It’s hard to believe, but the 118th U.S. Open golf championship, to be held at the iconic Shinnecock Hills Golf Club in Southampton, is less than two months away.

Despite the cold weather this spring, the United States Golf Association is ready to handle the event, which takes place from June 11 through 17. A number of hospitality and concession tents are already up on the historic grounds along Montauk Highway.

“We are incredibly pleased to return once again to Shinnecock,” Mike Davis, the U.S.G.A.’s chief executive officer, said at a press conference in Manhattan on April 11. “Shinnecock is one of the world’s finest courses and has such a rich tradition. It will again be a great event.”

The U.S.G.A. announced that day the introduction of a Celebration of Champions at Shinnecock — a four-hole public exhibition honoring the winners of all 2017 U.S.G.A. championships and celebrating their distinguished achievements in the sport.

The exhibition, to be played on June 12, two days before the start of the first round, is to honor all the U.S.G.A. winners of the year past, be they professionals, amateurs, men, women, juniors, or seniors. 

“Our championships are open to all players who have the dream and desire to compete at the highest level,” said Davis. “We believe hosting the inaugural Celebration of Champions at the 118th U.S. Open is a fitting way to celebrate each champion’s incredible achievement and acknowledge their place in golf history.” 

Eight-time U.S.G.A. champion Jack Nicklaus, as the official starter, will help launch the inaugural festivities in what will become an annual tradition.

“I’ve always loved U.S.G.A. championships,” Nicklaus, who has won them in five different decades, said in a statement. “Since I was a junior they have always been the ultimate examinations of a golfer. I always felt that the U.S.G.A. did the best job of preparing a golf course that will completely test you and every part of your game. And for me personally, to be able to compete for a championship of the country I live in made a victory that much more meaningful.”

The 2018 championship will be the fifth U.S. Open the club has held. It’s the only venue to play host to the championship in three centuries. The second U.S. Open was played at Shinnecock in 1896. James Foulis won it by three strokes that year over Horace Rawlins.

In 1986, Raymond Floyd, who was later to buy a house in Southampton and become a member of Shinnecock Hills, shot a final-round 66 to win by two strokes over Chip Beck and Lanny Wadkins. In 1995, Corey Pavin clinched a two-stroke victory over Greg Norman with a memorable 4-wood approach to the final green. And in 2004, Retief Goosen outlasted Phil Mickelson by two strokes to claim his second U.S. Open title.

Shinnecock Hills opened in 1891, and the present course, opened in 1931, was designed by William Flynn. The 2018 championship will mark the 19th time the U.S. Open will have been played in the State of New York and the 10th time on Long Island. As of the 2011 season, New York had played host to 66 U.S.G.A. championships, ranking it third among all states.

Along with the Country Club in Brookline, Mass., the Newport Country Club in Rhode Island, the Chicago Golf Club, and Saint Andrew’s Golf Club in Hastings-on-Hudson, N.Y., Shinnecock Hills was one of the founding clubs of the United States Golf Association in 1894. Shinnecock Hills had America’s first golf clubhouse (complete with locker room, showers, and grill room), which was designed by the noted architect Stanford White. It was also the first 18-hole golf course on the East Coast.

“I was born and raised on Long Island, and Shinnecock is very special to me,” said Boomer Esiason, the radio host, N.F.L. analyst, and former quarterback, who was among a number of former professional athletes attending the press conference. “I’ve probably played Shinnecock 20 times and it’s my favorite course. It’s a great challenge to play and it’s a perfect setting.”

Tickets for the U.S. Open can be purchased online at usopen.com.

The road to Madison Square Garden ended for Richie Daunt, a 152-pound boxer from Montauk, Friday night in Queens as he lost a unanimous decision to Patrick Gough, who is to fight Daunt’s frequent sparring partner, Zach Bloomberg, in a semifinal novice bout in Patchogue soon.

During a conversation the next morning at the MuvStrong fitness studio in East Hampton, Daunt said Bloomberg’s manager had told him that, frankly, he wasn’t unhappy that Daunt had lost, 

“ ‘because when you and Zach spar it’s always a war.’ ”

When it was suggested that one could learn from one’s losses, Daunt readily agreed. “I wasn’t working in with the jab, I was just walking right in, and I wasn’t moving my head either. I’d be lunging when I should have been getting inside first, and then getting back out. I don’t know what it was. . . . My head wasn’t 100 percent there. I looked like the sloppier fighter.”

The defeat wouldn’t stop him, however, the 27-year-old Montauker said. Having fought 10 times now, he would move up into the open class, which will be “a lot more challenging, I’ll be fighting everyone . . . no more games . . . the real deal.”

His next fight, he thinks, will be on July 12 at his home gym, Finest Fitness in Patchogue. He’ll try for what used to be known as the Golden Gloves again next winter, but this time, as aforesaid, in the open division, “probably at 141 pounds. . . . I’ve got to change my diet to get down there.”

There is no doubt that Daunt can punch. An 18-minute nonstop workout on MuvStrong’s bags in its basement room that followed the interview attested to that. “Six rounds on the bags is like three in the ring,” he said. “And of course the bags don’t hit back,” he laughed.

“I coulda beat this kid. I was loading up instead of boxing, going for knockout punches instead of boxing. Haymakers. I should have settled down, got in and got out. I was chasing him all around the ring.”

And when he did, Gough would tie him up in such a way that when he tried to free his right arm it would look as if he were the one who was holding, Daunt said. The commentators held forth afterward on the subtle tactic, which they guessed may have had Irish roots, but by then the fight was over.

Asked how he would grade his performance, Daunt said, “I’d give myself a D. . . . My first bout was the best, the one in Yonkers. I’d give myself an A for that, and probably a B for the last one. This kid was fighting his fight. I could have done a lot more.”

“Zach fought the same night I did and stopped his guy in the first round, but he’ll have trouble with Gough if he doesn’t stop him early. He’ll gas out. This kid’s in shape.”

Speaking of being in shape, Daunt said he would continue abiding by a strict regimen that includes frequent sparring sessions up the Island, “and I’m going to add a lot of classes here at MuvStrong to go with the ones I’m giving at Body Tech at the Playhouse and at my sister Lacey’s Ideal Living studio” at the Albatross in Montauk. He would, he said, incorporate boxing moves into all of the workouts he oversees.

“My dad said it seemed as if something was on my mind that night. . . . Yes, he came, so did Tom Piacentine and Chris Kalimnios, who owns the Royal Atlantic. Camille [Erb, his girlfriend] and my sister Lacey . . . Kenny Wessberg was there . . . there were at least 10 to 15 from out this way.”

It was, he agreed, a long ride home. “I was pissed . . . I don’t know what it was. My head wasn’t there. Some nights it’s there, some nights it’s not. I didn’t do the plan at all. I was trying to make big punches — one or two rather than three or five. I should have been working the head and the body instead of aiming for his head. I won those first two fights because I worked the bodies. . . . He was holding the whole time and I was getting called for it. I should have just stepped back and caught him coming in. . . .”

“He was the better fighter last night. If it were today, I’d beat him. I’d step back and use my jab, one or two jabs every time before I walk in. Then a straight right. I would move my head. . . .I stood there like a statue.”

“I’m playing for the Lord today,” Glen Baietta said, with a smile, as he got ready to play pickup basketball with Dr. Alan Katz, Claude Beudert, Charlie Bateman, Tom Herlihy, Jack Chen, Manny Payano, Todd Bishop, George Kneeland, Billy Quigley, Will Shapiro, Jeff Aubry, David Kalman, and Rich Hand Sunday morning at Pierson High School’s gym in Sag Harbor.

That it was Easter had special meaning for Hand, inasmuch as a few years ago he was, after collapsing on the court, effectively resurrected by Dr. Katz, Bateman, who is an emergency medical technician, and Beudert, who as an East Hampton High School coach is also trained in the use of a defibrillator.

With “a couple of stents” now, Hand continues to play, and well too. A deadly 3-point shot (although it counts as 1 point in the pickup games) being his chief offensive weapon.

“He told us, ‘Thanks to you guys I’m a grandfather now,’ ” Beudert, a 64-year-old retired East Hampton special ed teacher, said during a brief respite in the two-hour, pretty-much-nonstop session. 

“We had another save too,” said Beudert. “Dexter Grady, a custodian at the East Hampton Middle School, in 2003. Your paper wrote about it. It was at one of our Tuesday or Thursday night games at the middle school. Charlie and Doc and I brought him back. He later had triple bypass surgery. He’s still working for the district, with Dave Fioriello on the maintenance crew.”

Beudert, East Hampton High’s exceedingly successful varsity golf coach, plays basketball four times a week — in the Sunday games at Pierson, as well as in teacher pickup games at East Hampton High School from 6 to 7 a.m. on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays.

Dr. Katz, who’s 70, plays three times a week, and walks two and a half miles to and from work every day, has — as has Beudert — played in these pickup games going on 40 years now, beginning outside on hard courts behind Pierson High.

“If you made a shot from the far side of the dividing line,” Beudert said, pointing out a window to a hard court bordering Pierson’s softball field, “you got 2 points.”

“Doc’s got good hands,” he added of Katz, who is Beudert’s dentist.

Katz is the commissioner, Beudert the vice commissioner. “Self-appointed for life,” Katz said. “Claude will succeed me when I die.”

The games are played year round; though, before the group got access to Pierson’s gym in the late 1980s they were always outside. 

“It’s not just basketball,” Beudert said. “There’s a social aspect to these games too. I never had any brothers, just sisters, three of them. It’s nice to check in with these guys every week to see how things are going with them.”

He agreed that, while all might not say basketball was their number-one sport — Quigley, for example, played semipro hockey in the Philadelphia Flyers organization — all were seriously athletic. 

It was an over-30 group when it began, and it still is, though, like the universe, the age span is expanding, Will Shapiro, at 33, being the baby, and Katz, at 70, the eldest — at least on that day. Another player, Gary Munson, a summer resident, is said to be pushing 73.

“You can see they’re all athletes, by the way they move,” said Beudert. “Charlie was a soccer player first and foremost; I was a golfer, I guess you could say, first and foremost. . . .”

One of the late arrivals, the 6-foot-9- inch Aubry, who played for Cornell, certainly looked like a basketball player first and foremost. 

“He has to cook breakfast, do a load of wash, and do the dishes before he can come over,” Beudert said. “He can control the game if he wants, but he doesn’t.”

“He’s very kind,” Bateman chipped in. 

“He plays a little harder though if his team is down 6-5,” Beudert said.

“He doesn’t lose,” said Bateman, who, in contrast, doesn’t like to lose.

First to 7 points wins, with every shot, no matter from how far out, counting 1 point. If it’s four-on-four, they play crosscourt, full court if it’s five-on-five. 

“Chris Mullin has come a couple of times,” said Kneeland, who assists Kevin Barron in coaching Pierson’s girls varsity. “He made 35 straight from that white line,” almost at midcourt.

Wayne Hopson, a former star on Bridgehampton High School teams that won state and Federation championships in the late 1970s, “used to play,” said Beudert. “A great shooter.”

Kalman, who, with Aubry, formed a good give-and-go combination — Kalman frequently on the receiving end of Aubry’s passes — once ran a 10-team men’s league at the East Hampton Middle School, but tempers tended at times to flare, and thus it eventually died on the vine. When it comes to this group, Katz and Beudert rarely are called upon to make peace. 

Quigley, who played on despite a sore right shoulder, said, when asked, that he painted. He had, in fact, painted a portrait of Donald Trump, “before he ran for president,” which the present president bought. The artist said he donated that money to Guild Hall and to Soldier Ride. 

“You’re a portraitist, then?” 

“They say that. I think I’m an Abstract Expressionist.”

As for these Sunday games, “I love them,” said Quigley, who recently played on the winning team in the men’s hockey league at the Buckskill Winter Club, “the one that Cory [Lillie, the rink’s manager] ran, which is the reason we won.”

“He’s hard to keep up with,” Quigley said admiringly when told that Katz was 70. 

When this writer added that Bateman was an E.M.T., Quigley said, “That’s good to know!”

“What led you to do a story about us?” Katz asked this writer, who told him he’d been inspired after talking to Bateman in front of Mary’s Marvelous in East Hampton the other day, and after asking him if he knew of anything “vaguely athletic” going on, this being the week of spring break in the schools. 

“Vaguely athletic. . . .”

“Well, I’m vague, and you’re athletic, so it seemed like a good story to do.”

Thursday, April 12

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

GIRLS LACROSSE, East Hampton at Kings Park, 4:30 p.m.

Friday, April 13

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

BOYS LACROSSE, Port Jefferson vs. Islanders, Southampton High School, 4:30 p.m.

SOFTBALL, East Hampton at Pierson, Sag Harbor, 4:30 p.m.

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

Sunday, April 15

MEN’S SOCCER, Hampton United vs. Sporting America, Country Village Fields, East Islip, 5 p.m. 

Monday, April 16

BOYS TENNIS, Ross School at East Hampton, 4:30 p.m.

BASEBALL, Sayville at East Hampton, 4:30 p.m.

Tuesday, April 17

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

SOFTBALL, Southold-Greenport at East Hampton, 4:30 p.m.

BOYS TENNIS, Commack at East Hampton, nonleague, 4:30 p.m.

BOYS LACROSSE, Islanders at Babylon, 4:30 p.m.

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

Wednesday, April 18

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

BASEBALL, East Hampton at Sayville, 4:30 p.m.

GIRLS LACROSSE, East Hampton at Hauppauge, 6:15 p.m.

March 11, 1993

Bridgehampton’s Bobby Hopson introduced himself to a nationwide television audience Tuesday night, and the millions of hoop fans who tuned in to ESPN said, “Wow!”

Hopson, a junior guard for the Wagner Seahawks, quite simply turned in one of the most memorable performances seen this year on the college basketball channel, scoring 32 points during what turned out to be a heartbreaking 65-64 loss that deprived Wagner — and Hopson — of a berth in the National Collegiate Athletic Association tournament.

Over and over, Hopson drilled one unbelievable shot after another. The ESPN broadcasting team of Ed Murphy and Tom Bees took turns praising the slender 5-foot-10-inch scoring machine.

“This a fine, fine ballplayer. . . . He’s putting on some show! . . . I don’t believe this guy! . . . What a piece of work!”

Wagner was playing Rider College for the Northeast Conference championship and a berth in the big dance. The Broncs were led by Derrick Super, one of the nation’s top scorers, who, as it turned out, matched Hopson basket for basket throughout the game.

. . . Super finished with 33 points, prompting Murphy to exclaim, “These are two of the better players around — two top guns.”

Hopson made 11 of 17 field goal attempts, five of six charity tosses, and four of five 3-pointers. Most of those came from well behind the line, prompting ESPN to show a slow-motion graphic of Hopson releasing the ball to illustrate how strong his wrists are.

“I don’t care . . . the Big 10, the A.C.C., anywhere. This kid [Hopson] could play for anyone, I guarantee it,” Bees exclaimed. — Rick Murphy

March 18, 1993

The Killer Bees of Bridgehampton, forced to travel 200 miles for a state high school playoff Monday, couldn’t quite handle undefeated Tuckahoe High, the third-ranked team in the state.

The loss ended a sterling season for the locals, who will have to settle for being League VII co-champions, Long Island Class D champions, and Suffolk County Class C-D champs. Those titles proved little consolation to the Bees and their coach, Carl Johnson, who had their sights set on a state title.

It was already 9:30 p.m. when Jimmy (The Mauler) LaGarenne showed up in front of Della Femina restaurant with his skates and equipment on a recent Monday. The Roman brothers, Dave and Danny, were already waiting with several others. Where the hell was Cebulski, though?

The group was a bit restless. After all, the rink was over an hour away, and their precious ice time would start ticking off at 11 p.m. sharp. It was bad enough getting back to East Hampton at 3 a.m. on a work night; sacrificing ice time was out of the question.

. . . Mr. LaGarenne and Bob McCall of Amagansett are spearheading an effort — backed by the Monday night crew and a host of other ice and roller hockey players around town, to build a regulation hockey rink on town-owned land off Abraham’s Path. The group has drawn up plans for the facility and lobbied the town to permit it if funds can be raised. 

— Josh Lawrence

March 25, 1993

Jim Nicoletti, East Hampton High’s baseball coach, is hoping to get a good crowd out next Thursday, April 1, to celebrate the construction by volunteers of home and visiting team dugouts at the Long Lane field.

Without the donations of materials and time, “they would have cost well in excess of $30,000,” estimated the coach, who added that “they didn’t cost the school district anything.”

Rick Slater was the project coordinator. Bob Lenahan, an architect, drew up the plans. Dave Griffiths was the general contractor. Joe Smith was the mason, and Henry Lester and Robert Walton were the painters. Their names, and the names of many other volunteers as well, are to be on a plaque affixed to the home team’s dugout.

With 13 “still young” players back from last year’s team, including his entire pitching staff, and six hitters who topped .300, East Hampton High School’s baseball coach, Jim Nicoletti, is, needless to say, optimistic.

The weather has not been kind, but it rarely is at this time of year. Saturday was the first day in two weeks of practice that batters were able to hit against live pitching. 

Should his pitchers come through, as Nicoletti hopes they will, the looming season should be a good one. “Each of them [Paul Poutouves, Steve Quick, and Guy Ficeto] has the potential to be dominant. They’re all hard throwers. It will come down to whether they can stay ahead of the hitters.”

The above-named will be backed up by Kevin Somers and Ross Gload, both juniors, and Pat Coyle, a senior, all of whom saw mound action last season.

At the plate, East Hampton should not be lacking. As aforesaid, six returnees — Gload, Somers, Pat McCarty, Coyle, Todd Carberry, and Henry Meyer — hit over .300 in ’92. The team’s average last season was .292.

Maggie Purcell, a Southamptoner who swims for the Y.M.C.A. East Hampton RECenter’s Hurricanes, capped her Hurricane career in the short course Y nationals in Greensboro, N.C., this past week, placing ninth and 16th in the 100 and 200-yard breaststroke events. 

Purcell, who is to swim at the University of Richmond, thus tallied 10 points, the first points ever won by the Hurricanes at the national meet, Tom Cohill, the coach, said.

In an email sent before vacationing in Colorado, Cohill said, “We had seven athletes — Ethan McCormac in the 50, 100, and 200 freestyle races, Jane Brierley in the 100 breast, Julia Brierley in the 100 breast, Maggie Purcell in the 50 free, the 100 free, the 100 breast, and the 200 breast, Caroline Oakland in the 200 free, Sophia Swanson in the 200 free, and Oona Foulser in the 200 free and 200 medley relays.”

“Everybody posted best times in their individual events or time trials. It was our most successful Y nationals to date.”

Purcell swam the 100 breaststroke in 1 minute and 3.18 seconds. Her time in the 200 breast was 2:18.90. 

“That’s the highest anyone’s ever placed for us,” Cohill said of Purcell’s ninth-place showing in the 100 breast. “Ninth in the country, that’s pretty amazing.”

Moreover, Cohill said that Jane Brierley’s 1:07.06 in the 100 breast, and McCormac’s freestyle times (21.93 in the 50, 48.62 in the 100, and 1:44.62 in the 200) qualified them to compete in next year’s national meet.

“Maggie finished her career here with a bang, making two all-American cuts in the 100 and 200 breast,” her mother, Julieanne, said in an email.

Three East Hamptoners, Brian Damm, Cole Shaw, and Logan Gurney, scored goals for the East End boys lacrosse team, the Islanders, that’s based at Southampton High in a game Monday with Hampton Bays.

Damm had five goals, Shaw, two, and Gurney, one in the 17-3 win, the East End team’s first of the season vis-à-vis three losses.

The news was not as good for several other East Hampton teams: On Monday, the baseball team lost 18-8 here to Mount Sinai, and softball, also playing here, was shut out 12-0 by Sayville. On Saturday, the girls lacrosse team, which had only one senior starter that day, Lucy Emptage, lost by a large margin to East Islip. Elizabeth Bistrian, another senior starter, was away Saturday.

“We’re very, very young,” Lisa Farbar, Robyn Mott’s assistant, said. “We’re trying to build a program.”

The roster includes one other senior, Elizabeth Lesser; three juniors, Rianna Helier, Emily Hugo, and Emily Lupercio, all defenders; a sophomore, Maria Gomez, the goalie; six ninth graders, Marilyn Bruehl, Asha Hokanson, Anna Hugo, Grace Perello, Lucy Short, and Stella McCormack, and an eighth grader, Sofia Mancino. Sophia Bitis, a junior, is out for the season with a torn anterior cruciate ligament.

It was back to reality for the baseball team, which had just returned from what its coach, Vinny Alversa, said was a productive spring training week in St. Petersburg, Fla. “We went 2-4 on the week,” he said before Monday’s game, played in icy weather, began. “What with games and practices, the kids played baseball five to six hours a day on average,” he added. “They didn’t have much free time.”

East Hampton, with Elian Abreu on the mound, went down 8-0 early, because of walks, errors, and timely hits, but came back to score eight runs of its own. 

While it lost 12-0 to Sayville, the softball team, coached by Kathy Amicucci, defeated Elwood-John Glenn 12-0 here last Thursday, despite the fact that three starters were missing.

“We played incredibly that day,” Amicucci said over the weekend. “Mary McDonald, who was on the jayvee last year, played right field for us, batted fifth in the lineup, and went 3-for-3, all doubles, driving two runs in. Sophia Ledda went 3-for-4 with three doubles and four r.b.i.s. She hit sixth, and if it hadn’t been for the wind blowing in, Becca [Kuperschmid] would have had two home runs.”

Sam Merritt, the pitcher, notched 13 strikeouts, her highest total of the young season. 

“Everyone was ready to hit,” Amicucci continued. “I think it had something to do with the fact that during a recent practice, the kids faced live pitching in the cage in the gym. Sam was throwing fastballs, curves, changeups, risers. . . . It helped get their timing down. We sometimes use a pitching machine in outdoor practices, but there’s no variation. Those sessions inside helped boost their confidence. They realized they could hit.”

Boys tennis played one match last week, minus its number-one, Jonny De Groot, and despite the altered lineup easily defeated Shoreham-Wading River 7-0. Shoreham, presumably because of spring break absences, had to forfeit at third and fourth singles, and at third doubles. 

At one, Ravi MacGurn won 6-0, 6-2; Jaedon Glasstein won at two, 6-1, 6-1; Brad Drubych, whom Glasstein defeated in a recent ladder match, and James Fairchild won at first doubles, 6-3, 6-1, and Matthew McGovern and Miles Clark, both freshmen, won 6-1, 6-1 at second doubles.

A big match looms at Westhampton Beach. East Hampton is to play there at 4:30 tomorrow. The Hurricanes edged the Bonackers 4-3 the first time around, but Luke Louchheim, who has yet to be defeated at third singles, was missing from the lineup that day.

Kevin McConville’s team was 2-1 in league play as of Tuesday and was 2-3 over all.

In the Dominican Republic, baseball fields are just about everywhere. For Dominicans, baseball is not just a sport, but an intense passion. But with four out of 10 Dominicans living in poverty, purchasing the equipment to play the game is out of reach for many. 

However, for some very lucky kids in the city of San Francisco de Macoris, about two hours north of Santo Domingo, a delivery of several large boxes of baseball equipment last week was a total and welcome surprise. 

Thanks to Harvey Bennett, the longtime owner of the Tackle Shop in Amagansett, who last year made endless pleas to customers and friends seeking any type of baseball item, new or used, the smiles on the faces of many children sporting new baseball uniforms, gloves, and bats was gratifying for the 67-year-old fishing and hunting professional.

“Seeing the pictures and video of the kids wearing and playing with the equipment was really special,” he said behind the counter of his shop on Montauk Highway on Saturday. “It was a lot of work and expense to get the boxes there, but it was so worth it. I can’t say thanks enough to everyone who contributed to make this happen. I had people come into the shop I had never seen before dropping off a glove or bat. It was a real outpouring from the community.”

The recipient of the equipment was the Monegro Baseball Academy, which was founded in 2011 by Alex Monegro, a baseball fanatic who has approximately 65 children from the ages of 5 to 16 in his camp. Since its founding, six of his pupils have gone on to sign a contract with a major league team. Last year, Dominicans made up nearly 20 percent of the players on the roster of Major League Baseball teams, a figure that has risen steadily for several decades.

“I used to have a woman from the Dominican Republic that worked for me at the shop a few years ago and was related to Alex and told me about him,” Bennett said. “It was important to ensure the equipment got in the hands of a person and kids who could really use what we were getting. I’ve been in the Dominican Republic, and life is not easy there, but Alex is truly a great guy and was so grateful for the donations. I hope to meet him one day.”

“I’m so appreciative of what Harvey did in sending the equipment,” Monegro said by phone on Sunday. “The kids here were so happy to get it. It meant so much to me and them.” 

Bennett expressed gratitude to the East Hampton Little League for its support. “They donated about 50 brand-new baseball shirts and 30 baseball bats alone. They were wonderful in their generosity.”

Bennett plans to collect more baseball gear again this year, but is unsure where the next shipment will go. “Puerto Rico is a possibility, as they were devastated by the hurricane last year. I’ve also looked into Cuba, but there is too much red tape dealing with them and sending any type of goods.”

Bennett has one more box to pack up that’s bound for Monegro’s camp. “I’m in desperate need of baseballs,” he said. “But I will take anything people want to drop off.”

Shari Hymes and Mary Scheerer, the Old Montauk Athletic Club honorees as its female athletes of the year in 2017, have adventure-raced all over the globe for the past 30 years — in Australia, Iceland, Lake Tahoe, Canada, and, most recently in Hymes’s case, New Zealand.

Adventure racing is “30 percent fitness, 20 percent preparation, and 50 percent soul,” Hymes said the other day as Scheerer was making her way back home to Sag Harbor from North Carolina. “You’re racing with your soul, you have to be fearless. Our checkpoints are in the middle of nowhere generally. No GPS’s, only compasses, though you have a button to push that will bring in the helicopters. . . . Yes, people get lost, even ones with experience.”

“I love the team aspect,” she continued. “There are four-person teams and at least one has to be a member of the opposite sex. Usually, there are three men and a woman, though there can be three women and a man. I just got back from a race in New Zealand, on the south tip of the south island.” Pete Spagnoli, a fellow Sag Harborite, was on her team. “Mary didn’t go. Unfortunately, she has to do races of shorter duration because of a hip problem caused by all those years of playing tennis.”

The New Zealand race — a 10-day one as is the custom — drew 100 teams, she said. “It was the end of the summer there — chilly. They get six meters of rain there a year, so we had a lot. There was a lot of trenchfoot. It’s considered the hardest endurance race in the world, according to Outside magazine.”

While she had probably averaged one or two adventure races a year since beginning them some 30 years ago, Hymes said, “I’d never done this one before. There were 650 kilometers of mountain biking, Class 2 and 3 white water paddling in pack rafts — they’re small two-person inflatable double-ended craft that weigh 13 pounds, but that’s still a lot of weight when you’re also carrying paddles, life jackets, and dry suits. They handle Class 3 water great. We used them on a river that has the longest drop of white water in the Southern Hemisphere. You paddle 40 kilometers out to the ocean, to the Tasman Sea. It’s pretty cool.”

“There was a lot of bushwhacking too, in the Fiordland National Park. There were very few trails. It was hard to find your way. Some of the toughest navigation I’ve ever done. . . . The whole point of navigation is to stay found, which is to say to always know where you are. Often, you can prove that by looking at different mountain peaks or at bodies of water, but when you’re in the middle of the bush you don’t have landmarks. You’ve got to go by the azimuth on your compass and trust in that — especially at night!”

She had taken a lot of courses in orienteering, she said, and had given such courses herself at adventure racing academies. “Unfortunately, we don’t teach it in our schools, as they do in Europe. There are no geography classes anymore.”

Asked which races are her favorites, Hymes named the Adventure Racing World Championships in November 2016 in New South Wales, Australia. “I turned 56 during it. . . . It had some really cool caving. You had to find checkpoints in caves, and there was a lot of paddling on all kinds of water — ocean, lake, river. . . . There was lots of wildlife too — we saw whales surfacing, dolphins, and a lot of kangaroos. We ran alongside them. There were lorikeets everywhere,” she said, showing this writer a photo of one on her iPad. 

“This is a wombat I hit with my bike at 3 a.m.,” she added, pulling up another photo. “I was going slow, he was okay. They’re marsupials too.”

She had a close call in that race, as the result of an infection that had set in after she’d hit her knee on a river rock. She demurred when it was suggested she see the treatment through in a hospital there. “As soon as I got off the plane, I checked into Southampton — they started an IV with antibiotics in Australia. . . .”

Stony Brook Southampton Hospital is familiar territory for Hymes, who, as a pulmonary technician, works there and at Southampton Pulmonary’s office nearby.

Her favorite race in the United States, she said, was “U.S. Primal Quest at Tahoe. A beautiful, hot, fun race.”

“A lot of teams don’t finish,” she said. “If you lose a teammate you’re unranked.” 

Any time she’s outside she feels great, Hymes said, whether it be stand-up paddleboarding here or snowshoeing, snowboarding, cross-country skiing, or fat-tire mountain biking in Vermont or Maine. . . . It’s a little different here. Here, on Long Island, you’re always close to a road. In 10 minutes you could be in someone’s house having a cup of coffee, and your cellphones would work too. The best part about adventure racing is that you don’t see your cellphone for a while.”

Eating, assuming one didn’t plan and pack gear that’s sent ahead correctly, could be a problem, she added. “Hopefully, you pack the right things — you have to be able to take your bike apart and put it together. . . . The people in Australia and New Zealand are great. You’re in these remote areas with hardly anyone around and you see sheep farmers setting up a barbecue for you. Oh yes, we ran out of food a lot. . . . I was begging.”

Anybody could adventure-race, Hymes said. “The biggest part is getting to the start line. That’s the biggest, hardest part. You have to set reasonable goals and be patient. It’s more fun, of course, if you have experienced partners. Patience is the key. Everyone’s going to be different. When you get frustrated, it sets a bad tone. There are people who race solo, but, as I always say, they’re solo for a reason. It’s for any age. A lot of kids are doing it — 18 and 19-year-olds are getting into it, and they’re good. As I said, in Europe they teach navigation and geography.” 

“It’s all about you and your surroundings,” she said in conclusion. “And laughing, and crying, and trying to find someone to give you beer.”

Thursday, April 5

BOYS LACROSSE, East End team, the Islanders, at Bellport, 5 p.m.

BASEBALL, East Hampton vs. Scarsdale, Spring Training Complex, St. Petersburg, Fla., 9 a.m.

Friday, April 6

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

Saturday, April 7

GIRLS LACROSSE, East Islip at East Hampton, 10 a.m.

Sunday, April 8

MEN’S SOCCER, over-30 league, Smithtown vs. Hampton United, Water Mill Community Center, 5 p.m.

Monday, April 9

BASEBALL, Mount Sinai at East Hampton, 4:30 p.m.

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

BOYS LACROSSE, East End team, the Islanders, at Hampton Bays, 4:30 p.m.

Tuesday, April 10

GIRLS LACROSSE, Islip at East Hampton, 4:30 p.m.

Wednesday, April 11

BOYS TRACK, Westhampton Beach at East Hampton, 4 p.m.

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

BOYS LACROSSE, Center Moriches vs. the Islanders, Southampton High School, 4:30 p.m.

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

BOYS TENNIS, East Hampton at Rocky Point, 4:30 p.m.