East Hampton’s Herrick Park.

The locals have some very good young players, but most are collegians, and as a result would largely be unavailable for Saturday matches. “Rugby has a strong tradition here — there were days when people feared us, when I feared us — so we don’t want to let it die,” Collins said.

Hoop Classic

A very competitive five-on-five basketball tournament to benefit the LuMind Research Down Syndrome Foundation is to be held Saturday at the Sportime Arena in Amagansett from 9 a.m.

A number of East Hampton High School graduates have starred in this tourney in the past, including Brian Marciniak, Marcus Edwards, Kyle McKee, Jenel Russell, Jerome Russell, Jarred Bowe, and Will Shapiro.

A fund-raising party at Anthony Providenti’s house is to be held that evening.

Run for Rotary

East Hampton’s Rotary Club will play host to 10 and 5K races at Fresh Pond Park in Amagansett this Saturday, beginning at 9 a.m. Simon Mayeur, a Frenchman from Alsace, won the 5K, in 19 minutes and 24 seconds, and Ryan Fowkes of East Hampton won the 10K, in 38:03, last year.