Sayed Selim, an Egyptian-born squash pro who once coached that country’s national women’s team, and who, after beginning to build a junior program at the Southampton Recreation Center, left in the fall of 2010 to teach at the Pyramid Squash Club in Tuckahoe, N.Y., recently returned here, intent on taking up where he’d left off.

    “I don’t want you to take a picture of me smiling this time, for I’m serious,” said the personable pro during a conversation at the Elmaleh-Stanton courts Sunday. “We are going to get the Squash Academy [an after-school mentoring program for East End youth who might not otherwise be introduced to the fast-paced racket sport] this fall, and we’ll have school leagues for sure. . . . I had 70 kids playing when I left; there were only four when I came back two months ago. . . . I am so happy to be back. I feel at home in the Hamptons.”

    In the past year and a half, Selim said, he had coached promising juniors at the Pyramid Club, including Cameron Munn, fifth-ranked in the United States among the under-13 girls; Ryan Murray, the world’s number-one in the under-16s; Olivia Robinson, the United States’ under-11 champion, and the top-ranked under-11 boy in the U.S., Morgan Huberman. “The Pyramid Club gave me a good chance to work with really good kids.”

    He is here full time in the summer, giving lessons and overseeing camps. In the off-season, he will divide his time between New York City and S.Y.S., coaching here on the weekends.

    A $20,000 women’s professional doubles tournament and pro-am that is to help raise money for the Southampton squash program is to be held at the Elmaleh-Stanton courts from today through Sunday morning. Admission to the tourney will be free.

    Speaking of touring pros, Selim said he still intends, provided a permit is granted by Southampton Village, to hold a professional squash tournament, “probably for men,” in a plexiglass court at Southampton’s Lake Agawam next summer. “And I also want to have the world junior championships here in 2014.”

    On another subject, politics in his native land, which he said has been for periods throughout the years under colonial rule — including that of the British, who brought with them the sport of squash — Selim said he was happy that Hosni Mubarak had yielded dictatorial power, and hopeful that the present army-controlled government would soon give way, without shedding more blood, so that democracy could continue apace.

    “My idol, Ahmad Harara, one of the young revolutionaries, who has lost the sight in both his eyes, has said he’d rather have no sight and be free than to be able to see and be oppressed. . . . The government we have now is not good, but anything’s better than Mubarak. I think we can go forward. I hope peacefully.”

   Play has begun in a 4-on-4 beach volleyball league contested by 11 teams on the beach at Gurney’s Inn in Montauk every Thursday evening, Kathy McGeehan, the longtime coach of East Hampton High School’s girls volleyball team, announced this week.

    McGeehan, sidelined at the moment because of meniscus surgery, is the league’s director. Gurney’s, Smart Water, and the Diplomatico Rum Company are the sponsors. There are teams from East Hampton, Montauk, and Shelter Island, and the players range in age from 15 to 50, she said, adding that the competition is keen.

    Last Thursday was the first night; the round-robin matches go from 6 p.m. until dark. In first place, with a 6-0 record by the end of the evening, was a team of lifeguards sponsored by Sloppy Tuna — Marta Johann, Peter Johann, Andrew Foglia, David Carman, Katie Osiecki, and Garner Minetree. Air & Speed (Kim Valverde, John Foley, Jon Jamet, Dylan Cucci, and Dan Weaver) were in second, at 5-1.

    Among the other competitors are Chris Carney, Jesse Libath, Josh Brussell, L.B. Lownes, Matt Lownes, Carley Seekamp, Jenna Budd, Katie Brierley, Jack Behan, Calli Stavola, Todd Carberry, and Melanie Mackin.

    “It’s fun for spectators,” said McGeehan. “We’ve got a D.J. and a bar. . . . We’ll play through Aug. 23.”

    In other volleyball news, the girls coach said that “recently our whole team went to a four-day camp at Penn State, and Katie Brierley [a sophomore] and Christina Cangiolosi [a junior] were selected to attend the G.E.V.A. [Garden Empire Volleyball Association] high-performance camp from July 14 to 17. Twelve of the 24 girls from that camp will be picked to play in the high-performance national championships.”

Thursday, July 12

SQUASH, professional women’s doubles tournament and pro-am begin, Elmaleh-Stanton courts, Southampton Recreation Center, from 2 p.m., through Sunday morning.

VOLLEYBALL, beach league round-robin games, Gurney’s Inn, Montauk, from 6 p.m.

Friday, July 13

PADDLEBOARDING, clinic by Jamie Mitchell, 10-time winner of Molokai crossing, and sports nutritionist Adam Kelinson, Surf Lodge, Montauk, 7:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m.

SQUASH, professional women’s doubles tournament continues, Elmaleh-Stanton courts, Southampton Recreation Center, from 10 a.m.

MEN’S SLOW-PITCH, playoffs begin, games at 7:15 and 8:30 p.m., Terry King ball field, Abraham’s Path, Amagansett.

Saturday, July 14

SQUASH, professional women’s doubles tournament continues, Elmaleh-Stanton courts, Southampton Recreation Center, from 10 a.m.

Sunday, July 15

SPRINT TRIATHLON, one-half mile swim, 14-mile bike, and 5K trail run, East Lake Drive, Montauk, 7 a.m.

PADDLEBOARDING, clinic with Jamie Mitchell, 10-time Molokai crossing winner, and sports nutritionist Adam Kelinson, Surf Lodge, Montauk, 7:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m.

SQUASH, professional women’s doubles championship finals, time to be announced.

Monday, July 16

MEN’S SLOW-PITCH, playoffs continue, games at 7:15 and 8:30 p.m, Terry King ball field, Abraham’s Path, Amagansett.

Wednesday, July 18

LITTLE LEAGUE, game two of District 36’s 10-11-year-old girls softball best-of-three final series, Riverhead vs. East Hampton, Pantigo Fields, 5:30 p.m.

MEN’S SOCCER, Tuxpan vs. Bateman Painting, 6:30 p.m., Maidstone Market vs. Tortorella Pools, 7:25, and Espo’s vs. 75 Main, 8:20, Herrick Park, East Hampton.

MEN’S SLOW-PITCH, playoffs continue, games at 7:15 and 8:30 p.m., Terry King ball field, Abraham’s Path, Amagansett.

July 23, 1987

    Summer squash is about to make its debut on the East End, not only at farm stands, but also at the Omnihealth and Racquet Club in Southampton, which recently converted one of its four air-conditioned racquetball courts to accommodate the lively racket game.

    Richard Gold, the club’s director, said of the addition, “Frankly, our fourth racquetball court was underused, so we said, ‘Why not squash?’ ”

    The plexiglass and aluminum conversion kit came from Playcon, in Kitchener, Ontario, Canada. The rear plexiglass wall has been placed eight feet forward of the rear racquetball court to provide a 32-foot length.

    . . . . A compromise was reached concerning the court’s width. “The American singles court,” said Gold, “is 18 feet, six inches wide; the European court is 21 feet wide. The racquetball court is 20 feet wide, so we’re about in the middle.”

    East Hampton’s Little League tournament all-star team, which has only six 12-year-olds on it, was to have played in the District 36 (eastern Suffolk) semifinals last night at Patchogue, having defeated Southampton 12-3 here on Saturday and Greenport-Southold 5-2 here on Monday. It was the first time that an East Hampton team had reached the semifinals since 1984.

    In Saturday’s game, Pat Coyle went all the way, walking only three batters, while his teammates played errorless ball. East Hampton got solid defensive play from, among others, Kevin Somers at second base, Justin Geehreng at shortstop, and Ross Gload in right field.

    Open rowing on a 28-foot replica of a 19th-century whaleboat, the Joshua B. Edwards, began last Thursday evening. The boat, equipped with 14-foot oars, leaves every Thursday at 5:30 p.m. from the East Hampton Historical Society’s Boat Shop at 42 Gann Road, Three Mile Harbor, with Redjeb Jordania, director of the Boat Shop, at the helm.

July 30, 1987

    James Consiglio, 26, of Montauk, won the Montauk Chamber of Commerce mile race Saturday in four minutes and 46 seconds.

    It was the first win for Consiglio, who frequently is among the top finishers in local road races.

    The winner led until the three-quarter mark, when he was challenged by 52-year-old John Conner of Springs, a former national 1,500-meter age-group champion. “When I heard footsteps, I knew whose those were,” said Consiglio, adding that “I didn’t want to settle for second.”

    Conner, who finished three seconds off the pace, later congratulated Consiglio on his “gutsy” running. “I wanted to make you suffer a little,” said Conner, noting that “there was no way I would have beat you — you dug in and were pulling away at the end.”

    The East Hampton entry in the Little League’s District 36 tournament was eliminated by North Patchogue in the semifinals on July 22.

    The young East Hampton team got good pitching from Justin Geehreng, and hit well, “but defensively we weren’t as good as we have been,” said the coach, Alex Walter. A four-run fourth inning enabled the home team to go up 8-6, which proved to be the final score.

    Besides pitching well, Geehreng went three-for-four at the plate, with a double and two singles. Ross Gload hit a two-run home run to give East Hampton a 3-2 lead in the third. Scott Smith wound up the game with two hits and three runs batted in for the Bonackers, and Shane Davis contributed a pinch-hit double.

    It was the second time that an East Hampton team had been stopped in the district semifinals. Bellport defeated East Hampton 10-8 in extra innings three years ago. Next year, however, may be East Hampton’s year to go to the district finals, something it has never done.

    It’s been a while, a long while in fact, since the Maidstone Market has faced a serious competitor in the Wednesday evening 7-on-7 men’s soccer league, whose games are played at East Hampton’s Herrick Park.

    This season, a team that plays under the 75 Main banner, a team that comprises Tony Shoshi, Cesar Galea, Cesar Correa, Alfredo Negrete, Romulo Tubatan, Angel Garces, Fabian Arias, Walter Arias, Donald Nunez, Joe Fromm, Carlos Portillo, Juan Reves, Rafael Rodriguez, and Olger (Quique) Araya, the goalie, has gone undefeated thus far. Even without Shoshi, 75 Main put itself in the driver’s seat as far as the regular season title was concerned by defeating the Market 2-1 on June 27.

    Both teams were without a loss — though each had two ties — going into the clash. Maidstone pressured 75 Main in the early going, but the Restaurateurs’ defense held up. Meanwhile, Galea, one of the league’s top scorers, was frequently double-teamed at the other end by Maidstone’s defenders.

    Alex Meza, Maidstone’s goalie, arguably the best in the league, made a great point-blank save of a shot taken in close by Cesar Correa midway through the first half. Though just before the period was to end, Ernesto Valverde, who’s playing Elmira College, and Mario Olaya, a Suffolk Community-bound East Hampton High School graduate who led the Bonackers to their first-ever county championship last fall, were inserted into Maidstone’s lineup, and quickly combined forces to beat Araya moments before the referee Alex Ramirez’s whistle sounded. It was the sixth goal of the season by Olaya, who leads the league in the “golden boot” competition.

    Negrete was red-carded by Ramirez early in the second half, which resulted in 75 Main having to play a man down, but despite being short-handed, Correa blasted a shot by Meza from about 10 yards out to tie the score at 1-1.

    Still, with Gehider Garcia, Olaya, and Valverde matched together on Maidstone’s front line, and with Carlos Torres and Antonio Padilla, and John Romero behind them, it seemed just a matter of time before the Market — which has won eight playoff championships here in recent years — took over.

    Not surprisingly, Araya was to come under a lot of pressure, but he was up to the task, and got lucky when Olaya, who’d received the ball from Padilla, tapped a ground-hugging shot just wide of the right post. The Restaurateurs immediately countered with a long pass up to Galea, who, after taking the ball in stride, beat a defender and then shocked Meza with 75 Main’s second goal of the evening.

    Garcia made a strong bid to tie it up at 2-2, but his shot bounced off the left post. Soon after, he stepped in to cut off a clear attempt by Araya, but 75 Main’s goalie parried the shot, taken from medium range.

    Near the game’s end, Romero was red-carded after protesting a call by Ramirez, an ejection that left each team with five players on the field, though neither was able to score in the final minutes.

    In other games that night, Tortorella Pools and Bateman Painting played to a 2-2 tie, and Tuxpan shut out Espo’s 4-0.

    The standings as of this week — no games were to have been played last night, July 4 — showed 75 Main (6-0-2) in the lead with 20 points followed by Maidstone (5-1-2) with 17, Tortorella (4-3-1) with 13, Bateman (2-2-4) with 10, Tuxpan (1-6-1) with 4, and Espo’s (0-6-2) with 2.

    Since 75 Main’s remaining two games were to be with Espo’s, Leslie Czeladko, the league’s spokesman, said on the league’s Website that “they should finish first. All 75 Main needs is 3 points. . . . The only way for Maidstone to finish first is if 75 Main loses both matches with Espo’s, which is unlikely.”

    Wednesday’s lineup is to be 75 Main vs. Espo’s at 6:30 p.m., Bateman vs. Tuxpan at 7:25, and Tortorella Pools vs. Maidstone Market at 8:20.

    The playoffs are to begin July 25 with the one seed versus the fourth at 6:30, and three versus two at 7:40.

    The 9-10-year-old East Hampton traveling all-star baseball team’s playoff run came to an end with a 10-6 loss at Patchogue Saturday morning. Thus the Bonackers finished the District 36 Little League tournament with a 3-2 record.

    Following Friday’s 13-0 mercy-rule shutout of Sag Harbor at the Pantigo Fields here, Tim Garneau and Adam Wilson, one of Garneau’s assistants, told the boys that three more wins stood between them and the district title.

    “This is the first 9-and-10-year-old traveling team we’ve had in a while,” said Garneau during a conversation Monday, “and we showed that we can play with any team in the tournament. At Westhampton we blew a 6-4 lead in the bottom of the sixth — we gave it away with a couple of errors and walks. Westhampton won that one 7-6. In the fifth inning of Saturday’s game at Patchogue, we had four runs in and the bases loaded with two outs and our best hitter [Lou Britton] at the plate. Unfortunately he bounced out to the pitcher.”

    “You should have seen Patchogue’s complex,” he continued. “Nine fields, scoreboards, and signs that said ‘District Champions ’08 and ’09.’ Our kids said they wanted one of those.”

    The last time East Hampton fielded traveling all-star teams to be reckoned with in district tournaments dates to the late 1980s and early ’90s. The 11-and-12-year-old team of 1991, on which Brendan Fennell, Tommy McGintee, Robbie Peters, Will Collins, Jason LaMonda, R.J. Etzel, Jonathan Bowe, and Adam Crandall, among others, played, won district and county championships that year — both “firsts” in Bonac annals. That team lost 14-7 to Massapequa in a Long Island semifinal played in Great River.

    Alex Walter, who coached those Little Leaguers, along with Bill McGintee, said at the time that his 1988 and ’89 teams had been district finalists.

    When reminded of East Hampton’s former glory, Garneau said, “I’m trying to build it back up to that point. We want these younger kids to feed into the 11-and-12-year-old team, and then into the high school program. . . . There was a period of years not long ago when East Hampton didn’t field any traveling teams.”

    Of his charges, he said, “We had kids who could pitch and hit . . . I think it was a great experience for them to play in a competitive tournament and to develop the camaraderie they did, and just to pay attention.”

    Christian Johnson, a 10-year-old who throws strikes, finished with a 2-0 playoff record and also was credited with a save. Five of his teammates, Henry Garneau, Logan Gurney, Jackson Baris, Owen Ruddy, and Liam Leach, have another year to play with the 9-10s.

    With Johnson on the mound in Friday’s must-win game here with Sag Harbor — another team that had one loss in the double-elimination tournament — the outcome was never in doubt.

    East Hampton, the “visiting” team, jumped out to a 6-0 lead in the first inning as Britton, Garneau, and Pat DeSanti had hits. Johnson, who was to allow just two hits, struck out the side in the bottom half.

    The young Bonackers scored six more runs in the top of the third, the big hits being two-run singles by Britton, Johnson, and Elian Abreu.

    East Hampton added one in the fourth. After two were out, Britton and Garneau singled, Britton moving to third on Garneau’s hit. A passed ball, with Johnson up, allowed Britton to come home with Bonac’s 13th run.

    The visitors had runners on third and second with one out in the bottom half of the fourth, which was to prove to be their last gasp.

    After Johnson notched a strikeout — his seventh of the game, which brought his pitch count to 45 — Gurney was brought in from center field to finish the young Whalers off by way of an infield groundout.

    Dahlia Aman, who recently swept through the Empire State Games senior division in tennis without losing a game, qualifying for next summer’s national tournament in Cleveland, played volleyball when growing up in the Philippines and didn’t begin playing tennis until she moved to the United States in 1973.

    “I wish I had learned when I was younger,” said the 5-foot-1-inch dynamo, with a laugh. “I would have been traveling.”

    Chances are she would have indeed, for Aman, whose husband, George, is a life master bridge player, and a frequent hitting partner, has won myriad matches over the years, in United States Tennis Association and club tournaments, since taking the game up. There are, she said, trophies “in the garage . . . inside, all over the place . . . medals too.”

    Moreover, she had learned on her own, “by reading Tennis Magazine and watching people play,” starting off in Syracuse, where she met her husband, who, from 1984 until his recent retirement, administered schools in Riverhead, Longwood, Amagansett, and East Hampton (The Ross School). He is soon to become the president of the East Hampton School Board.

    “I was looking for volleyball in Syracuse,” she said, “but I didn’t find it.”

    She did, however, find her primary avocation and her husband — on indoor tennis courts there. Asked if they had hit it off from the start, the interviewee, who was wearing a dark black print dress and a jaunty red cap, said, with another laugh, “Oh no, I didn’t like him! But I’m glad he persisted — I almost missed the opportunity. He courted me for six years. It was a good thing that it wasn’t love at first sight; I wanted to know him very well, and I wanted him to know me very well. We have been together now for 28 years.”

    Did she play bridge? “Oh no, I don’t play bridge — tennis is enough. . . . He teaches people every day, including members of the Devon Yacht Club. He’s been there for 13 years.”

    When asked about Aman’s tennis game, one of her hitting partners, Barbara Mueller, said, “She’s incredibly disciplined, focused, and smart on the court. . . . She gets everything! She’s one of those people who, when she decides to do something, does it 100 percent.”

    Aman (pronounced Ahmin) found no tennis in Riverhead either, though she did find it at what used to be the Hamptons Athletic Club — now Sportime — in Quogue. “I took no lessons — I just played. After I won a championship, they threw me in the pool. I didn’t know how to swim. My husband had to jump in and save me. I won five [women’s A] tournaments there in a row, and 12 in a row at Westhampton Beach Tennis and Sport. Then I got pregnant. Then I won again. And then I stopped because people started hating me. You can tell — they get really tired of you.”

    On moving here, when Dr. Aman was named the Amagansett School’s superintendent, she won numerous tournaments at Green Hollow, Buckskill, Sag Harbor, on the North Fork, and at the East Hampton Indoor-Outdoor Tennis Club, where her elder son, Dennis Ferrando, whom she started off at the age of 6, is a teaching pro.

    While she used to play in 10 tourneys a summer and was at one time the top-ranked player in the eastern region, competing in U.S.T.A. events all over Long Island and upstate, she has let up a bit in recent years, playing three times a week and competing in two to three tournaments in the summer.

    When cramps forced her to withdraw from a tournament at E.H.I.T., she promised herself, she said, that she would stop whenever that happened again. “It took me two weeks to recover that time . . . I wasn’t even losing when it happened.”

    The heat, she said, had forced her to withdraw from the national senior division tournament in Louisville, Ky., six years ago, and from the nationals in Houston, Tex., last year. “At Louis­ville, I won the first set 6-0, but I had to stop in the second set because of cramps — it was 98 degrees and very humid. In Houston, I got to the final, but I couldn’t play because of the heat. I made a good showing though, even though I didn’t win it.”

    Tennis, she has said, is her sport, not her life. She spends much time fund-raising for Filipino-American groups — one of which, the Phil-Am Social Club of the Hamptons, she founded in 2005 — that have helped tsunami victims and donate regularly to such organizations as Doctors Without Borders, Ronald McDonald House, and the United Service Organization, Inc., the U.S.O.

    She supplements her tennis with workouts at the Y.M.C.A. East Hampton RECenter and at the East Hampton Gym, and does Pilates core-strengthening exercises and yoga at home. “I walk every day also. . . . I don’t run on treadmills — I don’t want to hurt my knees.”

    Asked if there was any area of her game that needed improving, she said, “No, I don’t think so.”

    She has her rackets strung loosely, at 45 pounds, which enables her to hit with power, “though I play with control too. . . . I’m thinking all the time, but not too much! I’ll lob, work you around. If you give me a short ball, I can hit it for a winner. I know I’m known for getting everything back, but I’m more of an offensive player now.”

    As for surfaces, “I like Har-Tru the most, then grass, then hard courts. We played on hard courts at Cortland, but I didn’t find them troublesome.”

    There is no national tournament this year; they’re played every two years. “Winning at the Empire State Games qualified me to play in Cleveland next summer. I want to win that, and then stop. That’s my goal.”

    The Stony Hill Stables Foundation’s fund-raiser Saturday exceeded its $20,000 goal, Maureen Bluedorn was happy to report Tuesday morning before children’s pony and horse camps began.

    Thus the foundation is on its way toward awarding eight riding scholarships — apparently a “first” here — to promising applicants with a desire to improve their skills.

    The first scholarship award, worth about $5,000 when instruction and leasing are taken into account, was announced at the fund-raiser. It went to 10-year-old Lara Lowlicht, an East Hampton fifth grader, “who met all of our criteria,” said Bluedorn. “She’s a straight-A student, plays lacrosse, sings in the school choir, has some riding ability, and has the desire and the need.”

    Thus Lara, who had been taking one lesson a week during the past month, is now to be taught every day throughout the summer on her “favorite pony,” Wizard, whom the scholarship enables her to lease.

    Moreover, the Tack Shop in Amagansett has, according to Bluedorn, donated “a complete outfit for her when she shows.”

    During a brief conversation Tuesday morning before taking Wizard out of the stable into the short-stirrup ring for an evaluation by Stony Hill’s office manager, Roiya Doyle, Lara said she’d “like to be an equestrian, like Wick,” referring to Stony Hill’s owner, Wick Hotchkiss, a dressage silver and bronze medalist, who is happy to have her and her mother’s dream of offering riding scholarships realized.

    To fully fund eight scholarships — two each in the stables’ four levels, ranging from short stirrup to dressage — around $100,000 will be needed, said Bluedorn, though the initial fund-raising success, she added, has spurred the foundation board’s hopes.

    Aisha Ali-Duyck, a full-time trainer at Stony Hill who also shows in dressage competitions, and who as a former working student at Stony Hill knows how valuable these scholarships can be, said in an article on these pages last week, “I’m hoping the children who get involved with the foundation have that same experience I had.”

Saturday, July 7

SWIM ACROSS AMERICA, half-mile, one-mile, and 5K races in Gardiner’s Bay, Fresh Pond Beach, Amagansett, 6-10 a.m.

Sunday, July 8

RUNNING, Firecracker 8K, Lake Agawam Park, Southampton, 8:30 a.m.

Weekend Events

    There will be two sporting events of note here this weekend — Swim Across America’s long-distance Hamptons Swim races in Gardiner’s Bay, a fund-raiser for cancer research, which are to be held, from 6 to 10 a.m., at Fresh Pond Beach in Amagansett, and the Firecracker 8K road race, whose start-finish line is across the street from Lake Agawam Park in Southampton, at 8:30 a.m. Sunday.

    Rod McClave’s winning time in last year’s Hamptons Swim’s 5K race, 43 minutes and 31 seconds, prompted Gerry Oakes, a Swim Across America board member and chairman of its Nassau-Suffolk committee, to say that “45 minutes for a 5K would be the time of a 20-year-old Olympian. A masters swimmer [McClave is 37], somebody in good shape in his 30s or 40s, would swim a 5K in around an hour and 15 minutes.”

Squash Pros

    Wally Glennon announced this week that the top 16 female professional squash doubles players in the world are to play in a $20,000 tournament at the Elmaleh-Stanton courts at the Southampton Recreation Center from next Thursday through the morning of July 15, a Sunday. There will also be a pro-am, he said, that is to benefit the Southampton Squash program, “a not-for-profit corporation whose mission is to provide access to the game of squash to all members of the Hamptons community.” Admission to the tourney is free.

    In other S.Y.S. squash news, Sayed Selim, the Egyptian-born pro who was succeeded for a spell at S.Y.S. by Mike Weston, has returned. Glennon said Selim is here full time in the summer, and, in the off-season, coaches during the week in New York City and during the weekends at S.Y.S.