Dave Conlon had a young high school boys basketball team to coach this year, one that, because of periodic illnesses, injuries, and scheduling conflicts, was challenged when it came to achieving the level of team chemistry he had hoped for when East Hampton’s season — his first here — began.
While his charges, who finished the campaign at 5-11 in League V (7-13 over all), did not make the county’s Class AA playoffs, “they never quit — I was very proud of that,” he said during a conversation at Starbucks this past week, adding that “it was a little difficult to develop that team chemistry because we always had guys out, but I don’t want to make excuses. There were games we should have won that we didn’t.”
He agreed, though, that at the end of the campaign, with everyone healthy, the Bonackers, who had only one senior starter, Carter Dickinson, played like a playoff team — for the entire four quarters in their 64-52 win here over 10-6 Rocky Point on Feb. 4, and for the final three quarters in their season finale, a 70-60 loss at Westhampton Beach on Feb. 6.
When his interviewer said he’d been particularly impressed by the way the team had slowed things down in the final minutes of the Rocky Point game, the coach, who played at the University of Vermont and professionally in Europe, and mentored a D-1 college team in Philadelphia, said, with a smile, “when you’re nursing a 5 or 6-point lead like that at the end of a game, you think of the clock as your friend.”
As for the Westhampton game, “They scored off the tip and got off to a quick start, which caught us a little off guard. We were down 23-12 going into the second quarter, but adjusted and fought back to within 2 in the fourth. That shows you the kids don’t give up. Then they scored and we missed and lost some of our momentum . . . we just ran out of gas.”
Toby Foster, the junior point guard, who averaged over 20 points per game, Miles Menu, a sophomore, the team’s second-leading scorer, averaging more than 12 points per game, and averaging more than 10 rebounds per game, and Mason Jefferson, a junior who was the team’s third-leading scorer, are up for postseason awards — all-county in Foster’s case, League V rookie of the year in Menu’s, and all-league in Jefferson’s.
Meanwhile, there’s work to do, basketball, Conlon said, not being a sport you can play for just one season. To that end, he hopes to enter a team in Eastport’s spring league, whose games are to begin at the end of March, and to enter one in a summer league too, in addition to holding pickup games and drills here at least three to four days a week in the off-season.
“I’m over all very positive about next season, but we’ll need to do the work if we want to be the best team we can be.”
Speaking of next year, he said he’d just been told by East Hampton’s athletic director, Kathy Masterson, that East Hampton, because of enrollment projections, is to move up from League V to League IV, a league that is also to have in it Half Hollow Hills West, Westhampton Beach, Comsewogue, Harborfields, West Islip, Islip, Hauppauge, and Eastport-South Manor.
“Will it be a tougher league? Hard to say . . . I don’t know if it helps or hurts. And, honestly, who cares? How we do will largely be up to us. . . . Over all, I’m really positive about next season. Just about all the kids are coming back — we’re only losing two seniors, Josh Williams and Carter, who gave us everything with his toughness, leadership, and confidence. There were some talented kids on the jayvee, but we’ll probably have to make cuts next year because so many varsity kids will be coming back.”
Asked what chiefly needed to be worked on, he said, “I would say one of the things we’ll need to focus on is becoming a very, very good defensive team, with an emphasis on rebounding and shot selection, and limiting unforced turnovers, like when you throw the ball to a teammate who might or might not be open.”
He added that he had enjoyed coaching with his assistant, Thomas Nelson, who often, with Conlon stepping in from time to time, oversaw the Saturday morning Biddy sessions at the John M. Marshall Elementary School, sessions at which some of the varsity players helped out.
“It’s important that the little ones see the bigger kids — it creates a sense of excitement for them,” East Hampton’s coach said in parting.
