Nov. 4, 1999
A header by Johan Kron, Southampton College’s standout striker, 7 minutes and 23 seconds into sudden-death overtime, enabled the Colonials to defeat C.W. Post 2-1 and thus capture their first New York Collegiate Athletic Conference soccer title.
. . . Southampton, which boasts seven starters whom the coach, Ed Goodhines, has recruited from Sweden, pounded Post’s goal in the second half, but Jesse Montero, the 5-foot-8-inch keeper, parried the assaults brilliantly.
. . . It was the first time the Swedish striker, whom Goodhines rates as “the best offensive player in the country” and who had been sidelined with a bruised ankle, had played an entire game in three weeks.
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George Watson’s 3.4-mile all-comers Dock road race in Montauk Sunday was won, he said, by John Behan, in his new racing wheelchair. The runner-up was a 10-year-old in-line skater, Briell Brockett. Her grandmother Loretta DeRose, also on in-line skates, was third.
David Pitches was the winner among the runners, in 21 minutes and 54 seconds, nosing out 65-year-old John Conner, whose time was 22:19. “John was ahead for two-thirds of the race,” reported Watson. “He got the award for most wrinkles.”
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Hoops 4 Hope, the nonprofit, community-based effort of two Amagansetters, Mark Crandall and Anthony Allison, to promote self-esteem and leadership qualities in Zimbabwean and South African youth through the sport of basketball, is in danger of becoming a victim of its success.
“The need for money is pretty desperate because we’re seen over there as an organization that can help,” Crandall said during a recent conversation. Last year, he said, he oversaw the construction of 12 basketball courts in the two countries and now was working with community groups on multicourt projects “that will cost more money than we have.”
. . . “What we’re doing is not just about basketball,” said Crandall. “It’s a way to get these kids together so we can help them stand on their own two feet, through self-esteem, conflict mediation, and through educating them about health-related issues.”
“Mandela was the perfect man to be South Africa’s president,” said Allison, “but there is an enormous population that is completely uneducated, and children in particular are left to fight for whatever resources there are. It’s an extremely difficult situation.”
. . . “We always remind ourselves,” said Allison, “that this is not about the next Michael Jordan. It’s about kids having a chance to play regardless of their ability and to be given an opportunity to start to grow up in a healthy fashion.”
. . . “When we come to a school and put up the hoops welded from recycled pipe, and give the kids basketballs and uniforms, they are so happy to play,” said Crandall. “It doesn’t cost a lot of money, or in terms of time, but it’s so rewarding for those kids to have that opportunity. Nothing compares to that. Nothing.”
