Ryan Fowkes, East Hampton High’s top long-distance runner, who hopes to compete in the state meet’s 1,600-meter race this spring, bested a field of more than 300 in the Katy’s Courage 5K in Sag Harbor Saturday in an impressive time of 15 minutes and 55 seconds, bettering last year’s winning time of 16:48.37.

Gustavo Morastitla, a fellow 18-year-old, of Southampton, was close behind, in 16:00.74.

Rain, heavy at times — though it was to abate about two-thirds of the way through the 3.1-miler through Sag Harbor Village — resulted in fewer participants this year. Presumably because of the rain the turnout was about half the size of 2018’s.

The first road race of the season, the 5K benefits the Katy’s Courage foundation, which funds pediatric cancer research, scholarships at Pierson and East Hampton High Schools, and free Katy’s Kids sessions for grieving children at the Children’s Museum of the East End in Bridgehampton. The foundation is named in memory of Jim and Brigid Collins Stewart’s daughter, Katy, who died of a rare form of liver cancer at the age of 12 eight years ago.

The scholarships, the Stewarts have said, go “to students who exemplify remarkable courage, kindness, and empathy, as did Katy during her all too brief but exceptional lifetime.”

Ava Engstrom, Fowkes’s counterpart on East Hampton’s girls track team, won among the females, in 20:37.78. Ben Turnbull, the boys coach, had about 15 of his competitors with him; Yani Cuesta, the girls coach, about half as many. 

Speaking of the girls team, it won its first meet of the season last week, besting Wyandanch 98-40, and, on Friday, gave Miller Place a run for its money, losing 75-64.

Cuesta said in an email that given the fact that half of the team was missing because of a field trip to the city, she was happily surprised by the result.

Engstrom won the 1,500 that day, in 5:10.7. “It was an exciting race,” said Cuesta. “The girls were neck and neck coming around the last curve, but Ava pulled away in a sprint for the finish.”

Engstrom also anchored the winning 4-by-400 relay team, which included Penelope Greene, Bella Tarbet, and Ellie Borzilleri, and was the runner-up in the 800.

(Tarbet and Greene were also in the Katy’s Courage 5K, placing second and fourth among the females, in 20:58.80 and 21:15.17.)

East Hampton swept the 400 on Friday, with Charlotte Johnson, Marlena Bellucci, and Anissa Santiago. Lillie Minskoff won the 100 and was second in the 200; JiJi Kramer won the racewalk in a season-best 8:21.1, with Mimi Fowkes the runner-up; Tarbet won the 3,000 in a season-best 11:55.5; Tifany Gomez won the shot-put in 24 feet 2 inches, with Paige Schaefer second in a personal-best 22-8; Bella Espinoza won the pole vault, and Grace Brosnan was a runner-up in the high jump, at 4-8, and in the 100-meter high hurdles.

As for the Wyandanch meet, Jennifer Ortiz, in the triple jump, Brosnan, in the 100 hurdles, 400 hurdles, and high jump,  Engstrom, in the 1,500 and 800, Hanna Medler, in the 400, Minskoff, in the 100 and 200, and Tarbet, in the 3,000, were all winners.

Back to Katy’s Courage, the top 10 was rounded out by Ben Mac, 15, in 17:59.61; Colin Davis, 34, in 18:01.46; Evan Masi, 14, in 18:03.93; Amari Gordon, 15, in 18:18.87; Aiden Klarman, 15, in 18:20.33; Chris Husband, 49, in 18:59.54; Peter Schaefer, 16, in 19:02.05, and Daniel Dern, 53, in 19:07.65.

Sometimes, John Cossentino, whose seventh and eighth-grade girls basketball team at the Montauk School just finished an undefeated season, at 8-0, said, “the younger generation gets a bad reputation for their lack of focus, attention span, and work ethic,” but his charges, he went on to say in an email this week, gave the lie to that.

“This team,” he continued, “did the opposite of that every day, and in the end reminded us that there are still many young kids out there who work hard, listen, do their best, and support their teammates. The older generation will be in good hands when this generation takes over in the near future.”

The Mustangs, whose roster comprised eight eighth graders and eight seventh graders, got better and better as the season went along, the highlight being a 5-point win over Southampton, which fields strong junior high teams year in, year out.

Cossentino, who gave a lot of credit to his volunteer assistant, Chris Coleman, said he’d had undefeated teams before in his 24-year career — in 2000, 2005, and 2015, to be specific — but that “this team was certainly one of the best I’ve ever had.”

“I coached some of these kids for three years on a travel team at S.Y.S.,” said Coleman, who was asked by Cossentino to help out this season. “They’ve been a pleasure, they’re constantly improving, they’re great athletes, they’re very coachable.”

The Mustangs, he said, in reply to a question, had played an aggressive man-for-man defense all season, which yielded numerous turnovers. That man-for-man pressure, he thought, was the prime reason that the Montauk junior high girls had done so well.

As for the offense, “Baye Bogetti was our point guard,” said Cossentino. “Things ran through her. She’d get the ball into Isabella [DePasquale] on the foul line, and Isabella would take it from there.”

“We had no 3-point shooters,” said Coleman, presumably because none were necessary.

Jessica Prince, another eighth grader, had been particularly effective in shutting down the opposing team’s high-scorer, Cossentino said, adding that Chloe Coleman, Chris Coleman’s daughter and Bogetti’s fellow guard, “played great defense, saw the floor well, passed well, and made a lot of layups.”

The seventh graders pushed the eighth graders in practices, Coleman said — Katie Kuneth, Bogetti’s backup at point guard, and Gianna D’Agostino in particular.

Besides the aforementioned, the Mustangs’ roster comprised Yulissa Garces, Ella Miller, Ariana Estrella-Neat, and McKenzie Simons among the eighth graders, and Scarlett Flight, Ruby Tyrrell, Maise Noll, Gabrielle Payne, Sophia Frazier, and Maggie Nordlinger among the seventh graders.

While his eighth graders would be hard to replace, Cossentino said, he could take heart in the fact that his seventh graders will return, and in the group of sixth graders who are coming up.

It all bodes well, ultimately, for East Hampton High School’s varsity team, whose coach, Krista Cordone, was among the spectators at a Montauk-East Hampton game played last month at the East Hampton Middle School.

“There’s some special talent among the eighth graders, among the seventh graders too,” said Coleman. “Things are looking up for the varsity.”

At the end of the Mustangs’ finale with Center Moriches at the Montauk School, a game that Montauk won by a healthy margin, “they cut down the nets,” said J.R. Kuneth, Katie’s father. “Everybody got some twine. . . . Jack Perna hadn’t budgeted for that.”

Perna, Montauk’s longtime superintendent, laughed when asked if the budget could stand the hit. “If it couldn’t, I would have paid for new nets myself,” he said, adding that “cutting down the nets was kind of cool.”

“They’re all athletes, great sports, and they know what they’re doing. I’ve played basketball, but the first thing I looked to do on catching the ball was to get rid of it. These girls really know what they’re doing. John Cossentino and Chris Coleman have done a great job with them.”

Thursday, April 11

BOYS LACROSSE, South Fork Islanders vs. Middle Country, Newfield High School, Selden, 4 p.m.

Friday, April 12

BASEBALL, Westhampton Beach at East Hampton, 4:30 p.m.

GIRLS TRACK, Miller Place at East Hampton, 4:30 p.m.

GIRLS LACROSSE, East Hampton at Deer Park, 4 p.m.

Saturday, April 13

KATY’S COURAGE 5K, West Water Street, Sag Harbor, 8:30 a.m., registration, 7-8:15.

LITTLE LEAGUE, opening day, with ceremonies at noon and games at 10 a.m., 12:30, 2:30, and 4:30 p.m., Pantigo fields, East Hampton.

LIFEGUARDING, summer kick-off party, benefit Hampton Lifeguard Association’s nipper, junior lifeguard, and lifeguard training programs, Harbor Bistro, 313 Three Mile Harbor-Hog Creek Road, Springs, 7-11 p.m.

Sunday, April 14

YOUTH RUGBY, Section XI Warriors vs. Rockaway, Mattituck High School, 1 p.m.

Monday, April 15

SOFTBALL, Amityville at East Hampton, 4:30 p.m.

Tuesday, April 16

BOYS TRACK, East Hampton at Miller Place, 4:30 p.m.

GIRLS LACROSSE, East Hampton at Center Moriches, 4 p.m.

Wednesday, April 17

BASEBALL, Shoreham-Wading River at East Hampton, 4:30 p.m.

The East Hampton High School boys track team improved to 1-2 Monday with an 89-38 win here over Wyandanch, whose team numbered around a dozen vis-a-vis East Hampton’s 40 or so, albeit many of them freshmen.

The Bonackers, led by Matt Maya, who won three events — the 110-meter high hurdles, the long jump, and the high jump — and by Ryan Fowkes, who won the 800 and was an obliging runner-up in the 1,600, swept the high hurdles, placed first and second in the 1,600, and placed first and second in the 400 intermediate hurdles.

The boys also placed first and second in the shot-put and discus, placed second in the 100, placed second and third in the 400, placed first and third in the 800, placed second in the 200, placed first and third in the 3,200 and in the long and triple jumps, and won the 4-by-400 relay.

Besides Maya and Fowkes, other winners singled out by the team’s coach, Ben Turnbull, in a Tuesday morning email were Evan Masi, who won the 1,600, Colin Harrison, who won the discus, Devon Merrit, who won the triple jump, and Matthew DiSunno, who won the shot-put. 

The Section XI Warriors, a youth rugby team coached by Kevin Bunce and Mike Jablonski, both of whom used to play for the Montauk Rugby Club, routed Bishop Loughlin’s less experienced but no less athletic 15s side at the Warriors’ home field at Mattituck High School Sunday.

Made up of high school-age players, a number of them wrestlers, from throughout eastern Long Island, including three players from East Hampton — Kevin Bunce Jr., a back who was the best player on the pitch Sunday, Nick Lavelle, a bruising prop forward, and Nick Lombardo, the number-eight man — the Warriors, who are 2-0 in interscholastic play at the moment, face Rockaway in Mattituck this Sunday. 

Discussing the 65-29 win afterward, the elder Bunce, while acknowledging that Bishop Loughlin had “made a lot of progress” under its new coach, Aaron Bull, a flanker for Old Blue, observed that his and Jablonski’s charges were now playing “a passing and catching game,” while the visitors were playing “a running game.” In other words, trying to run through a whole team in rugby ordinarily won’t get you that far.

Bull, who is in his first year coaching at the 168-year-old Brooklyn Catholic school, where rugby was, he thought, the second most popular sport behind basketball, said afterward that there was work to do when it came to more fluidly executing the game’s various phases. 

“We’re not playing up to our ability yet — we need to pass more, support more, tackle better, and we need to have better line speed,” Bull said.

When Bishop Loughlin’s side does play up to its ability, watch out.

Meanwhile, as aforesaid, the Warriors were the dominant team on that sunny day, pushing forward, often with the 250-pound Lavelle leading the way in flying wedge fashion, from the get-go.

Kevin Bunce Jr., who is to play in an international youth 7s tournament in Orlando, Fla., next week, put the Warriors on the scoreboard with a 20-yard try six minutes into the fray. His points-after drop kick, taken from near the left sideline, bent just wide to the right, though he was to go on to make just about all of his conversion attempts thereafter.

Bishop Loughlin’s subsequent kickoff, which sailed through potential receivers’ hands, was retrieved by the visitors, who pushed toward the endline, with Sherlon Boothe, the hooker, capturing a Warrior fumble and touching the ball down just over the line moments later.

Three tries soon after, by Chris Vetter, Bunce, and Dylan Anderson, extended the Warriors’ margin to 21-5, and before the first half was over, Vetter and Anthony Senft had sandwiched two more scores around a 60-yard try by Bishop Loughlin’s Cyrus Blake, the outside center.

Bishop Loughlin’s athletic director, Angela Proce, said during halftime that students at the Fort Greene neighborhood school, which does not have football or wrestling — though there is lacrosse — had taken to rugby. “I was lucky I found him,” she said of Bull, who, as aforesaid, is in his first year of coaching. Bishop Loughlin, she said, began fielding a rugby team, 7s to begin with, two years ago.

The Lions, despite being a man down because of a collarbone injury that was to sideline Blake early in the second half, came roaring back when the second period began, on tries by Zach Sanchez and Blake, which narrowed the Warriors’ lead to 31-24 before the home team regained its footing and closed the rout out with a 29-5 run.

Bunce, Craig Jablonski, and Vetter finished with two tries each for the Warriors, and though he didn’t score, Rob Lechner, a forward from Mattituck, was a force to be reckoned with. Boothe, Blake, Andy Deslanses, and Sanchez were the Lions’ scorers.

The Warriors’ scoring aside, “We played good defense — our wrestlers were tackling nice and low,” said the elder Bunce. “That was the key. And we were rucking over the ball — our support was there — and when it came to passing, we were unselfish.”

Some of his and Jablonski’s charges could improve their stamina, he added. “These teams we play practice five times a week — we practice three days a week. So our guys have to do a little more on their own.”

An anticipated mandatory nonleague match between the Commack and East Hampton High School boys tennis teams was rained out Friday, and apparently won’t be rescheduled, though the two teams may meet in the county team tournament next month.

Kevin McConville, East Hampton’s coach, expects that Commack, which was 6-1 over all as of Monday, will get the top seed in that tourney, with 7-1 Hills East, which handed the Bonackers their sole loss of the season recently, at 5-2, getting the second seed, and East Hampton, which was 7-1 over all as of Monday, getting the third.

East Hampton pretty much assured itself of a second-straight league championship by winning 4-3 at Westhampton Beach last Thursday. The Bonackers had won 7-0 here, though it was a competitive 7-0 match. This time, said McConville, Westhampton’s coach “played it straight up. . . . His third and fourth singles players were at first doubles the last time.”

Josh Kaplan, the Hurricanes’ number-one, who had lost to Jonny De Groot in a third-set super tiebreaker at East Hampton, defeated De Groot 6-2, 6-2 this time, thus assuring himself, McConville said, of the top seed in the division individual tournament next month.

In other matches at Westhampton, Ravi MacGurn, at two, and Luke Louchheim, at three, won in straight sets, and the first and second doubles teams — Jaedon Glasstein and Alex Weseley and Brad Drubych and Matthew McGovern — won as well. Since Jamie Fairchild and Miles Clark were missing that day, McConville played “two subs,” John Jiminez and Jackson LaRose, at third doubles. They won the first set 6-2, but lost the next two by scores of 6-4 and 6-3. Max Astilean lost 6-3, 6-4 at fourth singles to Santo Benenati, who had played second singles the first time around.

McConville said he thought Westhampton’s coach figured Kaplan would win and that his doubles teams would sweep East Hampton’s in the teams’ first meeting.

As for De Groot, “he was broken in the first game of the first set after half-volleying a return hit at his feet deep to Kaplan’s backhand corner — just what we want. But then he missed two high volleys and let another go, only to see it land in the court.”

“I don’t mind him missing volleys, for that’s been our strategy with Josh — to chip returns to his backhand and come in, to dare him to make fantastic passing shots.” 

But unforced errors ultimately did in De Groot, who played on that day into the Westhampton baseliner’s hands.

A number of his players took a while to get in sync after the bus ride, McConville said. “Ravi was down 5-4 before coming back to win 7-6, 6-2 . . . first and second doubles lost their first sets before getting it together.”

As of Monday East Hampton had four regular-season matches left, with Shoreham-Wading River, Mattituck, Southampton, and Southold, teams it defeated handily in their initial meetings.

As of Monday, he said, Commack, Hills East, and East Hampton each had one loss.

Girls Track

Turning to girls track, Yani Cuesta, East Hampton’s coach, said her charges had done creditably in an 86-63 loss here to Sayville on April 3.

East Hampton’s winners included Grace Brosnan, in the 100-meter high hurdles; Mimi Fowkes, in the 1,500-meter racewalk; Bella Espinoza, in the pole vault; Helen Barranco, in the discus, and the 4-by-800 relay team of Bella Tarbet, Penelope Greene, Emma Hren, and Ava Engstrom.

As for the runners-up, Ashley Peters was second in the 100, in 13.5 seconds, a season best, and second in the 200, at 28.3, also a season best.  Engstrom was second in the 800 and 1,500 — her 1,500 time of 5 minutes and 10.2 seconds being a season best. Tarbet was second in the 3,000, in a season-best 12:30.5. 

JiJi Kramer was second in the racewalk; Borzilleri was second in the long jump, at 14-4; Jen Ortiz was second in the triple jump, with a hop, skip, and leap of 29 feet 111/2 inches; Brosnan was second in the high jump at 4-6, and Tifany Gomez was second in the shot-put, in 24-2, a personal record for her.

Third-place finishers included Lillie Minskoff, in the 100; Greene in the 800; Borzilleri in the 400 intermediate hurdles; Espinoza in the high jump; Barranco in the shot-put, and Elizabeth Camacho in the discus.

Concerning the 4-by-800 relay, Cuesta said, “Sayville was leading until Ava caught Sayville’s anchor coming around the curve of the last lap and pushed on for an exciting win.”

The Bonackers were to have vied at Wyandanch Monday, in a meet that Cuesta thought East Hampton would win.

The sixth, seventh, and eighth-grade girls in Theresa Roden’s ever-growing I-Tri (“transformation through triathlon”) program, who packed the East Hampton Middle School’s auditorium for a Mentoring Day Saturday afternoon, were urged by the day’s keynote speaker, the Rev. Tisha Williams, to “show up and shoot your shot . . . show them what you’re made of.”

Ms. Williams, who has a long list of “firsts” to her credit — the latest being her recent appointment last year as the first female pastor of the First Baptist Church in Bridgehampton — urged moreover that the I-Tri girls be good to themselves and continue to embrace challenges in all areas of life.

Reading from a letter she’d written to her 21-year-old self, in which she said “everything I am now I owe to the decisions you made” — decisions that resulted in successful modeling, acting, and entrepreneurial careers before turning to the ministry — she added that “the best is yet to come — I’ve not traveled through time to berate you or to tell you where you fell short. At this age you’re far too capable of criticizing yourself. I have come to tell you that I am proud of you and to thank you.”

In that regard, Reverend Williams challenged the young attendees from middle schools ranging from the William Floyd to the Montauk School Districts to write letters to their younger selves, and to send them to her. She would return them, she said, in a year.

Further, she told the I-Tri girls to say to themselves before they wrote those letters, “‘I am strong, I am smart, I am beautiful, I am in love with myself.’ Don’t turn to negativity. Say ‘I am strong, I am smart, I am beautiful, I am in love with myself’ for 30 days and you’ll believe it.”

Tiffanie Wyche, an East Hampton High School senior and I-Tri alum who also spoke that afternoon, told her successors that I-Tri had taught her “how to love and appreciate myself, and to be a light in the world. In I-Tri we not only build our muscles so that we can run, bike, and swim, but we also build relationships with our coaches and the other girls, and learn to trust and to accept one another. We become a family! We face fear and overcome it one step, one stroke, one pedal, and one hug at a time.”

Because of a difficult family history while growing up, she had “had a hard time trusting people and letting anyone really get to know the real me. I also struggled with insecurity and never felt that I was good enough, or pretty enough, or smart enough. That all changed when I joined I-Tri. . . .”

Tiffanie said, to loud applause, that she’d been “accepted into the Springs Fire Department in the fall, and I am presently training to be a firefighter and an E.M.T. I will be the youngest female firefighter/E.M.T. in Springs history.”

One of I-Tri’s 40 mentors that day, Lori King, who has a Catalina Channel crossing among her impressive long-distance swimming credits, said afterward in an email, “It was a mentoring day for the girls, but I think they, in turn, reminded us of the roles we the mentors should play in helping to shape the next generation of strong, caring, independent women.” 

“What Theresa has created in I-Tri is a hug. With open arms outstretched these girls say, ‘It’s okay — you can be you, we want to see you and we’ll help you.’ They’re providing that safe haven that every young girl needs to dim her insecurities so that her authentic self can shine through — so that, with the love and support of others, she can go on to achieve amazing things.”

March 17, 1994

Bobby Hopson, the Bridgehampton School’s all-time scoring leader, recently capped a dazzling four-year career at Wagner College, scoring 19 points — and thus raising his career total to 1,568, good for fifth place on the Staten Island college’s all-time list — in a Northeast Conference semifinal-round loss to Rider College, the eventual champion. It was the third time this season that Rider, an 83-75 winner, had defeated Wagner.

In the six Northeast Conference tournament games played in his career, Hopson, a 5-foot-10-inch shooting guard, averaged 24 points per game, shot 53.5 percent from the field, and netted an amazing 60.6 percent of his 3-point attempts.

. . . In the Rider-Wagner conference final last year, ESPN announcers raved about Hopson and his opposite number, Darrick Suber, who’s now playing professionally in New Zealand. 

—

Bob Wolff, a sports anchor on Channel 12, exhorted attendees at Monday’s Athletic Leaders Club seminar at East Hampton High School to follow the Golden Rule, and to remember that in the end “it’s not so much the glory, the accolades, or the money, but what sort of person you were. . . . Success, he said, required “more perspiration than inspiration,” adding that “a pat on the back is a lot more effective than a kick in the pants,” and that “the only race you should care about is the human race.”

March 24, 1994

The East Hampton 9-and-10-year-old Biddy basketball team added the Sag Harbor invitational tournament championship to its laurels Saturday, going 4-0 during the course of the day and edging its Harbor peers 41-40 in the final.

It was the third time this season the young Bonackers, who finished the season at 12-0, prevailed over the Harbor Biddies. All of the games were nip-and-tuck.

. . . In the end, it was Marcele Street who carried the mail for East Hampton. Held to only 3 points in the first half, Street scored 13 in the second half — 6 of them in crunch time. Street’s big baskets at the end — and the fact that Eric Thompson, Sag Harbor’s center and the tallest kid on the floor, fouled out with four minutes remaining — served to tilt the game East Hampton’s way.

. . . “I don’t think there’s a better 9-10 team than East Hampton in the county,” said Tom Mac, the Harbor Biddies’ coach. “Both towns are on the ball now — we’ve got good programs again.”

—

Andy Levandoski drew a crowd at the East Hampton Bowl on March 15 as word got around that the veteran bowler was flirting with a perfect 300 game.

Actually, Levandoski, who is with the Van Dyke & Hand team, a middle-of-the-pack entry in the Tuesday businessmen’s league, wasn’t flirting — he was in hot pursuit. And he would have made it had he not been “rapped” in the 12th frame by the 10-pin.

“Andy’s last ball was a good one,” said Steve Graham, one of about 30 onlookers. “Ordinarily, the three-pin will take out the six, and the six will take the 10, but this time the six went wide. When that happens, it’s called a ‘rap.’ ”

Levandoski’s 299 is apparently the first 299 at the Bowl since the late John Vinski did it some 30 years ago. It was Levandoski’s personal best in a lifetime of bowling that began, he said, when he was 8.

Jon Reed in an email this week said that league play is about to get underway at the Montauk Downs golf course. A Wednesday morning men’s league is to begin this week; three women’s leagues are to begin early in June.

Playing in leagues, Reed said, “is a great way to meet new friends — weekly matches are arranged by the pro shop, and the format changes every week. Low gross and low net prizes will be awarded. There will also be inter-club play, home and away, and league participants will get discounts on carts, range balls, and lessons.”

Play in the men’s league — the registration fee is $175, $200 if handicapping service is required — is to begin Wednesday, at 11 a.m., and is to continue through Nov. 13. “A shortened four-month membership is available for $125 with no handicap service.”

Registration fees for the 18-hole, 9-hole, and 2x9-hole women’s leagues range from $125 to $150.

The East Hampton High School boys tennis team, as strong a one as East Hampton has had in recent memory, dropped a 5-2 decision to Half Hollow Hills East, a nonleague opponent, here on March 27, but the Bonackers, a number of whom were admittedly off that day, may get a chance to avenge themselves in the countywide team tournament in May.

Jonny De Groot, a Bridgehampton senior who has all the shots and a big serve, won at first singles, defeating Ishen Varma 6-2, 6-3. Luke Louchheim, East Hampton’s number-three, a Pierson freshman, also won, by scores of 7-5, 6-4. Ravi MacGurn, an East Hampton senior who plays two, lost 6-4, 6-1 to Hills East’s Michael Han, and Max Astilean, an eighth grader, lost at four, 6-4, 6-3.

Regarding De Groot, Kevin McConville, the coach, said, “I’m working with him on hitting his serve wide to both the deuce and ad courts. Because of his high-kicking serve, everyone’s been playing eight to 10 feet behind the baseline. If he can angle his serves wide, the whole court will be open for him.”

The doubles teams were swept by Hills East’s teams, though Bonac’s second and third duos — Jamie Fairchild and Brad Drubych and Matthew McGovern and Miles Clark — kept it close.

During a conversation over the weekend, McConville said he thought that his second and third doubles teams would prevail, “but four of our six kids had bad days,” a critique, he added, that was not gainsaid.

“There was a big buildup to this match” with one of the county’s strongest teams, “and the kids were too excited,” said the coach. “There were a lot of double faults and blown shots.”

On the other hand, McGovern, a sophomore who last year was the recipient of McConville’s “most improved” award, came in for praise. “He’s been our most improved player this season too, by far. He’s grown two or three inches and is the best poacher we have.”

Asked if he’d been telling his other doubles players to watch him, McConville said, “I have.”

Drubych, a Pierson senior, has also been playing well, which has got McConville thinking of pairing McGovern with Drubych, who also is a good poacher, soon. As for first doubles, Alex Weseley, a Pierson senior who missed East Hampton’s first three matches, was, not unexpectedly, “really rusty.” He and Jaedon Glasstein lost 6-2, 6-4 that day.

Drubych and Fairchild lost 3-6, 6-1, 6-4, and, at third doubles, which McConville thought would be the deciding point, McGovern and Miles Clark lost 6-4, 7-5.

Given the interchangeability of his doubles players, he might continue to mix and match in an attempt to arrive at the most compatible combinations, McConville said. “Matt and Brad ought to be good together — I think they would go undefeated at two or three. . . . I might put Alex and James at either two or three. I may throw someone else in with Jaedon. . . .”

His strategy for MacGurn, who covers the court well “and doesn’t make a lot of unforced errors,” was to extend the rallies with Han, who, McConville said, “had the best backhand I’ve seen, and his forehand wasn’t bad either. Our plan was to grind it out. . . . I think he was Hills East’s toughest player.”

Louchheim, said the coach, “went down 1-4 in the first set, but adjusted to a more aggressive game, playing the ball to the other kid’s backhand at every opportunity, and turned it around. I’m so proud of him.”

At four, “Max made a lot of unforced errors against a solid kid.”

Of course there was good news too last week inasmuch as East Hampton, whose League VII record stood at 4-0 as of Monday, bageled Southampton and Mattituck in league matches. The Bonackers lost only one game in singles versus the Mariners last Thursday, and the doubles teams all won in straight sets.

Only De Groot had to go all the way in the match on March 26 with Mattituck, prevailing 10-3 in a deciding super tiebreaker after losing the second set 7-6.

Looking ahead to the postseason, McConville said, “There are five or six teams who can beat each other. Harborfields beat Hills East 4-3, Hills West beat Harborfields, Hills East beat Commack 4-3. . . . Of course you never know just from the scores who might have been absent on a given day or what the individual match scores were. But, countywide, it seems pretty even.”

Commack is to play a mandatory nonleaguer here tomorrow, another big match for the Bonackers, who will be without the services of Fairchild.

Today, East Hampton is to play at Westhampton Beach. East Hampton defeated the Hurricanes 7-0 in their first meeting, though it wasn’t a blowout as some of the matches have been.

McConville said he still thinks Hills East and Commack are the class of Suffolk County, “Hills West too, though they’re not the juggernauts they used to be.”