Sports Briefs 08.25.11
Classic’s Coming
The weeklong Hampton Classic Horse Show opens at the 60-acre Snake Hollow Road, Bridgehampton, showgrounds on Sunday with a day of competition for local riders, beginning with leadline and short stirrup classes in the Grand Prix ring from 8 a.m.
The Opening Day ceremonies are to take place in the Grand Prix ring at noon, after which the $20,000 Nicolock Time Challenge, the Classic’s first high-level class, is to be held.
The finals of the Long Island Horse Show series for riders with disabilities are to be held Monday. Tuesday will feature the $30,000 7 and 8-year-old Young Jumper championship, the Newsday Open Jumper class, and the Brown Harris Stevens Open Jumper class.
Among Wednesday’s featured events will be the SHF Enterprises 5-year-old and Split Rock Farm 6-year-old Young Jumper championships and the Pilatus Open Jumper class.
Among the professional riders expected are McLain Ward, Margie Engle, Joe Fargis, Chris Kappler, Leslie Howard, Peter Leone, Norman Dello Joio, Mario Deslauriers, Federico Sztyrle, Hillary Dobbs, Jeffrey Welles, Debbie Stephens, Laura Bowery-Falco, Candice King, Todd Minikus, Callan Solem, and Shane Sweetnam.
A.A.U. Tourney
Nick Thomas’s 15-16-and-under traveling all-star boys basketball team won a six-team Amateur Athletic Union tournament at the Montauk Playhouse this past weekend, topping the Long Island Lightning, a team from Brooklyn, 87-85 in overtime in the championship game.
Thomas said the winning basket was scored by Shaundell Fishburne, who tipped in a miss by Brandon Tolliver. Besides Fishburne, who’s from Southampton, and Tolliver, who’s from Riverhead, others on the Kendall Madison Foundation’s championship team were Thomas King of East Hampton, Tyrell Thomas of Center Moriches, Devin Burney of William Floyd, Isaiah Cousins of Center Moriches, and Mike Guzzardi of Mount Sinai.
Winning is nothing new for this team, which plays in tournaments throughout the summer. “We won the Atlantic City Shoot-Out, were in the Final Four of the Hall of Fame Classic in Springfield, Mass., and we qualified for the Division 1 championships in Little Rock, Arkansas,” said Thomas, who learned Tuesday that he had been made the head boys varsity coach at Center Moriches High School.
Dr. Charles Melone, a hand surgeon to dozens of professional athletes, who lives in Montauk, put the tournament on and coached the Long Island Lightning entry. Brandon Kennedy, an East Hampton eighth grader who led Thomas’s undefeated 13-and-under team to a summer league championship, played for Montauk’s team, as did Thomas Nelson, a Bonac 10th grader.
Bad News Bubs Win
The Bad News Bubs, a team in whose lineup were many of the same players who had last Thursday won the East Hampton Town men’s slow-pitch softball league’s playoff trophy for Schenck Fuels, also won the Travis Field tournament, besting the surprising Mighty Midgets entry 26-12 in the championship game at the Terry King ball field Sunday night.
The champions’ lineup included Vinnie Alversa, Brendan Fennell, Adam Gledhill, Ethan King, Garret King, Brian Turza, Steve Turza, Mike Rodriguez, and Doug Dickson, the pitcher.