Sports

“That kids from these small towns, from Sag Harbor, East Hampton, and Southampton, can now go toe-to-toe with the established programs up the Island is quite something,” in the words of one coach.

A dozen women from the Breakwater and Shelter Island Yacht Clubs recently took part in a racing clinic given by North U in St. Petersburg, Fla. It really upped their games.

East Hampton High’s girls lacrosse team made its debut here last week, defeating North Babylon, while the softball team took on Deer Park.

John Ryan Jr., the chief of East Hampton Town’s lifeguards for the past 34 years, was recently named as a delegate to the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States Lifesaving Association.

Here is the week that is to be, sports-wise.

Drew Smith, who manages East Hampton Village's Main Beach and is the chief of the village's lifeguards, said recently that anyone looking to work this summer as a lifeguard, on the village beaches or on the East Hampton Town beaches overseen by John Ryan Jr., "should either contact me or John as soon as possible — I can't emphasize that enough. Reach out to us and let us know your interest."

The two-time-defending state champion Y.M.C.A. East Hampton RECenter Hurricanes were edged by Huntington in the state’s three-day Y swim meet at the Nassau County Aquatic Center this past weekend, but there was no shame in that. Huntington’s squad numbered more than 120, East Hampton’s 65. 

Nancy Richer began dancing at the age of 6, went on to a professional career that took her all over the world, and has now opened her own ballet and Pilates studio, Richer Movement, in Water Mill.

The high school spring sports season has begun, with softball, girls lacrosse, baseball, and tennis all contested this week.

The day the Maidstoners softball club hit Havana. And more from the sports pages of yore.

Formal spring season practices started on Monday. Here’s an early look at East Hampton’s teams, from baseball to lacrosse to track.

After successfully completing her 27,759-mile solo nonstop sail around the world last Thursday as part of the Global Solo Challenge, Cole Brauer received myriad thank-yous from near and far for having not only inspired a generation of young women (and at the beginning of International Women’s Month, no less) who might not otherwise have taken up a historically male-dominated sport, but also for having inspired everyone — young and old, male and female. 

West Hempstead, nine deep, athletic, and well coached, played well in transition on the way to a 75-54 win over the Pierson Whalers for the Long Island Class B title last week.

Cole Brauer, the 29-year-old East Hampton native who has been sailing solo around the world since Oct. 29, arrived at the Global Solo Challenge race’s finish line in A Coruña, Spain, early Thursday morning, as her 40-foot boat, First Light, “would have wanted it,” becoming the first American woman to sail solo nonstop around the world’s three great capes, and the 18th woman to do it overall. 

Notes from the glory days of Bonac softball, and a look back at the spread of lacrosse to high schools here.

Sixty-one youngsters in second through sixth grade turned out for the first Bonac Bolts youth track club’s practice Sunday afternoon at East Hampton High School.

East Hampton Town’s junior lifeguard training, evaluation, and testing in advance of the summer junior lifeguard program for kids 9 to 15 is underway at the Y.M.C.A. East Hampton RECenter on Sundays. All new and returning participants are required to attend.

Hundreds of anglers were saddened to learn last week that Paulie’s Tackle Shop, operating in downtown Montauk for over 20 years, had closed its doors forever.

The outcome of Bridgehampton’s Class D game on Feb. 29 was expected — Smithtown Christian’s senior-heavy lineup is strong, inside and out — as was Pierson High School’s 53-39 win later over Babylon in the Class B tilt.

Cole Brauer, the 29-year-old East Hampton High graduate who has been sailing solo around the world in the Global Solo Challenge race, was as of Monday speeding in advance of a low pressure system bearing strong and unfavorable winds toward the finish line at A Coruna, Spain.

As of Monday, Cole Brauer, the 29-year-old sailor who graduated from East Hampton High School in 2012, was within 2,000 miles of finishing the Global Solo Challenge singlehanded race around the world’s three great capes and heading for the Azores.

Katy Stewart, the late daughter of Brigid Collins and Jim Stewart, was remembered Saturday at an all-day fund-raiser at the Buckskill Winter Club that included an evening ice show and a youth hockey game.

“Teaching people to tap into that strength they have inside is our special sauce,” Sinead FitzGibbon said at her and George Wilson’s Latitude Physical Therapy studio on Sag Harbor’s Bay Street the other day.

Odds are, you’re not going to see an American bittern, despite its large size. Frankly, the American bittern doesn’t want to be seen; it chose invisibility as its superpower. Still, this is the best time of year to try; make the experience at least as much about the journey as the destination.

From glory days of Bonac wrestling to a shocking hoops upset to rugby in Fiji, it happened here.

The Pierson (Sag Harbor) and Bridgehampton High School boys basketball teams have berths in the Feb. 29 playoffs, and Buckskill Winter Club’s ice show Saturday will benefit the Katy’s Courage Foundation.

Sally Jenkins’s “The Right Call” traces athletic success under pressure to an abiding concern with seven foundational elements, discipline and intention among them.

Revisiting happy outcomes for Bridgehampton girls hoops and a Bonac team that clinched a league crown.

Bonac's Juan Roque, a 124-pounder, placed sixth on the mats, while boys swimmers took ninth in the county meet at Stony Brook, and Pierson has a new 1,000-point scorer.

Meet the 29-year-old Iranian-born figure-skating instructor at the Buckskill Winter Club in East Hampton.