A Look at the Hall of Fame Honorees

Earl Hopson, an all-county wide receiver in football, a sure-shooting guard in basketball, and an all-county long-jumper, Erin Bock Abran, an all-county field hockey and softball player, and Kim Valverde-Solis, a four-time all-county girls volleyballer who went on to play for national championship teams in college, are to be inducted into East Hampton High School’s Hall of Fame in the fall. As will the 1953-54 Bonac boys 16-2 basketball team, the first such, according to its nominator, Hugh King, to play for a county championship.

Hopson captained an extraordinary 8-2 Wing-T football team coached by David MacGarva that in 1994 confounded preseason middle-of-the-pack predictions by going all the way to a county championship game at Comsewogue High School, the first East Hampton football team to do so in 13 years. Hopson was a triple-threat with his kickoff and punt returning, pass-catching, and cornerbacking.

The late Rick Murphy, who covered the “simply stunning, overwhelming” 42-7 homecoming win that year over Greenport, said of him, “Earl Hopson may have a future in this game. His returns were so consistently good that it appeared to this reporter that the Porters would have been better off not punting the ball on fourth down. He’s also a top-notch receiver and defensive back who possesses a devastating turn of speed.”

A baffling “illegal downfield blocking” call that squelched a Bonac drive deep in Comsewogue territory with little more than a minute to play probably deprived the team, the most enjoyable one MacGarva said he’d ever coached, of the championship, which, thanks to a 68-yard touchdown pass play in the final 26 seconds, Comsewogue was to win by a score of 22-14. Soon after, Hopson, Rob Balnis, a running back, and Troy LaMonda, the tight end, were named to the all-county team.

Hopson, who retired from East Hampton Town’s Police Department last year following a two-decade career mostly spent as a detective, didn’t long-jump or triple-jump until his senior year, though he quickly made up for lost time, placing fourth in the county boys track meet’s long jump with a personal-best leap of 21 feet 4 inches, bettering his previous best by a foot, an effort that earned him an all-county designation in that sport as well.

Abran was all-county in field hockey and softball, though softball was her forte. The softball team in her senior year, 2000-01, went undefeated in league play, the first softball team here to do so, and, moreover, it won the school’s first softball county championship, defeating Babylon 3-2 in a 12-inning agon. Each of that game’s five extra innings began with a runner on second base, and in each of those innings, with Babylon at bat, and with either one or two outs, East Hampton’s coach, Lou Reale, had his pitcher, Jaclyn Ewing, load the bases to set up force plays at home.

The Star’s account said that Reale called timeout as Bock was about to step into the batter’s box in the 12th inning with runners at second and third and one out. “He reminded her that she had struck out to end the last county championship game in which the Bonackers had played, in 1998. Bock smiled and ripped a single through the left side, scoring Kathryn Mirras with the first run of the game.”

That team — Abran played third base — went on to win the Long Island championship, defeating Island Trees 5-2. “With Shannon Tracey on third and Brynn Maguire on second, Sara Van Asco, after smashing a foul off third, popped out to second. The runners held, but with two outs and the count 0-2, Bock, as she did in the county Class B championship game last Thursday, came through, her sharply hit ground ball single to left-center scoring Tracey and Maguire with East Hampton’s fourth and fifth runs of the day.”

On the team’s return to East Hampton that evening, “the selflessness that Reale had said characterized his players was evident when the bus, which had meandered home in the golden late afternoon light from Fireman’s Field in Ridge, arrived at Georgica Pond, where many East Hampton Fire Department trucks were waiting.”

Bock said, “Oh, look, a fire. Then we saw the parents. . . .”

“People were coming up to me, people I didn’t know,” she continued, “and were saying what a great season it was. There were people at our games who had never come before, teachers who had never been. . . . We’re happy. I’m sure that teams that didn’t want to come out here because it was ‘too far’ will want to come out now.”

“And when they come out,” said Sara Van Asco, “they’ll know they’re going to be in a game.”

Valverde-Solis, a libero whose 198 service aces in a single season remains a school record, as do her 1,575 career digs, went on to play with top college teams, namely Florida’s Hillsborough Community College and Tampa University, that played for national women’s volleyball championships. With Valverde-Solis as its libero, Hillsborough won a national junior college championship in 2014. She was a defensive specialist on Tampa University teams that won the national Division II championship in 2015 and was the national runner-up in 2016.

The teams she played on here in her junior and senior years went undefeated in league play, advanced to the county final in each of those years, 2009 and 2010, and won a Long Island championship in 2009.

Kathy McGeehan, who coached those teams, and who nominated Valverde-Solis for the Hall of Fame, said at the time, “We’ve gone 77-15 since Kim’s been our libero.” Aside from her mean jump serve, Valverde-Solis was the team’s chief serve returner and could put the ball on the floor from midcourt.

The 2010 team, The Star said, “went through Westhampton Beach in a county Class A semifinal like a knife through warm butter. . . . Kim Valverde, the senior libero with a wicked jump serve, finished the Hurricanes off with a booming ace.”

The honoree received an all-American honorable mention as a senior, was named to the all-county team, for the fourth time, and was cited as the county’s defensive player of the year.