25 Years Ago in Bonac Sports: 12.27.18

December 2, 1993

Coming off a rare losing season, the East Hampton High School wrestling coach, Jim Stewart, expects this year to again be a “rebuilding” one, “though if we have everyone in the right weight classes, we could surprise.”

After five championships between 1985 and ’90, Stewart found himself with many young and inexperienced wrestlers last year. The result was a 2-7-4 season, the first losing season for a Bonac wrestling team in a long while.

. . . While a return to former glory may yet remain beyond East Hampton’s reach, Stewart expects to give everyone “a good match.”

The first quarter of Monday’s non-league East Hampton-Ward Melville girls basketball game here was definitely ho-hum, as Melville’s swarming press kept the scoring to a minimum.

But things changed — boy, did they change — in the second quarter. Ellamae Gurney, a smooth East Hampton forward who played with verve at both ends of the court, and Allison Tilley, East Hampton’s 5-foot-11-inch center, began to pour in the points. The 25-point spate, worthy of Bridgehampton’s Killer Bees, pretty much wrote finis to Ward Melville, and served notice that Tim Rood’s Bonackers are for real.

December 16, 1993

With the biggest turnout ever — 30 — and the potential to win the league for the first time, Jeff Yusko, East Hampton High School’s bowling coach, is definitely looking forward to the 1993-94 season.

He had some facts to back up the prognosis yesterday, after the Bonackers knocked off Westhampton Beach 7-4 in their season-opener Tuesday. The team — which includes Paul Wolfram, whose 289 game last year tied for best in the county — totaled 2,538 pins, “the highest total it has had in four years,” according to the coach. “And,” he predicted, “we’re going to get better. We are capable of 2,600.”

David MacGarva, East Hampton High School’s varsity football coach, announced at a dinner for the team Saturday night that Steve Redlus, an offensive and defensive tackle, Earle Hopson, a split end and defensive back, and Rob Balnis, a running back, will be the captains of the 1994 team.

MacGarva said Balnis, whom he described as the best high school runner he’d ever seen, ought to be among the county’s leading players next season. The team’s Wing-T formation will feature two halfbacks next fall — Balnis and Terrell Hopson of Bridgehampton. Earle Hopson, he said, will be used primarily as a receiver.

December 23, 1993

His first year as a professional golfer included a major disappointment, but that has not diminished Duane Bock’s dream of making the Professional Golfers Association tour.

The 24-year-old East Hamptoner, who was home this week for Christmas, will leave Wednesday for South Africa to play in that country’s seven-tournament tour in the next two months.

Were it not for one bad round in the second stage of qualifying recently, at Savannah, Ga., he’d be on the P.G.A. or Nike tours now in the United States.

The four-shot shortfall “was a major disappointment,” Bock said. “I was in 10th place after the first two rounds. I was right in there, but I played poorly the third day. I started thinking too much. I played the last nine 6-over, and that blew me out.”

. . . “My chipping and putting is probably the best part of my game, but I’ve been struggling with my long game recently. My drives average around 265 yards, which is fine, but they’re not always straight!”

Meanwhile, Bock is keeping in mind advice he got from Jerry Haas, a Nike tour player whose brother, Jay, plays on the P.G.A. tour. “ ‘Never evaluate yourself daily — year to year, not day to day.’ Golf’s a strange game: One day can be great, and the next day awful.”

He also recalled some thoughts on the game from Lee Janzen, this year’s U.S. Open winner, with whom Bock spent some time at the Maidstone Club in East Hampton three years ago. Janzen said the major difference between their games was that his bad shots were less bad than Bock’s, Bock said.

A huge crowd at East Hampton High School’s gym Thursday night was treated to one of those heart-stopping basketball contests that cannot adequately be described on paper.

After 32 minutes of in-your-face, top-this, gut-wrenching intensity, the Pierson Whalers had beaten down the Bridgehampton Killer Bees by, of course, a single point. The game, which Pierson won 71-70, was a likely prelude to the county Class D championship to be contested in February.

In the end, it was the most intense player on the court who saved the day for Pierson. John Schroeder, a fiery and driven senior, put on a fourth quarter show to be remembered, rallying his team from a 12-point deficit. His eyes glazed, his body driven by demons, Schroeder demanded and got the ball virtually every time down the floor in the frantic closing minutes. He scored 16 of his game-high 28 points in that final period.