March 16, 2000
When the Montauk Rugby Club takes the field here Saturday against White Plains in the Sharks’ Major League Rugby League debut, Frank Bistrian, the side’s captain, expects to have 35 to 40 players in attendance.
“That’s by far the most we’ve ever had,” Bistrian said Tuesday. “For the past couple of years we’ve been getting by with between 20 and 25.”
To prepare the Division II side for its jump into the Division I league that is expected to be the precursor of professional rugby in this country, Bistrian and his teammates have been recruiting widely, availing themselves of the internet.
Consequently, Montauk’s lineup has been beefed up of late with players from South Africa, New Zealand, and the British Isles. “But while the foreign players definitely will help, the key to our success ultimately will be the local, young American players we attract — the Robbie Balnises, John Glennons, and Nick Finazzos,” said Bistrian.
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Laden with cardboard boxes full of medicines and duffel bags loaded with sports equipment to be presented to their Cuban counterparts, members of East Hampton’s Maidstoners softball team arrived in Havana on March 2, almost a year to the day from when they last sneaked into Fidel Castro’s country for some informal detente.
Spirits were high despite a long day of travel, with the prospect of reunions with Cuban friends, a peek at the famously beautiful countryside in Pinar del Rio province, and some soul and hamstring-wrenching contests on the field.
. . . Last year’s was an unofficial trip. This year, the Maidstoners, an informal team that has long played at Maidstone Park in East Hampton on Sundays, were armed with a license from the United States government, which, because of the economic embargo, restricts Cuban tourism but sanctions sports and cultural exchanges.
. . . A game against workers at a company called Ditel took place at a waterfront workers’ social club, which was the Havana Yacht Club before it was reclaimed by the government. Thomas LaGrassa, one of the trip’s organizers, dubbed Ditel “the Maidstoners of Cuba.”
. . . After the Norteamericanos’ 14-11 win, Peter Honerkamp of Amagansett, who traveled to Cuba several times to set up the trip, said, “I think it was really important that we lost last year — the Cubans take things extraordinarily seriously. It was okay to win this time.” . . . When Honerkamp got on the bus to leave after the postgame party he was in stocking feet. He’d given his cleats to a senior official with Ditel, who had none. A pair of torn, muddy loafers was found for him in exchange.
Generosity also inspired Rob Aldrich of Amagansett after the Pinar del Rio game. First he doffed his hat and gave it away, then his shoes and shirt, finally leaving the field clad only in shorts.
“There was simple, pure gratitude for any gesture,” Honerkamp remarked this week. “They all understood that we weren’t there to be the rich Americans . . . that we were just like them.” — Joanne Pilgrim
