On the heels of its first-ever League II championship, the East Hampton boys swimming team took second place out of 28 schools at the county championship meet at Suffolk Community College in Brentwood on Saturday. 

Craig Brierley, Bonac’s coach, called it “the team’s best finish ever” in the competition, adding that the boys “again posted many best times. A very impressive feat given that there were so many best times two weeks ago at the league championships.”

“In the first event,” Brierley wrote in an account of the meet, “the 200 medley relay, the boys dropped three seconds from their best time to take fourth place, showing that they were ready to compete with the best in the county.”

Among the events that followed, “Ethan McCormac earned county champion in both of his individual events, the 50 and 100 free. Ethan also led off the 200 free relay” — with Owen McCormac, Aidan Forst, and Ryan Duryea — “that went a season-best time, took first place (county champions), and finished under the state qualifying time.”

“At the conclusion of the meet,” the coach continued, “we finished with 205 points to Half Hollow Hills’ 402.5,” that team taking its 13th county title in a row. East Hampton finished 28.5 points ahead of third-place Connetquot, which had 176.5. 

As for the swimmer of the meet, this time it was up to Brierley and his assistant, Brian Cunningham, and the honor went to Ryan Duryea, a senior from Pierson. “Ryan was slated to swim the 50 free three times, first in the medley relay, next in the individual event, and then as the anchor in the 200 free relay,” Brierley said. “All prior to his signature event, the 100 breaststroke. Racing the 50 free once is enough of a physical and mental challenge,” but Duryea clocked “a best time in all three. . . . When it came to his 100 breast event, he really had to dig deep and push himself as he swam to a fourth personal best time in the meet, displaying a fantastic display of mental and physical toughness. All season Ryan has been a huge asset to the team with his leadership and versatility to contribute in any event.” 

Among the other best times from the county meet were Joey Badilla in the 100-meter backstroke, Thor Botero in the 50 freestyle, Colin Harrison in the 50 freestyle and 100 butterfly, Tenzin Tamang and Nicky Badilla in the 100 butterfly, Owen McCormac and Fernando Menjura in the 100 free, and Aidan Forst in his 50-meter leg in the 200-meter freestyle relay.

And the season isn’t over, as next up is the state championship meet on March 1 and 2 at the Nassau County Aquatics Center in East Meadow, where Ethan McCormac will swim the 100 and 200-meter freestyle events and join Ryan Duryea, Aidan Forst, and Owen McCormac in the 200 freestyle relay.

It is fitting that Annemarie Cangiolosi Brown is now East Hampton High’s softball coach inasmuch as the dugouts, built by her father and her brothers, Phil and Paul, were dedicated to her grandmother, the late Molly Cangiolosi, who started the push for Title IX here years ago.

On learning that she had been named as the new coach — the job had been hers from the get-go, Joe Vas, East Hampton’s A.D., said, though when first tapped she demurred because she had an infant to take care of — she called her father, Phil Sr., and asked him to come to the field.

“I didn’t tell him why — I think he thought somebody had sprayed graffiti in the dugouts. He  was kind of mad when he got there. I asked him when the last time was that he was there. He said not for a long time. ‘I think you’ll be coming up a lot now,’ I said.”

“ ‘Why?’ he said. So I told him. We had a little moment; we were both tearing up . . . I was carrying on the tradition.”

Her grandmother, she said, had coached “all the sports, for $100, and was always pushing for more.” Upon her death, in the new coach’s senior year, the interviewee became the first recipient of the Molly Cangiolosi outstanding senior athlete award, which was funded by her family and friends. It is given each year to an East Hampton senior aiming to become a physical education teacher.

Brown, who still holds pitching records at the State University at Cortland, a 1.33 career earned run average among them, was a protégée of Lou Reale, one of the state’s winningest high school softball coaches, who lives now, with his wife, Ginny, in the Orlando, Fla., area.

“Reale started here when I was a freshman. I thought he was a great coach. He taught us how to be dedicated and hard-working, and taught us life lessons. The people we are today,” she said of a group including Melanie Anderson and Mylan Le Eckardt, teammates of hers on Coach Reale’s inaugural team, which went 22-2, “is because of things he did for us. . . . I had a photo taken of all the coaches at a recent Sunday workout and sent it to him. He’s proud of all of us.”

Yes, she said, in answer to a question, “Reale Ball will be back! I want to rebuild the program back to where it was, beginning with Little League and travel leagues.”

Reale was a stickler for form, for doing things the right way when it came to hitting, bunting, fielding, throwing, pitching, catching, base-running. . . . His teams played heads-up ball, “Every Pitch, Every Inning.”

For example, Brown said, “the wrist snap for an overhand throw is a little thing, but so important. If you don’t snap the ball correctly you’re risking an error, which might lose the game. . . . We’ve been breaking down the grips, the throws, and we’ve done the same with hitting. We’ve been doing a lot of hitting. . . . We break down the swing with every kid. We work with all of them from the ground up.”

Brown, Anderson, who will assist her in coaching the team, and Eckardt, who will volunteer her help, not to mention the junior varsity coach, Nicole Fierro, all played in the National Collegiate Athletic Association’s World Series — Brown, as aforesaid, for SUNY Cortland, Anderson and Eckardt for Bloomsburg University, and Fierro for C.W. Post. All are in East Hampton High’s Hall of Fame as well.

Brown, who is in her 16th year of teaching here, said she still goes back to Cortland, to “help with winter clinics. My daughter, Lilah, who’s in fourth grade, goes too. I was the pitching coach last February. I taught Lilah how to pitch last spring. She pitches with full motion, as I do. . . . We’ve got a lot of good young pitchers here. Once I knew I was going to be the coach I helped out last spring with the Little League all-star traveling teams.”

Brown and her fellow coaches, who also include John King of Springs, Chris Merkert, Beth Crowley, and Erin Abran, who is another former Bonac teammate of Brown’s who played in college, will constitute a formidable array.

East Hampton’s field, Reale’s creation largely, is one of the best in the county, if not the best. Recently, the baseball field got a turf infield, though Brown said she preferred a skinned infield “because there’s a lot of bunting, a lot of leaning and sliding. We didn’t want grass or turf on the infield. They’ve resodded the outfield, though, and put in new irrigation. My freshman year, there were just two metal benches and a little backstop. When the boys got their dugouts, my dad, who’s a mason, said he would build dugouts for the girls. Jill Kampf’s dad, Billy, did the carpentry.”

Asked if she, as Reale used to do, would drag the infield, Brown said, with a smile, “Mel has her own landscaping company. She might do it.” Reale called Anderson the best hitter he’d ever seen, male or female.

Coach Reale, she said, “had a terrific run. We’re aiming to get back there. It will take some time, but definitely we’ll be there.”

When Brown’s Sunday afternoon workouts at the high school’s gym began a few weeks ago, 40 seventh through 12th graders turned out. 

“My goal,” she said in parting, “is to build a program from Little League all the way to the top with the same drills. I’d like to collaborate with the middle schools, with Montauk, Springs, and East Hampton. It won’t just be, you know, the varsity softball team. It will be East Hampton softball. We’re all a team, all going for the same goal.” 

“Lou knows we can pass on the knowledge. He told us,” she said, looking down and reading from her cellphone, “the kids couldn’t be in better hands. He told us, ‘You guys will do a great job. I couldn’t be more proud.’ ”

Friday, February 15

GIRLS BASKETBALL, county Class C-D game, Centereach High School, 4:30 p.m.

Wednesday, February 20

GIRLS BASKETBALL, county B-C-D game, Centereach High School, 4:30 p.m.

February 3, 1994

The explosion was inevitable. Pierson High School’s Tyler Ratcliffe, the third-leading scorer in Suffolk last season, had emerged from a shooting slump in a big way over the past three weeks. But his hot shooting then was, it turned out, only a prelude to what was to come Tuesday against Shelter Island.

Playing his next-to-last game on the Whalers’ home court, Ratcliffe turned in one of the most memorable games in Pierson history, notching 46 points in little more than three quarters to lead his team to a 107-62 slaughter of Shelter Island.

The point total was the second highest in the county this year; the last Whaler to break the 40-point barrier was Dawson Giles, who canned 40 against Hampton Bays in 1974.

Credit the left-hander, who canned 18 of his 22 field goal attempts, all six free throws, and all four 3-point attempts. Credit also his unselfish teammates, who repeatedly set their high-scoring teammate up with breathtaking passes as Pierson ripped off fast break after fast break.

The most amazing thing about Ratcliffe’s outburst was how effortlessly it came. He didn’t force a single shot — in fact, Ratcliffe dished off a team-high eight assists and also logged a game-high seven steals. The fact was, every thing he threw up went in — the youngster might have easily set several more marks had he not been pulled from the game on two occasions.

February 10, 1994

Motorists on the Long Island Expressway one day last month might have thought it strange to see a Schaefer school bus rumbling toward La Guardia Airport with a dozen — mostly oversized, 30-to-50-something — happy campers as passengers, headed for a ski trip to Jackson Hole, Wyo.

. . . Abilities ranged from beginner to advanced, East Hampton Village Police Sergeant Mike Tracey said on the group’s return. “We range from being in fair shape to . . . abysmal, I think that’s the word,” said Sergeant Tracey. “Some of us are carrying a lot of extra baggage.”

“Some of us,” Scott Elley, a village police dispatcher, said. 

“He has an eating disorder,” Sergeant Tracey jabbed back, adding that “we all sat on the same side of the plane, which created a strain on the suspension. . . . When we were on the runway, Ken Brown leaned forward and asked one of the passengers how many minutes it had been since they had de-iced the wings. He likes to keep people loose.”

Jackson Hole was more to their liking, with its laid-back western flavor, than Vail, where the group went last year. “The glamorous crowd goes there,” said Sergeant Tracey.

“Women in mink coats, fancy shops,” said Elley. “It was more like here . . . more trendy.”

“And we are not exactly the trendy set,” said Sergeant Tracey.

. . . “It’s so vast out there,” Elley said. “I didn’t realize there was so much open space still left in America. One day, we took a snowmobile trip 100 miles north to Yellowstone. We saw a bald eagle, elk, buffalo, coyotes. . . . It was incredible, the scenery and wildlife. Yellowstone’s mobbed in the summer, so it was a good time to go.”

Friday, February 22

GIRLS BASKETBALL, county small schools championship game, Walt Whitman High School, Huntington Station, 4:30 p.m.

Saturday, February 23

WINTER TRACK, East Hampton at St. Anthony High School’s Long

Island Elite Meet, South Huntington, 3 p.m.

Sunday, February 24

BOYS BASKETBALL, county small schools championship game, 

Farmingdale State College, noon.

Monday, February 25

WRESTLING, junior high, Hampton Bays, Center Moriches, and 

Mattituck at East Hampton Middle School, 4:30 p.m.

Wednesday, February 27

GIRLS BASKETBALL, overall county championship game, Walt 

Whitman High School, Huntington Station, 4:30 p.m.

Wednesday, February 27

BOYS BASKETBALL, overall county championship game, Walt 

Whitman High School, Huntington Station, 7:30 p.m.

A meeting of parents living in the Sag Harbor, Southampton, East Hampton, and Bridgehampton School Districts, including Ross School parents, was to have been held at Pierson High School in Sag Harbor last night to discuss the future of football on the South Fork.

“There’s a lot that needs to be talked about — a lot of schools on the East End are in trouble when it comes to [football] numbers,” Joe Vas, East Hampton’s athletic director, said during a brief conversation at Saturday’s basketball games here. “The school officials from all these districts — the athletic directors, the school boards, the superintendents, and other administrators — met last week. Now we want to hear from the parents.”

East Hampton, whose program has been on again, off again for some years now, asked not long ago if it could combine with Southampton in football, but was turned down by that district’s school board. Vas said he had reason to think Southampton’s present board might be more receptive to the idea. 

“We’re already combined when it comes to youth football, P.A.L. football,” he said.

When asked following Saturday’s easy home win over Westhampton Beach, a game in which East Hampton High’s boys basketball team knocked down nine 3-pointers, if the Bonackers weren’t leading the county in 3s, Dan White, East Hampton’s coach, said he wasn’t sure, but that the team was probably the county’s worst rebounding team.

Actually, White’s charges, who smothered the Hurricanes with an energetic full-court man press in the first half, rebounded quite well that day, with Christian Johnson, Malachi Miller, Turner Foster, Max Proctor, and Jeremy Vizcaino all doing their part in the continued absence of the 6-foot-3-inch Bladimir Rodriguez Garces, who, owing to a foot injury sustained early in the season, is out for the rest of it. 

A 3-pointer by Max Proctor got the home team off on the right foot, and one by Vizcaino soon after made it 6-0. By the end of the first quarter it was 11-4, and by the end of the second, during which Foster and Vizcaino each hit two 3s and Miller one from beyond the arc, it was 33-15.

And so it went, though White called off the dogs in the second half, dropping back into a 2-3 zone. Even so, East Hampton continued to extend the margin. As the fourth quarter began, with the Bonackers leading by 26, Westhampton’s coach was heard to exclaim, “This is the most embarrassing game we’ve played all year.”

White substituted freely in the fourth, with Liam Leach leading the way offensively, with 8 points, including two 3s. The final was East Hampton 58, Westhampton Beach 26, the Hurricanes having scored their 20th point by way of a Riley MacDonald foul shot with four and a half minutes remaining to play.

“We played well . . . we rebounded consistently and took charge early,” White said afterward, adding that “we’re 5-7 now. We have to win three of our last four [versus Sayville, Mount Sinai, Wyandanch, and Amityville] to make the playoffs, which is doable. It would be a big accomplishment if we do.”

Earlier in the week, Miller Place, a tall, solid team that East Hampton was hoping to best — having been trounced by 34 at the Panthers’ gym earlier in the season, “the worst game we’ve played,” according to White — defeated the Bonackers 70-59.

It was a 7-point game with about three minutes to go, after Miller, with Foster getting the assist, drained a 3 for 64-57, but it was not to be as the visitors made two free throws and capped two fast breaks, one following a turnover, while the Bonackers, outscored 6-2 going down the stretch, came up empty twice from 3-point range and once in traffic. East Hampton finished with 11 3-pointers — five by Miller, three by Foster, two by Vizcaino, and one by Proctor.

As of Monday, Miller Place led League V at 11-2, with Mount Sinai at 9-2, Wyandanch at 9-2, Amityville at 8-5, and Sayville at 7-5, after which came East Hampton at 5-7, Bayport-Blue Point at 3-9, Shoreham-Wading River at 1-11, and Westhampton Beach at 1-11.

East Hampton was to have played at Sayville Monday, and was to be at home to Mount Sinai yesterday, is to be home to Wyandanch tomorrow, at 6:15 p.m., and is to finish up here Monday with Amityville, also at 6:15. 

The girls also played here Saturday, beginning at 10 a.m., with Miller Place, and though they wound up losing 66-37, it was a season-high point total for Krista Brooks’steam, which, she said, was missing four players that day.

“We played really well — the girls worked hard,” the coach said. “They were executing their plays . . . over all, they did a great job.”

Five games remained, Brooks said, with Amityville (4-8), Wyandanch (1-13), Shoreham-Wading River (7-7), Mount Sinai (10-3), and Bayport-Blue Point (9-5). 

Paige Cardone, Brooks’s daughter, led East Hampton Saturday with 13 points, a season-high, and Kailey Marmeno had 9, also a season-high.

Thursday, February 7

GIRLS BASKETBALL, East Hampton faculty-alumnae game, East Hampton High School, 4 p.m., and Mattituck at Pierson, Sag Harbor, 6:15 p.m.

Saturday, February 9

BOYS SWIMMING, East Hampton at Suffolk County championship meet, Suffolk Community College-Brentwood, 10 a.m.

Sunday, February 10

SKATING, Katy’s Courage fund-raiser, with raffles, puck throw contest, recital, skate-a-thon, and hockey game, Buckskill Winter Club, Buckskill Road, East Hampton, from 12:15 p.m., rain date Feb. 17.

Monday, February 11

BOYS BASKETBALL, county Class C playoffs, first-round game, third seed at second seed, 5 p.m.

WINTER TRACK, state qualifier meet, Suffolk Community College-Brentwood, 5 p.m.

Tuesday, February 12

BOYS BASKETBALL, county Class D championship game, 5:30 p.m., and county Class C championship game, 7:30, Center Moriches High School.

Before Monday’s showdown between Shelter Island and Bridgehampton at the Beehive, the Hardings, father and son, stood side by side for photos with the son’s 1,000th-point ball, and not long afterward the Killer Bees’ high-scorer put on a show, to the delight of his father and a gym largely packed with the Bridgehampton High School boys basketball team’s fans.

(The Hardings are the only father-son duo to have been 1,000-point scorers at Bridgehampton in the school’s hoop history. Asked during the game how many points he had scored, the senior J.P. Harding said, “Twelve-something . . . he’s probably passed me now.”)

The Bees not long ago had lost 65-62 on The Rock, but this time Ron White’s team rocked Shelter Island 78-61.

A 50-foot, three-quarter-court heave by Elijah White that banked in off the backboard fronting the stage as the first quarter ended set the stage for the rout. 

When it was over, Max Spooner, White’s assistant, said J.P. Harding had scored 34 points and, even more impressive, had 30 rebounds — an extraordinary performance, even by Killer Bee standards. In brief, the Bees, whose swarming defense didn’t give the visitors a chance to breathe that night, came to play.

Naejon Ward, the junior point guard, whose layups curl their way nicely into the basket, finished with 11 points and 10 assists; White, with 16 points, 4 rebounds, and 8 assists, and Johnny De Groot (who because of an injury had not played in the teams’ first game), with 10 points and 10 rebounds.

Bridgehampton and Shelter Island will meet again — in the county Class D championship game at Center Moriches High School Tuesday at 7:30 p.m. 

“We’re locked and loaded, but Shelter Island’s a scrappy team and I respect their coach,” Jay Card Jr., said White, who added that “we’ve got to play to win rather than play not to lose.”

Alas, there will be no playoffs for East Hampton’s Bonackers, who went down fighting in a loss to Wyandanch here this past week. 

It was a 4-point game with a little over a minute to go, after Turner Foster hit a 3-pointer, but the visitors, whose Dionte Jordan (45 points) was unstoppable, kicked the lead back up to 10 in the ensuing moments on the way to the 99-93 win.

Rebounding, as it has been all season, proved to be the Bonackers’ sore point.

As for Jordan, “We played four different defenses against him,” but to no avail, said East Hampton’s coach, Dan White. “He’s long, fast, and has a good handle, very impressive. I think Wyandanch is the best team in our league right now.”

Christian Johnson, East Hampton’s strongest rebounder, led the team with a career-high 33 points; Foster had 23, 14 of them coming in the fourth quarter; Jeremy Vizcaino, whose buzzer-beating layup bested Mount Sinai 56-55 here on Jan. 30, had 16, and Malachi Miller 13.

East Hampton lost 76-52 to Amityville here Monday to finish the league season at 6-10.

Like the Killer Bees, Pierson’s girls, a Class C team, are also headed to the playoffs. They improved their league-leading record to 14-0 (and extended their winning streak to 15) by virtue of a 64-34 win over Smithtown Christian in the Whalers’ gym Saturday afternoon.

Katie Kneeland finished with a game-high 27 points, and Chastin Giles, the team’s quick, pinpoint-passing point guard, with 22.

“Defense has been the key for us all year, but our offense has come around the past few weeks,” Kevin Barron, Pierson’s coach, said afterward.

As for the playoffs, Barron’s charges won’t have to play for a county classification title, there being no opposition. Last year, he said in reply to a question, “We lost to Stony Brook [which no longer plays in Section XI] in the first round . . . kind of an upset.”

For the first time since the program began here in 2010, an East Hampton High School boys swimming team is a two-time champion, not only in the regular season, which it sailed through at 7-0 (9-0), but also in the postseason League II meet, which took place last Thursday at Suffolk Community College-Brentwood.

Usually diving has proved to be the stumbling block at the league championship meet — East Hampton has no divers — but not this year. The second-place team, Hauppauge, won 27 points in diving and still trailed the Bonackers 298-277 at the end.

East Hampton’s superior depth was in evidence the entire way, with three swimmers scoring in the 200-yard individual medley, the 50 freestyle, the 100 butterfly, the 100 free, and in the 100 backstroke.

The tipping point, East Hampton’s coach, Craig Brierley, said, came midway through the 12-event competition, after Hauppauge, as aforesaid, had earned 27 points in diving to take the lead at 121-117.

“The boys were actually very encouraged by this,” Brierley said in an emailed account, “though they knew they had a lot of hard work ahead of them to outscore a talented Hauppauge team. . . . In the next event, the 100 butterfly, Colin Harrison, Nicky Badilla, and Kevin Pineda took fourth, fifth, and eighth [the top 12 in each event were scored] to put us up 143-135. From that point on, we never trailed again. In the end, our boys put up 18 lifetime personal best times, and if an athlete didn’t do a best time he was very close to it.”

“The boys really demonstrated what their training prepares them to do,” Brierley continued. “Which is to compete with fire in their hearts . . . they reach for the greatest heights together. . . . It was a wonderful experience, and Coach Brian [Cunningham] and I are 

so happy for the boys and the program.”

East Hampton, as aforesaid, won the meet with 298 points, followed by Hauppauge (277), Sayville-Bayport-Blue Point (236), Northport (190), West Islip (138), Deer Park (92), North Babylon (67), and Lindenhurst (36).

Ethan McCormac, who has qualified for the state meet in four events, won the 200-yard freestyle, won the 100-yard free, and anchored the winning 200 free relay team that included Ryan Duryea, Harrison, and Owen McCormac. Ethan McCormac also anchored East Hampton’s second-place 400 free relay team, which included Fernando Menjura, Edward Hoff, and Aidan Forst.

Other runners-up were Joey Badilla, in the 100 backstroke, and Ryan Duryea, in the 100 breaststroke.

Third-place finishers were the 200 medley relay team of Joey Badilla, Jack Duryea, Harrison, and Owen McCormac; Ryan Duryea in the 200 individual medley, and Owen McCormac in the 50 free.

East Hampton’s depth was particularly evident in the 200 individual medley, with Ryan Duryea placing third, Joey Badilla fifth, and Tenzin Tamang ninth; in the 50 free, with Owen McCormac third, Harrison fourth, and Thor Botero sixth; in the aforementioned 100 butterfly, with Harrison fourth, Nicky Badilla fifth, and Pineda eighth; in the 100 free, with Ethan McCormac first, Hoff fourth, and Jack Duryea sixth, and in the 100 back, with Joey Badilla second, Ryan Bahel sixth, and Luke Tyrell ninth.

Tyrell, a senior, was to share swimmer of the meet honors afterward for having made the county cut in the backstroke, a goal he’d pursued for two seasons. 

“When, in his final attempt of the season, Luke touched the wall under the qualifying time, his teammates roared because they knew how hard he had worked for it,” Coach Brierley said.

Forst too was named swimmer of the meet by the captains for having contributed 56 points as the result of his season-best leg in the 200 free relay, his fifth-place finish in the 500 free, and his lifetime-best leg in the 400 free relay.

Besides Tyrell, Menjura, a Pierson sophomore, also recorded a county-qualifying time in the 100 freestyle, leading off the 400 free relay with a 52.78 leg.

Brierley and Cunningham are to take 14 members of their 31-man squad to the county meet this Saturday at Suffolk Community College-Brentwood. The group, which comprises Ethan McCormac, Forst, Hoff, Ryan Duryea, Joey Badilla, Botero, Harrison, Owen McCormac, Nicky Badilla, Tamang, Jack Duryea, Menjura, Ryan Bahel, and Tyrell, will compete in all the swimming events.