Author Information

Jack Graves
Sports Editor, Columnist

Articles by this author:

  • Point of View: To Happiness (Columnists)

       “Happiness is the only sanction of life,” Santayana says at one point in his discussion of reason and how it comes to be, adding that “where happiness fails, existence remains a mad and lamentable experiment.”
        I’ll drink to that, to happiness . . . however you want to define it. For me, mainly, it’s having the freedom to be your own person, or the freedom to be able to create yourself.

    By: Jack Graves
  • Saturday Was a Perfect One for Paddleboarding (Sports)

       Sag Harbor’s Havens Beach seemed a wonderful place for Main Beach Surf & Sport to start its paddleboard race season Saturday, for the race’s beneficiary, Kevin McAllister, the Peconic Baykeeper, had spurred that village’s board of trustees to underwrite an inventive project there that, if faithfully monitored, ought to clean Havens Beach up.

    By: Jack Graves
  • Bonac Tracksters Were the Last Ones Standing (Sports)

       Chris Reich, who coaches East Hampton High School’s boys track team, reported Monday that his freshmen and sophomores had held their own in a countywide freshman-sophomore meet for all of Suffolk’s schools.
        Of chief interest was Erik Engstrom’s third-place finish in the 2,000-meter steeplechase, “in an incredible time of 6 minutes and 41 seconds, even though he fell after leaping the water jump. He’ll compete in the 3,000 steeple in the division meet this week.”

    By: Jack Graves
  • Reese Has Taken the Ball and Run With It (Sports)

       Don Reese of East Hampton Youth Football has embarked on a campaign to breathe new life into a program that in recent years has experienced a decline in numbers.
        “It’s two things,” he said during a conversation Friday. “Parents’ fear of concussions is part of it, as is the fact we now have a very large Latino population in the early grades who grow up playing soccer and know very little about football.”

    By: Jack Graves
  • Point of View: More Than Enough (Columnists)

       Yes, spring may be here, but, besides the dazzling gold­finches and cardinals, there is the oaken semen dripping on one’s windshield, pollen-suffused air, allergies, tick bites, the wretched antibiotics required to treat them, and, sports-wise, it’s been a bit of a slog — the great majority of our high school’s teams not being playoff-bound.
        Still, lushness is to be preferred to slushiness.

    By: Jack Graves
  • Girls Lacrosse: Second-Half Surge Falls Just Short (Sports)

       The East Hampton High School girls and boys lacrosse teams ended their seasons with wins Saturday, the girls defeating Center Moriches 14-6 and the boys crushing McGann-Mercy 14-1.
        Neither team made the playoffs, though the girls, who won five of their last six games, came close.

    By: Jack Graves
  • Final Playoff Blow Dealt at Sayville (Sports)

       It was made official Monday: The East Hampton High School softball team, by virtue of its 11-9 loss at Sayville, was knocked out of playoff contention.
        Thus, it’s the first time in his 20-year tenure here that East Hampton’s mentor, Lou Reale — one of the winningest coaches in the state — will not be at Bonac’s helm in the postseason.

    By: Jack Graves
  • OMAC’s New Prez Would Like to Get the Word Out (Sports)

       The Old Montauk Athletic Club’s new president, Sharon McCobb, said during a conversation the other day that her chief goal was “to get people to know what our organization is.”
        “I’m surprised that after more than a decade people still don’t know what OMAC does: We’re a small grassroots organization that helps through modest grants, of $500 to $1,000 or so, to promote a healthy athletic way of life here, especially among young people.”

    By: Jack Graves
  • Track: Boys Win and Girls Do Well in Their Finals (Sports)

        The East Hampton High School boys track team, which had not had a win in three years, got two in its last meets of the season to finish at 2-4. Meanwhile, the girls, while they went winless this spring, acquitted themselves well in an 84-64 loss at Westhampton Beach on May 7.
        The next day, Bonac’s boys defeated their Westhampton counterparts here 78-63.

    By: Jack Graves
  • Point of View: Daisies Deleted (Columnists)

       Mary said on our return from the Dominican Republic that she didn’t much like my phone greeting, in which I say, “I’m either kicking the can down the road, pushing up daisies, or angling for a promotion,” especially the pushing-up-daisies part. And so, I’ve just changed it to “I’m either racing with the moon, running on empty, or jogging my memory . . . please leave a message.”

    By: Jack Graves