East Hampton boys tennis honored its six seniors with pizza and plaques on Friday after a 7-0 victory over Longwood. The team’s class of 2026 has committed to an impressive set of colleges.
Griffin Beckmann, the valedictorian of the graduating class, will be attending Brown University, where he’ll major in environmental sciences and studies. Lucas Centalonza is going to Roger Williams University, where he plans to study business. Joseph Martinez-Garces is heading to Yale University to study ethics, politics, and economics. Evan Schaefer will attend the College of Charleston. When this story went to press, Henry Cooper hadn’t yet announced his plans.
Their head coach, Pablo Montesi, shared a few words about each of his senior players on Friday.
“Evan, it’s not easy to join a new sport in your senior year, make varsity, and compete in both singles and doubles. You’re a great athlete and competitor who’s always pushing to improve. Keep believing in yourself, enjoy the moment, and be proud of what you’ve accomplished.”
“Julian, you’ve been one of the most improved players this season. Your touch at the net and your control have become real strengths in your game. But more importantly, you are genuinely kind and friendly to everyone.”
“Lucas and Joseph, I’m grouping you together because of how reliable you’ve both been. You played as partners most of the time, and that consistency really paid off. You’ve improved a lot as a doubles team, and it showed in your matches.”
“Griffin, you’ve been positive, a great teammate, and a strong leader. The team chose you as a captain, and that speaks for itself. Playing doubles 1 this season takes courage, and you stepped into that role with confidence.”
“Henry, you’ve played more matches than anyone over the past three years — showing up for individuals, counties, and consistently delivering in our matches. The team also chose you as a captain, which reflects the respect everyone has for you. I’ll never forget that even as a sophomore, after every match, you’d come to me asking how the rest of the team was doing.”
Earlier that week, on April 29, the boys played Sachem for the first time, having become part of a newly aligned Eastern Conference in Suffolk Division I this season. While Sachem is known as a powerhouse in several varsity sports, its tennis team was no match for the Bonackers, who defeated them 6-1. The only match East Hampton lost was first singles, where Cooper played competitively against Leonardo Villacreses, the second-best player in Suffolk County.
“Henry came off the court sweaty, he worked as hard as he could, but he had a very tough match with the best player of the league,” Montesi said. “If he could get 1 point, lose 2, that’s fine. You’re focusing on every point you could possibly win and see what you could do better. His returns were outstanding. The other player’s serve was really big, but his returns were excellent. After that, to neutralize the points was very hard for him, because the other kid would run him around, but return was key and he kept his attitude always positive and always focused and he kept trying hard, which we loved, until the end.”
Cooper saw it as a valuable learning experience. “Whenever you play someone that beats you, that’s when you learn the most,” he said. “I just tried to have fun with it because I had the opportunity to play someone that good. And I tried to use the speed that he hits it so I can hit it hard too, because it’s fun. I thought returning the serve would be harder, but it was also really hard keeping it away from his forehand.”
Chase Bohnsack, a standout freshman who plays singles for Bonac, won his match as well, insisting on playing even though he was still fighting off a head cold.
“We could’ve had the chance to put in someone else, but he said, ‘No coach, I’m ready. I’m ready. I’m ready.’ He really wanted to be on court and participate in every game possible and that’s awesome and he played very well,” Coach Montesi said.
Bohnsack was thrilled to see his team perform so well against a new opponent and said he “wanted to come out and play strong for the team. That’s what I want to do, you know? Got a win, so that’s all that matters. They’re pretty decent, but we stopped them.”
Bonac swept doubles one, two, and three, and won doubles four by forfeit, as Sachem brought only nine players to Long Lane. Beckmann was thrilled with both the performance and the weather.
“Doubles was a really good turnout for us — not too many close games,” he said, praising his partner, Harry Schultz, a freshman. “I think Harry did a great job adapting his playing style and being more comfortable, relaxed, and focused. As the season goes on, we’re all learning about how we can change up our mind-set and our gameplay for every match. It’s really cool to see how everyone is growing and changing together. Every couple of practices we’ll have a really sunny day. You sweat a lot more, but it’s a lot more enjoyable to be outside. You can shed the sweatshirts.”
