East Hampton High’s girls and boys basketball teams began playing this past week, and their nonleaguers with Pierson went well, the boys winning 40-31 here last Thursday and the girls winning 47-33, “or something like that,” according to Howard Wood, the head coach, at the Sag Harbor school on Dec. 6.

    Both teams run an up-tempo offense, though it appears, given this past week’s cursory look, that the girls may wind up having more success vis-a-vis their peers.

    “We could be good . . . but we’ll have to wait and see,” Wood said following Saturday morning’s practice at the East Hampton Middle School.

    The former professional still has yet to be convinced that his undoubtedly talented players are sufficiently passionate about the game, and the fact that some “play other sports” intermittently during basketball season galls him. “We had some 50 days of open gym from May to November, and very few showed, six or seven at the most. From November to February, I do want these girls who have volunteered to play basketball to respect the sport.”

    That having been said, one could see at Pierson that the girls, who in the first half kept the pressure on with a full-court man-for-man defense, were more in control once the ball was turned over than they had been last season — somewhat more in control at least.

    By the end of the first half, East Hampton, with its star junior point guard, Kaelyn Ward, having scored 17 points, mostly following steals, led 34-15.

    Wood and Louis O’Neal, his assistant, kept their starting lineup, which, besides Ward, included Quincy King, Indrea Stephens, Jackie Messmer, and Ryann Ward, on the floor in the third quarter, by the end of which the Bonackers led 44-19. They came out in the fourth as their fellow teammates on the bench finished up.

    “We let down in the third and fourth — I don’t know why we stopped attacking,” said Wood. “I love every single one of them — their attitude’s been great for the most part — but you’ve got to have that passion, and we have to run the plays in the games that we run in practice. Our offense and defense aren’t that difficult. If I can’t trust them to run the plays correctly, they won’t be playing. They have to be hungry. Just don’t go through the motions. They’re going to have to earn their playing time.”

    In the second half, Wood said, “we didn’t rebound well. I’m not talking about the subtle things, just about going up for the ball. There was no boxing out. . . .” Pierson, he said, had “played hard the whole game — they’ll be fine.”

    Saturday’s practice finished with a foul-shooting drill, each girl going to the line for one shot as the rest watched from the baseline. A missed shot triggered a sprint by all to the far wall and back. A made free throw resulted in a brief respite. And so it went.

    The girls are to open their league season with Mount Sinai today at 6:15 p.m. They are to play next at Elwood-John Glenn, a team that has a versatile 6-foot-2-inch center, on Tuesday. “We’re not going to stop her, but we can slow her down,” said Wood.

    Next Thursday, Wood and O’Neal’s charges are to play a nonleaguer at Bellport.

    As for the boys, Bill McKee, their coach, said during Saturday morning’s Biddy basketball practice at the John M. Marshall Elementary School that, despite the fact that “it wasn’t pretty, it was a good first game for us. We held them to 19 throughout the second, third, and fourth quarters after they’d scored 12 in the first. We controlled the boards at both ends in the fourth.”

    “We didn’t shoot well, and part of that was Pierson’s defense. Both teams played good defense. We do have good shooters, but we didn’t make good decisions. That’s because of our inexperience. Only two of our starters — Thomas [King] and Patrick [McGuirk, who at 6-2 is East Hampton’s tallest starter] — have any experience.”

    King, who alternates with Danny McKee at the point, led East Hampton in scoring with 12. Juan Cuevas, who was injured for most of last year, had 10, Thomas Nelson 8, McGuirk and McKee each had 4, and Cameron Yusko, a senior who came off the bench in the fourth quarter to take free throws for King, who had cramped up after having been fouled, had 2.

    Yusko, King, and McGuirk are East Hampton’s captains. “We’re hoping not to rely on perimeter shooting — we don’t want to take 30 3-point shots a game,” the coach said in answer to a question. (East Hampton went 1-for-11 from 3-point range last Thursday.) “Patrick has improved tremendously, and we can do things off him offensively. Our guards have to look for him.”

    McKee added, referring to an animated student cheering section in the stands, “it was great to see the Bleacher Creatures! The atmosphere was nice. Maybe,” he said with a smile, “we’ll continue to give them something to root for.”

    The boys were to have played a nonleague game at Eastport-South Manor Tuesday. They are to open the league season at Mount Sinai today, and this weekend, East Hampton, the Dalton School of New York City, Bridgehampton, and Southampton are to play in a holiday tournament at Southampton. East Hampton is to open with Dalton at noon Saturday, McKee said. The consolation and championship games are to be played Sunday.

    The East Rockaway High School boys basketball team, intrigued by the idea of playing in a tiny gym much like the ones in its district’s elementary schools, traveled out to Bridgehampton Saturday for a nonleaguer in the Bee Hive.

    It was said to be the first time in 20 years that an UpIsland school had played a nonleague game at Bridgehampton.

    And the Rocks, as they are known, despite the new surroundings, seemed to feel right at home.

    Following the 73-60 loss, Carl Johnson, Bridgehampton’s longtime coach — and the winner of three state championships when he played there — was upbeat, given the fact that his charges had not theretofore been in any competitive situations.

    “We haven’t had any scrimmages — we had to cancel them,” said Johnson, who added that if the Killer Bees weren’t quite back yet, they were on their way.

    One immediately notices that Bridgehampton, in Caanan Campbell, a senior who’s 6 feet 5 inches tall, and in Jason Hopson, a junior who’s 6-3, has some height.

    Campbell dropped 34 points for the Bees that day, while Hopson had 17. Though how well the Bees do this season will depend on Campbell and Hopson’s supporting cast, which includes two eighth graders, Tylik Furman and Josh Lamison, who started Saturday.

    The visitors, who were led by two thick-chested, sure-handed guards, David McClure and Joey Lores, passed extremely well, outmaneuvering the Bees in close on numerous occasions.

    East Rockaway led 36-28 at the half, having outscored the home team 13-10 in the first quarter and 22-18 in the second. Bridgehampton cut the lead to 2 points early in the all-important third. The Rocks scored first, but then Campbell replied with a basket, a 3-point play, and a 3-point bomb for 38-36. Following another East Rockaway basket, Hopson made it 40-38 with three minutes left in the period, but then the visitors began to pull away again. Going into the fourth quarter they led 56-42.

    Before it was over, Campbell and Hopson gave the hometown fans something to cheer about, however. Down by 16 with 2:22 on the clock, two successive 3s by Campbell and one by Hopson cut East Rockaway’s lead to 7. A minute and a half remained, though the visitors hung tough on the way to the aforementioned 73-60 final.

    “They were a great passing team,” Johnson acknowledged afterward, “though our kids played well considering. . . . We’ll definitely be better than last year, though we’ve got a lot of work to do. We really never got into our offensive sets today.”

    While the young Furman could be the team’s point guard, Johnson said he’s sparing him that pressure given the fact he’s only an eighth grader. Campbell and Hopson bring the ball up.

    Asked if the Killer Bees were “back,” the coach smiled and said, “They may not be back quite yet, but we’re going to be back!”

    Center Moriches, a team coached by Nick Thomas, who led Bridgehampton to state championships in the mid-1990s, was to have played a nonleaguer in the Hive Tuesday. Pierson and Bridgehampton are to open the league season at Bridgehampton tomorrow, and this weekend the Bees are to play in a holiday tournament at Southampton, opening up with the Mariners on Saturday.

Thursday, December 15

BOWLING, Southampton vs. East Hampton, East Hampton Bowl, 3:30 p.m.

GIRLS BASKETBALL, Mount Sinai at East Hampton, league opener, 6:15 p.m.

BOYS BASKETBALL, East Hampton at Mount Sinai, league opener, 4:30 p.m.

Friday, December 16

BOYS SWIMMING, Huntington vs. East Hampton, East Hampton Y.M.C.A. RECenter, 4:30 p.m.

BOYS BASKETBALL, Pierson at Bridgehampton, 6 p.m.

Saturday, December 17

WRESTLING, East Hampton at Doc Fallot tournament, Hampton Bays High School, 9 a.m.

GIRLS BASKETBALL, Westhampton at Pierson, nonleague, 12:45 p.m.

WINTER TRACK, East Hampton boys at crossover meet, Suffolk Community College-Brentwood, 2 p.m.

BOYS BASKETBALL, Holiday tournament, East Hampton vs. Dalton, 6 p.m.,  and Bridgehampton vs. Southampton, 8, Southampton High School.

YOUTH BASKETBALL, East Hampton Rotary tournament for fifth-sixth grade teams, East Hampton Middle School, 1 p.m.

Sunday, December 18

WINTER TRACK, East Hampton girls at crossover meet, Suffolk Community College-Brentwood, 9 a.m.

BOYS BASKETBALL, holiday tournament, consolation game, 2 p.m., and championship game, 4, Southampton High School.

YOUTH BASKETBALL, East Hampton Rotary tournament for fifth-sixth grade teams, consolation game, 1 p.m., championship game, 2, East Hampton Middle School.

Monday, December 19

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

Tuesday, December 20

BOWLING, Mount Sinai vs. East Hampton, East Hampton Bowl, 3:30 p.m.

GIRLS BASKETBALL, East Hampton at Elwood-John Glenn, 4:30 p.m.

BOYS BASKETBALL, Elwood-John Glenn at East Hampton, 6:15 p.m.

Wednesday, December 21

GIRLS BASKETBALL, Pierson at McGann-Mercy, Riverhead, nonleague, 6:45 p.m.

BOYS BASKETBALL, Hampton Bays at Pierson, nonleague, 6:30 p.m.

Thursday, December 22

BOYS BASKETBALL, Greenport at East Hampton, nonleague, 6:15 p.m.

GIRLS BASKETBALL, East Hampton at Bellport, nonleague, 6 p.m.

    Jeff Thompson, who coaches the East Hampton High School boys swimming team, was pleasantly surprised when on the first day of practice he saw that 30 hopefuls, twice last year’s number, were facing him.

    The word had gotten around.

    Five have since cut themselves, in effect, but the rest have stayed, and promise to be, in the aggregate, Thompson said during last Thursday’s practice at the Y.M.C.A. East Hampton RECenter, the best team he’s had.

    East Hampton’s varsity program is in only its third year, but the pipeline has from day one been as good as any other high school sport given the popularity of East Hampton Town’s junior lifeguard program overseen by John Ryan Sr. and Jr., and the Hurricanes youth swim team coached by Tom Cohill, the Y’s aquatics director.

    “About two-thirds of the kids are from East Hampton, about a third are from Pierson, all of them good, and we’ve got three from Bridgehampton,” Thompson said, a remark that prompted this writer to observe that, of the sports in which East Hampton is combined with other schools, boys swimming appears to be the biggest draw.

    Of the some 10 new team members, “half of them have experience and the other half, while they don’t have the experience, do have the work ethic — it’s an amazing group.”

    Thompson has lost to graduation several stalwarts in Matt Kalbacher, Tim Gualtieri, and Adrian Krasniqi, all of whom competed in last year’s county meet, but Trevor Mott and Thomas Brierley, who competed in the counties last year as freshmen, are among the returnees, as is Dan Hartner, a Pierson senior who would have been in the county meet had he not been ill at the time.

    Brierley, Krasniqi, Kalbacher, and Mott placed eighth in the county’s 200-yard freestyle relay last winter, and Kalbacher, Brierley, Mott, and Gualtieri were 13th in the 400 freestyle relay.

    “Those were the first top-10 finishes we’ve had at the sectionals,” Thompson said at the time.

    “This year, the sky’s the limit,” said the coach, who is again assisted by Craig Brierley, Thomas’s father. Thompson said he was very grateful for Brierley’s help. “It’s like having two head coaches,” he said. “One wouldn’t be able to do it — it’s too big a group.”

    Besides Mott, Brierley, and Hartner, then, the returnees include Jeremy Pepper and Peter Skerys, both Pierson seniors, and Adam Heller, a Pierson junior, as well as Christian Figueroa, a Bridgehampton junior, Baxter Parcher and Mike Knab, both Pierson sophomores, and Andrew Winthrop, an East Hampton junior.

    Among the many new ones are Ryan Lewis, an East Hampton senior, and Sergio Betancur, an East Hampton junior, who, while it’s their first season of varsity swimming, are town lifeguards; Paul Dorego, a Pierson senior; Robert Anderson III, Zach Bogetti, Thomas Dayton, Christopher Kalbacher, Shane McCann, Tyler Menold, Rob Rewinski, and Claudio Figueroa, who are all freshmen; Anthony McGorisk and Kyle Sturmann, who are sophomores, and two eighth graders, Nick Pucci and Thomas Pardicio, both of East Hampton.

    The team practices from 3 to 5 p.m. at the Y on weekdays, and from 5:30 to 7:30 a.m. there on Saturdays.

    “We’ve got a ton of talent,” said Thompson. “We’ll come out stronger than ever — we’ll have a completely full lineup with people to spare. We’ll run three teams in the relays whereas we only ran two before. We have a lot of guys who will be really competitive, who can do all the strokes.”

    Thompson didn’t schedule any scrimmages because of the need to get so many practices in before things get under way. His goal, he said, is to take “all the relays and six individuals to the county meet. Last year, I took two relays and three individuals.”

    “All but two of our meets will be at home” — good news inasmuch as in away meets against teams with divers, East Hampton couldn’t contest those points.

    The first is to be here with Huntington on Friday, Dec. 16. The Bonackers are to swim at Lindenhurst, a nonleague opponent, on Jan. 5. Home meets with Harborfields (Jan. 10), North Babylon (Jan. 12), and Deer Park (Jan. 18) are to follow. East Hampton is to swim at Hauppauge on Jan. 20, and Smithtown East, a nonleague opponent, is to swim here in the last meet of the regular season on Feb. 1.

    Asked how many football fields the squad had swum to date, Thompson checked with his iPhone and said, “Four hundred and fifty football fields so far. . . . We’re getting there.”

    The Maidstone Market’s 7-on-7 men’s soccer team lost the first two games it played in this fall’s season, one to Tuxpan and one to Hamptons Arsenal, each by 1-0 scores, but when it came down to crunch time, the Market — unarguably the Wednesday evening league’s best team — ate those other teams’ dreams.

    The semifinal matchup last week with Hamptons Arsenal went down to penalty kicks, however, and John Romero, Maidstone’s sponsor and coach, winced during a conversation at his place of business Monday morning as he recalled it. “They could have won it,” he said. Arsenal tied the score at 2-2 with a few seconds left in regulation, but Maidstone, following two scoreless overtime periods, prevailed 4-2 in penalty kicks.

    Thus Maidstone met Tuxpan, Antonio Chavez’s entry, in the final at East Hampton’s Herrick Park on Nov. 30, though this time it was no contest as the Market cruised to a 3-0 victory.

    Tuxpan had reached the final by besting Bateman Painting, the second seed, 5-4 in the other semifinal as Alberto Larios led the way with two goals. Juan Vasquez, Nerry Sanchez, and Reynaldo Yanes each had one. 

    It was the eighth time that the Market had won a 7-on-7 championship here, said Romero, whose team, in augumented form, has made a name for itself in the region, and who, himself, has done much to develop East Hampton’s young players.

    One of his protégés, Mario Olaya, who recently capped a record-breaking career at East Hampton High School, leading Bonac to its first-ever county boys soccer championship, was among the celebrants following Maidstone Market’s Nov. 30 win at the park.

    Olaya, Jefferson Ramirez, Ernesto Valverde, Brandon West, Cesar Correa, Nick West, Angel Garces, Nick Tulp, and Romero’s own sons Matthew and John have been among the local juniors who, in combination with their peers from Albertson, have represented Long Island in tournaments in Peru and in Romero’s native Colombia in the past several years.

    “Down there,” he said with a laugh, “they call us ‘the Gringos.’ ” He added that Long Island’s juniors had acquitted themselves well in those South American tourneys and in ones played at Disney World in Orlando, Fla.

    “That’s the only way kids from here will get better,” he added, “by playing in tournaments up the Island and beyond. I’m not saying they’ll become pros, but they will get better, and — the most important thing — they’ll be able to get scholarships to colleges.”

    Participation in organized sports, moreover, was “probably the only way to keep teenaged boys out of trouble,” said Romero, whose dream is to have “a club here for our youth one day if I can find the space.”

    Back to the fall final, the champions’ big three, Diego Marles, Luis Correa, and Gehider Garcia, put the Market on the scoreboard in the opening minutes as Garcia, who was unmarked at the right side of Tuxpan’s goal, headed in a pass from Correa, who had, in turn, received the ball from Marles. 

    About midway through the 30-minute period, a 20-yard through pass from Marles to Correa put Maidstone up 2-0, and that was the score at the half, though Tuxpan, before the first half was over, narrowly missed twice — when Vasquez unleashed a wicked shot on goal that the Market’s keeper, Alex Meza, saved, and when Eduardo Larios rocketed a low free kick from 20 yards out that zipped inches wide of the right post. The shot was so hard that to some on the sidelines it appeared as if the ball might have whisked through a hole in the netting, but indeed further inspection showed there was none.

    Maidstone defended the dark side goal — the one positioned nearer Pleasant Lane and the far parking lot — in the second half, but its defense, anchored by Marles, Gerber Garcia, and Darlin Veliz, among others, was so strong that Tuxpan’s forwards never came close.

    Correa clinched the championship in the early going, kicking the ball into an empty cage following a blocked Tuxpan free kick that rebounded far up the field.

    After the trophies had been handed out — Correa received one as the winner of the league’s Golden Boot award given to its high-scorer — and photos taken, Romero said that would be it for his team until a mid-February indoor tournament in Calverton given the fact that some key players — namely Marles, Gehider Garcia, Correa, and Gerber Garcia — would soon go to Colombia for a spell.

    Most of the Market’s squad, said Romero, were from Colombia, with the exceptions of Antonio Padilla, who is from Mexico, Leonardo Garcia, who is from Brazil, Mark Hogg, who is from Jamaica, and Veliz, who is from Guatemala.

    The 7-on-7 championship was the second one the team had won this fall. “We beat Center Moriches 5-3 to win the Riverhead league. We had lost a couple of games, and Center Moriches had been undefeated — and had given up only three goals all season — until we played them in the final.”

    Maidstone Market, moreover, finished third in a semiprofessional league in Brentwood, “the toughest league we’ve played in, a league that had a lot of pros in it. . . . At first, they only scheduled four games for us. They wanted to see how we’d do. If we hadn’t done well in those first four games, they would have thrown us out, but we won 10 straight! We finished 13-4-2. We were a little tired in the playoffs, running back and forth between the leagues, but by that time, in Brentwood, they knew us.”

    Fittingly, Romero received Brentwood’s coach of the year award.

    Outrigger canoeing is a big sport in Hawaii that brings, according to Jeremy Grosvenor, whose waterborne repertory is extremely varied, “all different ages, sizes, and shapes together to ride waves — it’s more of a community sport than surfing, where you have egos come into play.”

    The widely traveled Bridgehamptoner, who owns an outrigger canoe, which he has made available to the curious in the summertime at Montauk’s Ditch Plain, competed recently in an outrigger surfing contest — his first — on Kauai. During a conversation about it the other day, he said, “There are four of you in a 25-foot boat with an outrigger on one side, for balance, so you don’t flip. You paddle in unison, switching sides every 10 or 12 strokes. The person who makes the calls — the one who’s second from the front — says, ‘Ahut . . . hoe! Get ready . . . switch. . . .’ ”

    “I came to like outrigger canoeing ever since I worked with some anthropologists as a young man in Micronesia. The indigenous people in the Pacific have used them to move goods back and forth and to visit each other. Now that the sport has developed, the boats are of fiberglass, not hollowed-out koa trees, but it’s a sport with utilitarian, communal roots, and that’s why I like it I guess. . . . It’s really a neat way for everybody to come together to surf, to have fun.”

    Grosvenor said that “outrigger canoes can catch a wave way before a surfboard can. The boat turns as a surfer would as it approaches the beach, though, of course, while it’s more powerful, it’s not as maneuverable as a surfboard. And, as you’re gliding on a slow, feathering wave, you can do tricks. Someone might hold up a light woman with their hands, two people might stand up and stand on their heads. . . . It’s a very long ride, on waves that break farther out — you don’t come crashing up onto the beach.”

    The Canoe Surfing Challenge in Kalapaki — this was the sixth one — had, he said, become “pretty big. A friend of mine, Chris Kauwe, an amazing canoe surfer, put it on and asked me to come. When I got there he told me he was putting me in the event. There were 24 teams. They ran 15-minute heats with four boats each from an hour after sunrise until 5 p.m. . . . There were beginners on up to very, very accomplished water people. We made it to the semifinals . . . I paddled with three people from Kauai; they were nice to let me team up with them. I was very humble!”

    Born in Manhattan, Grosvenor has had a love affair with the water ever since his parents took him sailing to Rhode Island as a 7-year-old. “It was in 1977 — was that Hurricane Belle? — and I remember we were in Point Judith and how everything changed so quickly, from tranquil to very, very windy. That fascinated me. I remember as we were having dinner in a restaurant — my father and mother had secured the boat — seeing a toad hop away at a rapid pace. I think he knew something was up. . . . We got through it; the boat did, too. But that very dynamic weather — the sudden changes in the elements, in the pressure, the humidity, the temperature — left a lasting impression.”

    As a result, “this was a very easy place to come to,” he said, “with the rough ocean and the calm bay so close.”

    He had been in open water outrigger canoe races, as well, he said: “the big 32-mile race from Molokai to Oahu, which takes four and a half hours. It’s like a marathon, steady but fast. You’re reading the ocean all the time so that you know when to go faster, when to go slower. It’s very much about the poetry of the ocean. If the wave is steep you paddle faster, if it’s flatter you paddle slower. It’s really a fantastic way of being on the ocean.”

    It all led him to think he might like to hold a canoe surfing competition here, perhaps a small event this summer, and to follow that up with an outrigger canoe race to Block Island.

    At well-attended holiday dinners at the Beachhouse restaurant on Friday and Monday, the Montauk Rugby Club, the Old Montauk Athletic Club, East Hampton’s Ocean Rescue Squad, and Spokespeople, an organization that advocates on behalf of cyclists here, recognized a number of athletes for their contributions in the past year.

    The Old Montauk Athletic Club’s awardees were Sharon McCobb, an ever-improving runner, cyclist, and swimmer who for several years now has helped oversee the triathletic training of 20 or so youngsters in the multidiscipline sport, and Diane Weinberger and Amanda Moszkowski, the very popular Hamptons Marathon and Half-Marathon directors.

    McCobb was the club’s athlete of the year. Weinberger and Moszkowski, who raised $60,000 for the event’s various beneficiaries this fall, received the club’s community service award.

    The East Hampton Volunteer Ocean Rescue Squad’s member of the year was Steven McMahon. Others cited for their efforts were James Arnold, who oversees the Swim Across America event, which raised more than $120,000 this year; John Ryan Sr., the guru of East Hampton lifeguarding and subject of a film documentary, some of which was shown at the dinner; Robin Streck; Rob Lambert; T.J. Calabrese; Bob Pucci; Scott Bradley, and Eddie Reid.

    Rich Kalbacher, who spoke for the rescue squad, also thanked East Hampton’s supervisor, Bill Wilkinson, and East Hampton Village’s mayor, Paul Rickenbach, for their support, and hailed Kevin Harrington for having raised $50,000 for the Wounded Warrior Project through a recently completed 4,000-mile Montauk-to-San Diego bicycle ride, and Elias Van Sickle, an East Hampton High School student who, with Julian Verglas, raided more than $3,000 for the rescue squad through a 20-mile Montauk-to-Block Island kiteboard crossing in at-times 12-foot waves. Lambert and John Ryan Jr., ocean rescue squad members, went along with the kiteboarders on Jet Skis.

    Sinead FitzGibbon, speaking for Spokespeople, cited McCobb for having shown that female athletes can, through focused training, become stronger as they age, and Theresa Roden, who two years ago founded the I-Tri program for Springs School girls — numbering about two dozen now — who had not theretofore thought of themselves as athletes.

    “She’s a rock star — she really is,” FitzGibbon said of Roden, whose I-Tri motto is “Transformation Through Triathlon.”

    She has changed the lives of these young women forever. . . . It goes beyond boosting their self-esteem. Their bodies and minds have been transformed [through triathlon training and through the program’s camaraderie] and as a result their futures will be transformed — educationally, physically, socially, and financially.”

    About 16 of the I-Tri girls attended the OMAC dinner Monday night, all wearing red dresses. “That’s America,” FitzGibbon, a native of Northern Ireland, said as she looked over at the animated teens, who were at the two tables next to hers — “beautiful and strong.”

    Gordon Trotter was cited twice at Friday’s Montauk Rugby Club dinner, also held at the Beachhouse — as the club’s player of the year (he led the Met Union’s Division II sides in scoring) and as clubman of the year, attesting to all the organizational and promotional work the New Zealand-born fly half has done.

    Connor Miller, one of a number of younger players who gave the club, which went undefeated in Met Union play, a big boost this fall, was named as the club’s rookie of the year.

    “Jarrel Walker [a first-year wing forward] was a close second for rookie of the year — he improved so much over the course of the year,” Montauk’s coach, Rich Brierley, said during a conversation Tuesday morning. “And I can think of a couple of other guys who could have been player of the year, Ricardo Salmeron, who really stepped up, and John Glennon, our hooker. But Gordon was certainly deserving when it came to both awards.”

    This fall marked the first undefeated Met Union season for Montauk since 2006, a year the side went to the Final Four. Montauk is to play in the Eastern section of the national Sweet 16 tournament in Manassas, Va., over the May 12-13 weekend.

    Given Middlesex and the Village Lions’ first-round losses last year, “we’ll have a pretty low seeding, but the good news is that Mike Bunce [who, because of a controversial red-carding following a scuffle, did not play in the recent Northeast regional final, a game Montauk lost 53-0 to Middlesex, a Boston area side] will be with us. If they went by the book he would have been banned from three games, but U.S.A. Rugby’s disciplinary committee, in reviewing our appeal, said that by missing the regional final he’d served his time.”

    Brierley emphasized in his remarks “the commitment” the side’s younger players, Walker, Mark Sciosica, Zach Brenneman, Brian Anderson, Miller, Bunce, Matt Brierley, and Erik Brierley — the latter four second-generation competitors — had brought to the club.

    “Because they’ve excelled in other sports, they all know what’s involved — they understand the importance of showing up for practices and in working hard. Their spirit was infectious.”

    Brierley did not forget the often-unheralded forwards that evening, mentioning Ryan Borowsky and James Lock, each of whom had moved from other positions up to the front row, in particular. “The front row [which also included Glennon, at hooker],” said Brierley, “is our offensive line, our engine room. We go as they go.”

Thursday, December 8

BOWLING, East Hampton at Eastport-South Manor, 4:30 p.m.

BOYS BASKETBALL, Pierson at East Hampton, nonleague, 6:30 p.m.

Friday, December 9

GIRLS BASKETBALL, Pierson-Bridgehampton at Hampton Bays tournament, and Ross at McGann-Mercy tournament, 7 p.m.

Saturday, December 10

WRESTLING, Frank (Sprig) Gardner tournament, East Hampton High School, from 9 a.m.

BOYS BASKETBALL, East Rockaway at Bridgehampton, nonleague, 1:30 p.m.

Monday, December 12

WINTER TRACK, East Hampton girls at crossover meet, Suffolk Community College-Brentwood, 5 p.m.

BOYS BASKETBALL, Ross at Greenport, 6:45 p.m.

GIRLS BASKETBALL, Port Jefferson at Pierson, 6:15 p.m.

Tuesday, December 13

BOWLING, Westhampton vs. East Hampton, East Hampton Bowl, 3:30 p.m.

BOYS BASKETBALL, Center Moriches at Bridgehampton, nonleague, 6 p.m.; Pierson at Sayville, nonleague, 6, and East Hampton at Eastport-South Manor, nonleague, 6:15.

Wednesday, December 14

WRESTLING, Mattituck-Greenport at East Hampton, nonleague, 4:30 p.m.

    Mario Olaya, the center midfielder on East Hampton High School’s boys soccer team and League VI’s player of the year, wound up a stellar four-year varsity career Saturday by scoring the winning goal in the exceptional senior Suffolk-Nassau all-star game played at Dowling College, the scene recently of East Hampton’s first-ever county championship.

    Rich King, East Hampton’s head coach, who attended the all-star game, said that “it was a thrill to have two of our kids starting. Mario played the same position as he does for us, center midfield, and played magnificently. He played the whole game. Milton started at forward and was later moved back to outside midfielder, which isn’t his usual position, but that’s the way it is in these all-star games. He played well too, though he didn’t play the whole game.”

    After Suffolk’s 2-1 win, King said that he, Olaya, and Farez talked with some college scouts. “I would guess there were from 15 to 30 scouts there, though it was hard to gauge. It was all very informal. We’re setting up recruiting trips now for Mario and Milton, and also for three other seniors — Jerjes Alban, Angel Garces, and Esteban Aguilar — who certainly were worthy insofar as the exceptional senior game was concerned, but who couldn’t play because schools are limited to no more than two representatives.”

    In all, it had been “a banner season” for East Hampton boys soccer, said King, who was voted League VI’s coach of the year, an award he said he shares with his assistant, Don McGovern, Pierson’s former coach.

    Bonac’s team, which defeated defending state champion Sayville 2-1 in the county title game, finished as the fifth-ranked Class A school in the state, “the highest ranking an East Hampton soccer team has ever had.” The team scored 58 goals during the course of the season, “the most ever scored by an East Hampton team in a single season,” and Olaya wound up as the school’s all-time career scorer with 49 goals. His 22 goals this fall puts him in third place all-time in the single season category, behind Jefferson Ramirez, with 29, and the late John Villaplana, with 27.

    Both Olaya and Farez, who was named the county championship game’s most valuable player, have made the all-county team. Farez has also been named to the all-county academic team.

    All-state announcements are to be made at the county dinner on Tuesday, King said.

    Garces, Alban, and Jean Carlos Barrientos, another standout senior starter, were named to the all-conference team, and Aguilar, the senior goalie, was named to the all-league team.

    Among the schools interested in Olaya, King said, are Dowling, C.W. Post, Molloy, the University of New Haven, Franklin Pierce, Keystone, and Plattsburgh State. The University of New Haven, Molloy, and Old Westbury are said to be interested in Farez. “Our other seniors have drawn interest from colleges with soccer programs as well,” said King.

    As for next year, “we’ve got the potential to do what we did this year,” King said, “but we’re losing six senior starters. We’ll have holes to fill. Mario and Milton accounted for 37 goals and 20 assists all told. Twenty of the 26 kids on our roster this fall will be coming back, and our jayvee [coached by Steve Tseperkas] went undefeated in league play and was 13-2 over all.”

    Neither he nor McGovern would enter any teams in off-season leagues, King said, “though some of them will be playing on club teams in weekend tournaments and indoors at Sportime. The next thing we’ll do as a team will be our annual 7-on-7 tournament here on March 4, with other East End teams like Westhampton, Hampton Bays, Southampton, Greenport, and Mattituck. There are plans for a number of them to attend a weeklong camp in the summer at UConn, in July or August. Meanwhile, we’ll try to get the kids who aren’t playing winter sports into the weight room — we’ve put a program together for them. We did this last winter too. . . . Absolutely it helped.”

    Last year, though it didn’t win much, the East Hampton High School boys basketball team made things interesting, and Bill McKee, Bonac’s coach, now in his second year at the helm since Ed Petrie’s retirement, hopes the 2011-12 team will make things interesting again this winter.

    Though McKee, who again will be assisted by Bobby Vacca, could do without the tragic third acts, which haunted the Bonackers in 2010-11.

    He’s got guards, that’s for sure, in Thomas King and Cameron Yusko, both returning starters, and in McKee’s son, Danny, a relentless competitor who’s up from the junior varsity. Besides King, a junior, and Yusko, a senior, the other returnees are Patrick McGuirk, a senior who is the tallest player on the squad at 6 feet 2 inches, Alex Munoz, a senior who saw some playing time last year coming off the bench, and Juan Cuevas, a junior who was sidelined for the greater part of the 2010-11 season with a broken collarbone.

    Besides McKee, who’s a sophomore, others up from the jayvee are Thomas Nelson, a sophomore, Michael Taveras, a senior, and four juniors — Rolando Garces, Donya Davis, Andre Cherrington, and Joey Sandoval. “They’re all of about the same ability,” said the elder McKee, who, because of the team’s depth, hopes to run players in and out this season and to score in transition, rather than out of a half-court offense.

     “Hopefully we’ll handle the ball well and thus get good shots — we’ll play an up-tempo game,” said the coach, who added, “We’re still in League V, the same schools as last year. I’d say Amityville and Bayport are the favorites. They’ve both got a lot of returnees, and I know Amityville had a very good jayvee.”

    As for East Hampton, “the kids have been working hard and they’re improving.”

    The Bonackers are to scrimmage Southold here at 5:30 p.m. today. The team’s to scrimmage at Center Moriches Saturday morning, and Ross is to scrimmage here on Monday at 5:30. “Our first home game will be on Dec. 9 with Pierson, at 6:15,” McKee said.

    During Friday morning’s practice session, McKee’s taller charges were put through some drills by Hayden Ward, a 6-foot-6-inch former Bonac star who is playing now for the State University at Oswego.

    “We were 24-4 last year,” Ward, a junior, said during a brief conversation, “and we went to the N.C.A.A. [Division III] tournament for the first time in our history. We’ve got most everyone back and hope to do even better this time. We lost to Wells College in the second round of the N.C.A.A.s last year.”

    Oswego, which was 3-1 going into Thanksgiving vacation, was ranked 18th in the nation at the moment, he said.

    The amiable Montauker, who’s majoring in business administration and minoring in coaching, averaged 10 points and 8 rebounds per game last season, and is averaging 12 and 10 thus far in this campaign. It’s the second year that he’s been a starter.

    Asked about the transition he had to make from high school to college ball, the quiet-spoken redhead smiled and said, “College basketball is definitely more intense — it’s a much quicker game. You don’t realize how much quicker it is until you’re there. It’s quicker, more physical. Everybody’s bigger. I played down low in high school, but our centers are between 6-9 and 7-0, so I’m more of a perimeter player now.”

    When this writer said he hoped there were some businesses to administrate when he graduated from college, Ward said, “Let’s hope so . . . I’d like to be a basketball coach, too.”