The Hive was swarming Friday as Shaquille O’Neal shot hoops with youngsters and who, prior to a screening of Ben and Orson Cummings’s documentary on the 2015-16 Bridgehampton High School boys basketball team, the Killer Bees, and the inspiring tradition behind it, told the crowd that he, too, had gone to a school like Bridgehampton.
Sports
Soccer and Softball Champs CrownedTwo champions were crowned here this past week — East Hampton F.C.-Pool Shark in men’s 7-on-7 soccer and the Police Benevolent Association team in women’s slow-pitch softball.
Market Is Upset in 7-on-7 Soccer SemifinalsTortorella Pools and Hampton F.C.-Pool Shark were to have faced off at East Hampton’s Herrick Park last night for the Wednesday evening 7-on-7 spring championship.
Paddlers for Pink Hugged Shoreline and Each OtherA tent almost as big as you’d see at the Hampton Classic had been set up at Sag Harbor’s Havens Beach Saturday morning, uniting, for the first time, the Party for Pink, which was to be held there that night, with its sporting arm, the Hamptons Paddle, 3 and 6-mile races that drew about 150 participants.
A Softball Three-Peat at Terry King“There are a lot of great events in the Hamptons,” Charlie Collins said Sunday evening as the final games of the Travis Field memorial softball tournament were being played at the Terry King ball field in Amagansett, “but this . . . is the biggest local event — the best weekend of the summer.”
9-to-11-Year-Old Girls 2nd in StateEast Hampton’s 10-11-year-old Little League all-star softball team did itself proud in a state tournament this past week, finishing as the runner-up among the Final Four contenders.
A Primer for the ResoluteWhen Marcus Edwards, who is overseeing intensive Sunday morning Hoop Hampton basketball workouts for kids at Amagansett’s Sportime Arena, was a young boy himself, living with his mother on the Poospatuck Reservation in Mastic, he realized, he said during a conversation the other day, that if he were ever to make something of himself he’d have to do it on his own.
Varsity Football a No-GoAug 2, 2018
The on-again, off-again East Hampton football program is on again, Joe McKee, the varsity coach, said in a conversation Friday at The Star, but only at the junior varsity level.
A Very Brave Marine Was Celebrated in Jordan’s 5K RunJordan’s Run, a 5K run and walk in memory of the late Marine Lance Cpl. Jordan C. Haerter, was held in Sag Harbor one day before what would have been his 30th birthday.
Cyclist With a Cause and Montauk Roots Spans U.S.Jensen Butler, a recent graduate of Florida State University, where he made the varsity football squad as a walk-on, pedaled into town this past week, on the last leg of a 4,000-plus-mile cycling trek across the United States.
Montauk Rugby 7s Side CruisesThe Montauk Rugby Club’s 7s side, a group, aside from Steve Turza, who’s 35, of hard-charging college-age players, ran roughshod over three other teams at Montauk’s Hank Zebrowski field Saturday in the first of what the young Sharks hope will be a revival of the large 7s tournaments played at East Hampton’s Herrick Park and at the high school in years past.
Swimmers Swam So Everyone CanBob Miller, who has been overseeing for a decade “ocean challenge” swims helping to underwrite the construction of a four-lane, 25-yard pool at the Montauk Playhouse Community Center, a project expected to begin by year’s end, told the record number of participants at Montauk’s Ditch Plain early Saturday morning that their cause was a worthy one.
After Setbacks, the Kids Were Back to Chasing FirefliesThe players on East Hampton Little League’s 11-12 and 9-10 traveling all-star baseball teams were depressed for a minute or two after having been eliminated from contention in regional games this past week, but in no time, their coaches, Ken Dodge and Mike Hand, said, they were running the bases, sliding into home, drinking Gatorade, and chasing fireflies.
I-Tri Festival at Long BeachTyler Pawlowski, 15, of Freeport, topping 124 finishers, three-peated as the winner of I-Tri’s youth triathlon (300-yard bay swim, 7-mile bike, and 1.5-mile run) Saturday at Noyac’s Long Beach in 30 minutes and 15.35 seconds.
Ventura Was First to the LighthousePeter Ventura, who was the runner-up at the Robert J. Aaron memorial triathlon in Montauk in June, won the Montauk Lighthouse sprint triathlon Sunday, prompting the announcer, Terry Bisogno, to hail his “resurgence.”
The Dodge Team Tops Its PoolFor the second year in a row, East Hampton’s 9-and-10-year-old traveling all-star baseball team has won the District 36 championship, and its 11-12-year-old team may not be far behind.
Bees Doc Yields a Welcome GiftJamari Gant, who played on the 2015-16 Bridgehampton High School boys basketball team memorialized in Orson and Ben Cummings’s “Killer Bees” documentary, which is to open in Los Angeles and New York City at the end of this month, was, until Friday, a computer science major at the State University at Fredonia without a computer.
Big News for Little LeagueThere was big news on the East Hampton Little League front last week as the 11-12 boys team coached by Kenny Dodge “mercied” two opponents, Southampton and Sag Harbor-Bridgehampton, the 9-10s coached by Mike Hand defeated Hampton Bays 11-1 and mercied Southampton, and the 11-12 girls, on Friday, came very close to shocking North Shore, which went on over the weekend to defeat East Meadow in the Long Island championship game.