Sports Briefs: 07.20.17
A Lopped Line
The tag line from last week’s story on the Topping Riding Club in Sagaponack was lopped. Here it is: “It can be 90 degrees and you wouldn’t know it here,” said Mercedes Mann. “The pony campers all would love it if we put bunk beds in the stable.”
More Men’s Soccer
A 7-on-7 men’s soccer tournament is to be held at Fiske Field on Shelter Island the evenings of Monday, July 31, and Monday, Aug. 7. The tournament, named after the late Simon Gavron, raises money for Shelter Island causes. The entries of John Romero, who coached his Maidstone Market team to a 7-on-7 championship at East Hampton’s Herrick Park on July 12, have won the Shelter Island tournament the past several years.
Room for More Divers
There is room for a few more enrollees in Mica Marder’s free-diving courses that are to begin Saturday in Montauk. Marder, who has free-dived throughout the world, said that while interest is growing in the sport, particularly when it comes to spearfishing, aficionados often jump in before they’ve been properly schooled.
Under the Evolve Free Diving aegis, Marder is offering two-day and four-day courses based at a private pool in Montauk. “That’s where we’ll meet,” he said during a conversation Tuesday morning. Static breath-hold techniques are to be taught there. “People don’t believe you can hold your breath for three minutes, but, with the proper techniques, you can,” he said. “We’ll also be doing line diving, using a line with a weight on the bottom and spotters, about 20 miles offshore in 200 feet of water.”
Basic free diving, he said, is done up to a depth of 60 feet, intermediate free diving up to 132 feet. The website through which one can register is evolvefreediving.com.
Little League Playoff Losses
East Hampton’s 9-10 traveling all-star baseball team coached by Henry Meyer, Tim Garneau, and Greg Brown, after becoming the first 9-10 baseball team from here to win a district championship (the 1991 team that won district and county titles having been a 9-through-12 one) lost both games it played in Section IV’s double-elimination tournament, to Smithtown-St. James and Huntington. The young Bonackers lost 12-5 to Smithtown-St. James and 7-2 to Huntington.
“The wheels fell off both times following rain delays,” said Garneau. “We were leading 5-2 after four innings when the rain came in the first one, and the score was 2-2 after four when rain began to fall in the second.”
The future looks bright, however, Garneau continued. “Our outlook is very positive. Winning the District 36 tournament was our goal this year, and we did that. Going into the sectionals we were at somewhat of a disadvantage inasmuch as we’d played a number of games in a row, which cut into our pitching. We were just unlucky. Two years from now, when these kids are 11 and 12, we could well win it all.”