Vinny Alversa, East Hampton High’s baseball coach and his assistant, Henry Meyer, would have held a workout at the school’s ball field Sunday morning had the outfield not been so soggy.
Sunday rains since the team’s informal workouts began in November have been a problem, Alversa said as he and Meyer worked to shore up sagging batting cages, though he added that he and Meyer have been impressed by their charges’ persistence. “They’ve been working out on their own Mondays through Fridays, and, when the weather’s been good on Sundays, we’ve all been getting together.”
Softball players too have been working out on Sundays, weather permitting, but not this Sunday.
With formal spring season practices slated for Monday, it was too early as of press time to venture how East Hampton’s teams, in baseball, softball, lacrosse, tennis, track, and flag football, may do. Kathy Masterson, the school district’s athletic director, was reluctant, when queried Friday, to talk about turnouts until the numbers were clear.
Yani Cuesta, who coaches girls track, which is combined with Pierson and Bridgehampton, said Sunday evening that 53 had signed up, “though we’ll see how many turn out, and how many stay on after the first week.”
Monday’s weather, she said, was supposed to be daunting, with temperatures and winds in the 40s, making it feel even colder, though no rain had been predicted, she said. Her assistant, Nick DeLuca, has asked that the girls not show up in shorts and T-shirts, but layered up. While it was called “spring track,” he told them, “it really isn’t spring.”
There will be three new head coaches this spring, Sean Knight in boys track, Pablo Montesi in boys tennis, and Erin Gillott in flag football. Knight is a member of East Hampton’s Hall of Fame. “I think he will be a really good addition to the program,” Cuesta said.
Montesi, a native of Chile, who has been Future Stars’ director of tennis in Southampton “for more than 15 years,” said Sunday evening that he was looking forward to meeting his players on Monday. Eight of East Hampton’s 10 starters made the county individual tournament last spring. Gillot, a science teacher at the high school, was Jonathan Augi’s assistant last year, flag football’s inaugural one.
Matt Babb will continue to coach the Southampton-based South Fork boys lacrosse team, with players from East Hampton, Southampton, Pierson (Sag Harbor), Ross, and Hampton Bays. The team missed the playoffs last year by one game. Longwood, which ended with a 7-7 record, edged out the 8-6 South Forkers by 4.5 power points. Charlie Corwin, Jack Cooper, Luke Castillo, and Thinley Edwards, all Bonackers, are expected to provide the team with a lot of offensive punch.
The girls lacrosse team, coached again by Joe DiGirolomo, is expected to vie for a playoff spot. Baseball last year won a playoff game, “for the first time in a very long time,” defeating Comsewogue 13-5. Two all-league selections, Carter Dickinson, who pitches, catches, and plays first base, and Hudson Meyer, the shortstop, are expected to lead the Bonackers, whose returnees also include Nico Horan-Puglia, the catcher, Mike Locascio, an outfielder, Kieran Conlon, a pitcher and utility man, Chase Siska, an outfielder, Tyler Hansen, a pitcher, infielder, and outfielder, and Zach Dodge, a pitcher.
Alversa and Meyer are hoping the pitching holds up inasmuch as East Hampton lost three good pitchers to graduation last spring -- Jack Dickinson, Will Darrell, and Hunter Eberhart. All three are playing in college, Dickinson at Niagara University, Darrell at Vassar College, and Eberhart at the College of Saint Scholastica in Duluth, Minn.
“We haven’t had so many guys playing in college since the ’90s,” said Meyer, adding that Colin Ruddy is now at Monmouth University in New Jersey, and that Tucker Genovesi is to play at Benedictine College in Atchison, Kan.