Praise For 1996 Sports

The year just past was a memorable one here in sports and the feats were broad-based.

During 1996, two East Hampton residents, Ed Petrie and Paul Annacone, were inducted into Suffolk's Hall of Fame; a 36-year-old Wainscotter, Dennis Oehler, a below-the-knee amputee, competed in his third Paralympics and set a course soon after for Sydney; the fabled Bridgehampton Killer Bees won a sixth Class D state title for the tiny school; Gary Cowell, a Pierson High School student, won the state Class B triple jump - the first Sag Harborite to win a state title in an individual sport, and the Montauk Rugby Club enjoyed its best season ever, making it to the national quarterfinals in 15s, finishing fifth in the nation in 7s, and repeating as the Met Union's Division II champion.

That Wasn't All

And that wasn't all. The Pierson baseball team won a county small schools championship; the East Hampton High School field hockey team won an overall county title - the school's third in four years; the Pierson field hockey team won a Long Island Class D championship, but went on to lose a heartbreaker in the state semifinals in Saratoga, and the East Hampton soccer team, with John Villaplana, the county's high-scorer, finding the nets four times, won its first playoff game, defeating Kings Park 6-4 in double overtime.

As for other firsts, 1996 was the first year in a decade that a Southampton College men's basketball team won as many as 16 games in a season. Credit Sidney Green, the former 10-year National Basketball Association power forward, who took over the hapless program in August of 1995.

First 800 Series

Last year was the first in which East Hampton High School fielded winter track teams for boys and girls, under Bill Herzog and Diane O'Don nell, thus beefing up what had formerly been a somewhat skimpy winter sports menu, especially for girls.

Nineteen-ninety-six also marked the first time an 800 series had been spun at the East Hampton Bowl. Moreover, Steve Graham followed his singular 830 the following night with a 300 - his third perfect game at the Bowl since April 1994.

The first Ellen's Run, a five-kilometer road race in August put together by Julie Ratner of Amagansett in memory of her late sister, Ellen Hermanson, raised $50,000 for breast cancer research, detection, and education - undoubtedly a record for a first-year race.

Masters Runner, Soccer Champs

Other running news of note came in November as Burke Koncelik, 42, of East Hampton, just missed breaking three hours in the New York Marathon, a time that was good enough to place her 39th overall among female competitors, sixth among female masters runners, third among U.S. female masters runners, and first among female masters runners on Long Island. Not all that happy with the result, she vowed to "break three" in the near future.

Two firsts were recorded by Mexican-Americans who live in the area and who play soccer on the Sag Harbor-Mexico and Chivas Landscape Associates teams.

The Sag Harbor-Mexico team won its first Eastern Long Island Soccer League playoff championship by defeating three-time defending champion Southold-Robert's Jewelers 3-1 at Southampton College on Nov. 24. Ten days later, as Chivas, the team won the East Hampton seven-on-a-side playoff cup by defeating East Hampton-Bayberry 3-1. Gonzalo Cuev as scored the winning goals in both contests.

Artists-Writers

It can't be said that August's Artists-Writers Game, a fund-raising softball fixture in East Hampton since the late 1960s, was the first to merit attention, but Marty Lyons's two home runs - the second, a Ruthian clout well into the Herrick Park tennis courts, which tied the game in the top of the ninth - were riveting.

The Writers clawed their way to a 6-5 win in the bottom of the ninth. It was only the second time in six years that the once-vaunted Writers had won the annual agon.

Also in 1996, the former East Hampton High basketball coach, Ed Petrie, the winningest coach on Long Island and second in wins among coaches still active in the state, was inducted into the Suffolk Hall of Fame in April.

"He's one of the greatest coaches of all time in New York State," Jack Foley, a former county basketball chairman, said last winter.

Praises Exchanged

Paul Annacone, 32, who for the past two years has been coaching the world's number-one tennis player, Pete Sampras, was honored for a decade of playing on the professional tour, during which he rose as high as 11 in singles and two in doubles, with Christo Van Rensburg.

At the ceremony, Annacone ac know ledged a debt to Petrie. While he hadn't played basketball beyond his freshman year, he had learned from Bonac's coach character traits, such as persistence, courtesy, and humility, that had served him well in his tennis career, he said.

Petrie, in turn, said of Annacone, "I've always had great admiration for him, not just for his tennis skills, but for the type of person he is. . . . He would have been an excellent basketball player, he played on my freshman team. But obviously he made the right choice."

Retirements

The year marked, as well, the retirement of Ellen Cooper, a field hockey coach at East Hampton since 1975, who made Bonac a county powerhouse in the past decade, and her succession by Megan Barnett, one of her protegees; the retirement from boys track coaching of Mike Burns, a 20-year veteran whose Bonac teams in his last three years had posted a 25-1 record in dual meets; the naming of East Hampton's first female girls basketball coach in years, Krista Brooks; the hiring of Bonac's first female athletic trainer, Paula Hatch, a 1992 East Hampton graduate, and the revival of girls basketball at Bridgehampton - the first time the school has had a girls team since 1985.

Dennis Oehler, the Carl Lewis of disabled athletes, suffered some bad luck in Atlanta. A broken prosthesis kept him out of the Paralympics long jump final and out of the medals in the 100-meter dash, which he has run in 12.1 seconds.

To Change Lives

But, with a bronze in the 4x100 relay, the Wainscott resident extended a string of medal-winning in every international event in which he's competed since 1988. It was the third Paralympics for Oehler, who set world records in the 100, 200, and 400 at Seoul in 1988, and added a gold in the long jump (18 feet, 10 inches) and silvers in the pentathlon and 4x100 at Barcelona in 1992.

"I don't need to win another gold medal, but the fact of my competing in the Paralympics will lead someone to call me who's just lost a leg creates a will within me to perform at high levels, so I can change others' lives."

Bridgehampton's proud basketball tradition was no more evident last year than in the fact that the Killer Bees' coach, Carl Johnson, had played on state-championship teams coached by the school's former athletic director, Roger Golden, 15 or so years ago.

At Glens Falls

In the third week of March, at Glens Falls, Johnson closed the circle by coaching his charges to a state championship - the sixth in the history of the school, which is said to be the third-smallest in the state.

The championship did not come easy. In the final with West Canada Valley, the Bees went almost the first six minutes without scoring before Nick Thomas, the team's leader, now a freshman at New York University, rallied the troops to a 51-37 win.

The Final Four tournament was a showcase for a standout sophomore, Maurice (Mo) Manning, who can do it all, as well as for Thomas and Terrell Hopson, who, with Manning, were named to the all-Class D tournament team. Manning was named the tournament's most valuable player, and later was named to the all-state Class D team with Hopson, and to Newsday's all-Long Island team. Johnson was named by Newsday as Suffolk's coach-of-the-year.

Sag Harbor Feats

While championship performances almost have come to be expected in Bridgehampton - expectations that are both challenging and burdensome - Sag Harbor was treated to three outstanding athletic feats in 1996 as its baseball team, coached by Sean Crowley, went on to win county small schools and Southeast Regional championships; Gary Cowell won the state and county Class B triple jumps, and the field hockey team, coached by Debbie Jayne, made it to the Final Four in Saratoga Springs, losing a 3-2 heartbreaker in overtime to Rye Neck.

Crowley was named Suffolk small schools coach-of-the-year. The trip upstate was Jayne's first in 24 years of coaching.

East Hampton, with whose Bonac track team Cowell competes in the spring, shared in the personable junior's triumphs. Cowell's was the first individual state championship East Hampton could claim since Sandy Fleischman won the state girls tennis title in the late 1970s.

Whalers' Title

There was also a townwide ring to the Whalers' baseball title inasmuch as East Hampton teams coached by Jim Nicoletti had won county small schools trophies in 1994 and 1995.

One wag said that the Montauk Rugby Club had become so good lately because its players had finally grown up.

If so, the ruggers crossed the threshold of their maturity with panache in 1996, repeating as the winners of their own 7s tournament in June; winning a berth, for the first time ever, in the national Division II tournament; making it as far as the quarterfinal round in Dallas, and, in its 7s incarnation, under Jerry Mirro, one of the top 7s coaches in the country, finishing fifth in the national 7s tournament after having been seeded 12th.

The Northeast regional Final Four beckons in the spring, and another try for a national championship.