Nine of Bonac’s 11 Teams in the Playoff Potpourri

    The postseason was to have commenced in earnest this week for seven of the nine East Hampton High School teams that earned berths in them.

    Only football, which bowed out at 0-8 in the foulest of foul weather here Saturday, and field hockey came up short.

    Girls tennis last week turned in a surprisingly good effort in a 5-2 second-round loss to the eventual county champion, Half Hollow Hills East.

    Michelle Kennedy, the team’s first-year coach, said that Jess Bono and Daniella Dunphy had won at first doubles, that Caitlin Walsh and Gillian Neubert had won at second doubles, and that the third doubles team of Carrie Sullivan and Sarah Becker and the team’s fourth singles player, Bryce Slater, an eighth grader, had lost in three sets.

    And this despite the fact that three starters — Sydney Sanicola, Rikki Slater, and Margaux Eckert — were, for various reasons, missing.

    The girls soccer team played a Class A outbracket game with Westhampton Beach here Monday — a game reported above — and the boys team, which recently won its second league championship in the past three years, is to play at home Monday versus the John Glenn-Miller Place winner. The winner of that game is to play in the county Class A championship game at Dowling College next Thursday at 4 p.m.

Sayville is the top Class A seed. East Hampton is the second seed, and John Glenn is the third.

Boys volleyball, which drew the second seed in the county’s Division II tournament, behind Eastport-South Manor, is to play third-seeded Sayville at home at 6 p.m. on Monday.

The girls volleyball team’s playoff schedule was not known as of earlier this week given the fact that the Class A seedings weren’t to be announced until yesterday morning.

Kathy McGeehan, the girls coach, said Tuesday morning, “If we’re seeded between 7th and 10th, we might have to play tomorrow. If we’re seeded sixth or higher, we’ll play Friday. We’re ready for anything. There’s so much parity in this classification that we know whoever we play will be tough.”

As an example of the parity she cited, McGeehan said that her team had split with the presumed top seed, Sayville, which this past week downed the Bonackers in five here after losing the first two sets. “We played well,” she said, “but after losing the first two their seniors came alive.”

The girls swimming team that is coached by Kathy McGeehan’s husband, John, was preparing this week for the League III championships that are to be held tomorrow at 4:30 p.m. at Hauppauge High School.

    John McGeehan, whose team added another “first” last week when it defeated West Islip 89-80 at the Y.M.C.A. East Hampton RECenter, expects East Hampton “will be in the mix with Sayville and Harborfields. We have a better shot at the title than we ever have before.”

    The county meet will be on Nov. 12 at Suffolk Community College-Brentwood at 2 p.m.

    Getting back to the football finale, a 46-0 loss at the hands of Miller Place, Bill Barbour Jr., the head coach, said he’d told his players afterward in the locker room that he was proud of them for having stuck through a singularly disappointing season.

    Barbour’s father, Bill Sr., said in walking off the field in cold, wind-driven rain that “it was a lack of knowledge” that had led to the team’s 0-8 record, “not a lack of enthusiasm.”

    His son agreed. “They worked hard; they were always very positive,” said Bill Jr. “There was a lot of inexperience, but the kids who committed themselves to the program all stayed and saw it through, and we picked up some kids along the way.”

    “We had a number of injuries, too. Today was Ryan Joudeh’s first game and the first for Desmond Tavera. Cort [Heneveld, the sophomore quarterback] broke his hand before the Westhampton game. Thomas Nelson was sidelined by a concussion. This was his first game back. . . . I told them I was proud of them, and that they’d demonstrated to me that when faced with life’s challenges they’ll see them through.”

    The coaching staff, he added, would continue to do everything it could to recruit and develop talent. “The four sophomores we have on the varsity represent the first P.A.L. [Police Athletic League] class. Hopefully, the P.A.L. program will prove to be a good feeder for ours going forward.”