Sports

   This past fall was a breakout season for the East Hampton High School boys and girls cross-country teams.

    Kevin Barry, the boys coach, recently said that although he had the youngest team in the county, it was the best squad he’d had in five years, and, in time, might well prove to be the best he’s had in a decade.

    “We won county championships in 2001 and ’02, with Chris Reich [who now coaches the boys winter and spring teams] and Joe Sullivan and the Ahearn twins. . . . That was a long time ago, but these kids seem to want it.”

    Connor Miller and James Lock shared the Montauk Rugby Club’s player of the year award at the club’s holiday dinner at Page at 63 Main restaurant in Sag Harbor on Friday.

    Miller, a 23-year-old inside center who was a wrestler in high school and college, and the English-born Lock, who is in his early 30s, were key factors in the Sharks’ 6-1 fall season, a finish that resulted in their receiving a bye in the first round of this coming spring’s regional playoffs.

   While she is technically conversant, Marie Minnick, were she a child again, wouldn’t be sitting inside playing video games or such, she would be outdoors.

    “I was out playing in Central Park all the time when I was a kid,” the longtime platform tennis pro said during a recent conversation. “We used to roller-skate, we played stoop ball . . . hopscotched, we’d sled, ride horses. . . .”

Thursday, December 13

BOWLING, East Hampton vs. Southampton, Wildwood Lanes, 3:30 p.m.

WRESTLING, East Hampton at Riverhead, 6 p.m.

Friday, December 14

BOYS BASKETBALL, East Hampton at Mount Sinai, 4 p.m.

GIRLS BASKETBALL, Mount Sinai at East Hampton, 6:15 p.m.

Saturday, December 15

WRESTLING, East Hampton at Hampton Bays tournament, 7:30 a.m.

BOYS WINTER TRACK, East Hampton at crossover meet, Suffolk Community College-Brentwood, 4:30 p.m.

Sunday, December 16

November 5, 1987

    The East Hampton-Pierson cross-country team continued its stellar season Saturday by adding the Conference Four title to the league championship it had already won.

    Led by Jim Lattanzio, East Hampton-Pierson won five of the top 10 places in the 3.1-mile race over the hilly Sunken Meadow State Park course to easily defeat its rival, Stony Brook, 25 to 38. East Hampton and Stony Brook, in turn, bested Mattituck, Westhampton, Hampton Bays, LaSalle Military Academy, and Center Moriches.

    The East Hampton High School boys and girls basketball teams began their seasons on the right foot this past week as the boys, thanks to a 20-4 third quarter, reeled in the Eastport-Manor Sharks, and as Ashley Rojas, in cool-cookie fashion, made both ends of a one-and-one in the final seconds to defeat Westhampton Beach 31-29.

   Three watermen, Scott Bradley, Ed Cashin, and Fred Doss — and one waterwoman, Shelter Island’s Amanda Clark, a two-time Olympic sailor — were among the honorees at Monday’s Old Montauk Athletic Club holiday dinner.

    Bradley, who recently won his age group in the world paddleboarding championships’ 11-mile open-water race in Cabo San Lucas, was the club’s athlete of the year. Cashin, who oversees the Exceed Fitness studio on Plank Road, and Doss, a consultant to nonprofit organizations, were the recipients of OMAC’s community service award.

   As the result of semifinal-round victories, Maidstone Market, the nine-time defending champion, and Tortorella Pools were to have met once again in a Wednesday evening 7-on-7 championship game at East Hampton’s Herrick Park earlier this week.

    The same teams vied in the summer final in August, with the Market coming out on top 3-1.

    Tortorella had the easier time of it in the semis on Nov. 28 as two goals by David Rodriguez, with 75 Main a man down in the second half as the result of Tony Shoshi’s red-carding, put Leslie Czeladko’s team over the top.

Thursday, December 6

BOWLING, Rocky Point vs. East Hampton, East Hampton Bowl, 3:30 p.m.

Friday, December 7

BOYS BASKETBALL, East Hampton at Pierson, nonleague, 6 p.m.

GIRLS BASKETBALL, East Hampton at Hampton Bays tournament, 5:15 p.m.

RUGBY, holiday dinner, Page restaurant, Main Street, Sag Harbor, 7 p.m.

Saturday, December 8

WRESTLING, Frank (Sprig) Gardner tournament, East Hampton High School, from 9 a.m.

Sunday, December 9

    Maidstone Market, the nine-time champion, not unsurprisingly headed into the men’s 7-on-7 soccer league playoffs at East Hampton’s Herrick Park yesterday having clinched the top seed, though going into the final night of regular-season play, on Monday, there was a chance that three teams — Maidstone, Bateman Painting, and Tortorella Pools — might wind up in a three-way tie for first place, with 18 points each.

    “It’s been very competitive this season — the top four have been beating each other,” said Leslie Czeladko, of Tortorella, who also oversees the league’s Web site.

Boys Soccer

    Rich King, coach of the county-champion East Hampton High School boys soccer team, said this week that J.C. Barrientos and Donte Donegal had been named to the all-county team, and that Barrientos, a senior, was the most valuable player in League VI.

    Moreover, Denis Espana and Nick West were named to the all-conference team, and Nick Tulp and Alex Serna made all-league. Christian Calle was named to the all-county academic team.

Friday, November 30

BOYS BASKETBALL, Pierson at Hampton Bays, scrimmage, 4 p.m., and Eastport-South Manor at East Hampton, nonleague, 6.

GIRLS BASKETBALL, Pierson-Bridgehampton at Westhampton Beach, nonleague, 5:45 p.m.

Saturday, December 1

GIRLS BASKETBALL, Westhampton Beach at East Hampton, nonleague, 2 p.m.

BOYS BASKETBALL, Bridgehampton at Port Jefferson, scrimmage, 10 a.m., and Bayport-Blue Point at Ross, nonleague, 5.

SOCCER, 7-on-7 futsal finals, women’s, 8 p.m., 38-plus men’s, 9, and men’s open, 10, Sportime Arena, Amagansett.

    Another record number turned out for the East Hampton Town-John Keeshan Realty 3 and 6-mile Turkey Trots in Montauk on Thanksgiving Day.

    Seven hundred and forty had registered, 641 finished — 551 in the 3-miler and 90 in the 6 — and the weather couldn’t have been better.

    Two days later, in Sag Harbor, far fewer turned out for the Old Whalers Community House 5K, which is in its second year — the Montauk races were celebrating their 36th anniversary — though the 74 Harbor runners were no less enthusiastic.

   Having enjoyed a fine fall sportswise, with the boys soccer and boys and girls volleyball teams playing for county championships — and with soccer winning it all, for the second year in a row — Joe Vas, the East Hampton school district’s athletic director, expects a rather cheery, if cold, winter.

    Numberswise, boys swimming, now coached by Craig Brierley — Jeff Thompson stepped down last spring after becoming a father — stands out, inasmuch as there are at the moment 33 on the roster — 4 seniors, 12 juniors, 9 sophomores, 5 freshmen, and 3 eighth graders.

   It’s wait until next year for the East Hampton High School boys soccer team, which, while playing tenaciously, lost 2-0 to Jericho in the Long Island championship game at Dowling College on Nov. 14.

    Jericho was the pretty much the same type of team as Eastport-South Manor, East Hampton’s semifinal opponent — tall, fast, and well-organized. And, it should be added, very strong in the defensive end.

    “Every time we had the ball down there,” said Don McGovern, who assists Rich King in coaching the Bonackers, “they had six or seven guys in front of the ball.”

   This past weekend marked the third time that East Hampton High’s Marina Preiss, a junior, has competed in the New York State championship girls swimming meet.

    Preiss, who first swam at the state level as an eighth grader, and who went up last year as well, did herself proud, placing fifth in the 50-yard freestyle in a personal best time of 24.42 seconds, and ninth in the 100 free — usually her stronger race — in 52.90.

   When this writer recalled that John Conner ran the Fifth Avenue Mile in 4 minutes and 40 seconds at the age of 50, he was corrected by the interviewee: “Four-forty point one.”

    That’s by way of saying that runners remember their times, and Conner, who’s bearing down on his 78th birthday come February, and who has professed the desire to live to 200, has many exceedingly good times — including three world records and nine national championships — to remember.

   The Lt. Joseph J. Theinert 3-on-3 Basketball Tournament will be played at 1 p.m. on Saturday at the Shelter Island School to benefit the Lt. Joseph J. Theinert Memorial Fund, which supports programs for military families and veterans in need.

    Lieutenant Theinert, who grew up in Sag Harbor and on Shelter Island, once played the sport at the Shelter Island School, wearing the number 15 jersey, which was retired last year. He was killed in action in Afghanistan on June 4, 2010.

Thursday, November 22

RUNNING,  3 and 6-mile Turkey Trots around Fort Pond, The Circle, Montauk, 10 and 10:10 a.m., registration, 8-9:30.

Saturday, November 24

RUNNING, Old Whalers 5K, benefit Old Whalers Community House Fund, West Water Street, Sag Harbor, 8:30 a.m., registration from 7.

BOYS BASKETBALL, scrimmages, Pierson at Mattituck and Bridgehampton at Center Moriches, 10 a.m.

GIRLS BASKETBALL, Pierson-Bridgehampton at Miller Place, scrimmage, 11 a.m.

Monday, November 26

October 22, 1987

    It was the Jamie Grubb and Walter Casiel show Saturday at LaSalle Military Academy’s fir-lined football field as the East Hampton High School quarterback and its wide receiver combined on three touchdown pass plays, of 15, 6, and 35 yards, to win the League Seven game 20-6.

    . . . Afterward, Ted Meyer, Bonac’s coach, said that Bill Barbour Jr., David DiSunno, Nick Algios, and Jason Menu, all linemen, had played solidly on defense and offense.

   A number of East Hampton High School teams, namely football, girls volleyball, boys volleyball, and girls swimming, made the postseason in addition to the county-champion boys soccer team, not to forget the strong showings of the tennis doubles duo of Daniella Dunphy and Gillian Neubert and cross-country runner Dana Cebulski who competed at the state level.

   Goals by Nick West 6 minutes and 13 seconds into the game and with 10 minutes and 24 seconds left to play earned the East Hampton High School boys soccer team the county Class A championship at Dowling College’s Brook­haven campus Monday, by a 2-1 score over Elwood-John Glenn.

    It was the second year in a row that the Bonackers have won the county title, and the third time in four years that they’ve contested it. The exciting win set up a rematch with Jericho for the Long Island championship yesterday, also at Dowling.

   To return to the Suffolk County Class A boys soccer final, East Hampton High’s team underwent two severe tests, battle royals with Miller Place, in the first round here Friday, a game that East Hampton won 1-0, and with Eastport-South Manor, in the semis here Saturday, a game the Bonackers came from behind to win 3-2.

    The Panthers and the Sharks were tall, bruising teams, but the Bonackers, who have been well coached by Rich King and Don McGovern, are just as tenacious in contesting 50-50 balls as they are skilled in ball-handling and passing.

Friday, November 16

GIRLS SWIMMING, state meet, Ithaca College, also Saturday.

Saturday, November 17

BOYS SOCCER, state Class A final, Middletown High School, Middletown, time to be announced.

Thursday, November 22

RUNNING,  3 and 6-mile Turkey Trot races around Fort Pond, co-sponsored by the East Hampton Town Parks and Recreation Department and Keeshan Realty, The Circle, Montauk, 10 and 10:10 a.m., registration from 8 to 9:30.

    About 10 years ago, Leif Hope, the Artists-Writers Softball Game’s impresario, had the idea for an exhibition at Guild Hall of the works of the myriad artists and writers who had played in this annual agon over the years.

    “At first, I was offered a back room,” said Hope during a conversation Monday. “Now, they’re giving us the main gallery, and the show will run from June 15 to July 27.”

   It is no surprise that Davis Eames, the 12-year-old champion A.T.V. rider, and Julie Baum’s 7-year-old son, Liam, who suffers from an aggressive form of epilepsy, have teamed up, Baum said during a telephone conversation Monday.

    “Each of them has an ability to touch other people’s hearts — they’re empathic,” Baum said. “They have the gift of bringing people together. Neither of them puts anyone down — they see through differences. This gift is not common. If it were, the world would be a far better place.”

   When a visitor to Jeff and Melissa Eames’s house in Springs the other day noted that no other competitors could be seen in the photos of their 12-year-old champion Quad-racing daughter, Davis, they had to acknowledge that that was because Davis, who’s been riding A.T.V.s since she was 4 and racing them since the age of 6, invariably left her peers in the dust.

   Tortorella Pools as of Oct. 24 — no games were played Oct. 31 because of hurricane outages — led the East Hampton Wednesday evening 7-on-7 men’s soccer league going into this week’s matchups.

    Maidstone Market, which won its ninth straight playoff championship in August by defeating Tortorella 3-1 in the final, came into the week in second place, with a 4-2 record. Tortorella was 5-0-1.

Thursday, November 8

BOYS SOCCER, first round county Class A tournament, Miller Place at East Hampton, 2 p.m.

BOYS VOLLEYBALL, first round Division II tournament, East Hampton at Sayville, 5 p.m.

Friday, November 9

BOYS SOCCER, county Class A semifinal, Eastport-Shoreham winner vs. East Hampton-Miller Place winner, site of higher seed, 2 p.m.

GIRLS VOLLEYBALL, county Class B championship game, site of higher seed, 4 p.m.

Saturday, November 10

   “We were playing for our lives,” Pete Vaziri said in the euphoric aftermath of Friday’s beatific 33-14 victory under the lights at McGann-Mercy in Riverhead.

    Indeed, Friday’s high school football game was a must-win for the Bonackers, who, as a result, nailed down Division IV’s last (eighth) playoff spot. That means they’ll be playing in the first round at top-seeded Babylon, which crushed them 44-7 in the season opener on Sept. 7, but Babylon (a traditional thorn in East Hampton’s side) can wait.