Steph Lechich started playing basketball with a small, rubber ball when she was 5. She was too small to use a real basket, so her father would mimic a hoop by holding his arms in a circle and allowing her to shoot through it. She’s been draining buckets ever since. Jan. 25, she hit a 3-pointer to pass the 1,000-point mark.

“Watching her play in middle school, she was always a great scorer and great shooter,” said Dalton head coach Doug Feinberg. “She came right into a spot that was left by Mia Gliedman, so it was from one great player to another at that off-guard spot.”

Friends and teammates Steph Lechich (left), who is heading to Swarthmore next year, and Bonnie Cecil, who will play at Dickinson, may face off against each other in college at the Centennial Conference. Photo by Andrew Schwartz

Bonnie Cecil transferred to Dalton from Marymount in 9th grade and proved as a newcomer that she was just as tough and talented as the veterans. Like Lechich, she has been a starter from the very beginning. Feb. 19, she scored Dalton’s first 13 points in a win over Riverdale, including a layup in the second quarter that put her over 1,000 points for her career.

“I’m even more impressed that Bonnie has scored over a 1,000 points because she’s a point guard,” Feinberg said. “As such, she’s also had at least 500 or 600 assists, accounting in total for over 2,000 points in her career. That’s unbelievable. She’s the third all-time leading scorer, the leader in minutes, the leader in assists, the leader of a wonderful team.”

Thanks to Lechich and Cecil, Dalton (18-6 at press time) has its strongest team in years, one that is a definite contender for the New York State Association of Independent School (NYSAIS) tournament, which begins Mar. 4. How well they do will depend on many things, but any progress they make will almost definitely be based on whether Lechich and Cecil do what they do best: shoot and pass, respectively.

The duo has a comfortable rhythm on the court, with Cecil handling the ball, organizing the offense and then distributing. Lechich is a classic spot-up shooter, draining mid- or long-range jumpers repeatedly.

“Having Steph and Bonnie together for four years helped them because they were able to feed off each other,” Feinberg said. “Steph was a point guard in middle school, and having Bonnie taking care of the ball took a lot of pressure off her. I think Bonnie is one of the top five point guards in the city right now, private, public or Catholic. She has the best court vision I’ve ever seen at this school, boy or girl.”

Cecil credits her success to the time she puts in working on her game outside of normal team practice. Despite passing 1,000 points, she clearly doesn’t see herself as a scorer.

“I didn’t really think about 1,000 points until this year,” she said. “I don’t like thinking about it now, so it feels good not to worry about it anymore. I just tried to keep it out of my mind
during the games.”

For Lechich, who passed Gliedman March 1 to become the all-time leading scorer in team history, motivation comes from her older brother, Nick, who was captain of Dalton’s boys’ team four years ago. He’s been her fan and mentor since they played together as kids at the courts in Riverside Park.

“I’ve played some one-on-one with him during the summer,” she said. “He still beats me, but it’s pretty close.”

As with Cecil, passing 1,000 provided a sense of relief.

“I had been thinking a lot about it, but I didn’t tell anyone besides my mom because I didn’t want to put a personal goal above the team’s goal,” Lechich said. “When it finally happened, it was such a weight off my shoulders.”

Naturally, Cecil was feeling pretty good for her teammate.

“Steph’s one of my best friends outside of basketball, so it’s pretty easy working with her,” she said. “We know each other so well that we know where the other is on the court. We’ve grown together as basketball players.”

Both seniors are heading into the NYSAIS tournament confidently, but no matter what happens, their intertwined basketball odysseys are not ending anytime soon. After four years of teamwork, they will soon have to get used to being rivals. Lechich is heading to Swarthmore next year, while Cecil, whom Feinberg said could be a Division 1 player if she were several inches taller, will play at Dickinson. The two colleges play against each other in the Centennial Conference.

“I am just so excited that I am going to be able to play with her in some form,” Lechich said. “Just playing ball with her in any way, whether against her or with her, has been so important to me.”

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The bulls came to the Garden the weekend of January 8, but they had nothing to do with basketball. And instead of seven-footers, the half-filled arenas got to see 1,600-pounders. The athletes weren’t the Chicago Bulls but rather the bucking bulls of Professional Bull Riding’s fifth annual New York Invitational.

A rider’s hand gets entangled in rope as he is thrown from a bull. Photo by Andrew Schwartz

The only knowledge of bull riding I brought to the event came from the old Steve McQueen/Sam Peckinpah movie  Junior Bonner, so I didn’t quite know what to expect. But what proved evident from the get-go was that this was no old-time rodeo. For one thing, there was no calf roping, bulldogging or any other typical rodeo sport that could distract from the main event. Also, between the explosions, fireworks and loud music, there were enough bells and whistles for a pro wrestling event.

The comparison holds true in the presentation, but certainly not in the actual competition. Unlike pro wrestling, there is nothing fake about the violence and danger of bull riding. The simple goal of every competitor is to hold on for eight seconds with only one hand to an ornery, horned animal that weighs anywhere between 1,200 pounds and a solid ton. In other words, the instinct of self-preservation is a required sacrifice for bull riders, some of whom prove the point more than is necessary by eschewing a helmet in favor of a cowboy hat.

I asked Shane Proctor, who won the Invitational’s first round Jan. 8, why he does it.

“Because somebody once told me I couldn’t,” was his only reply.

Proctor’s score of 91.25 topped the field of 40 riders, only 14 of whom managed to stay on for the full eight seconds. Points are awarded by judges, who assign scores out of 50 to both the rider and the bull. Anyone who is bucked off before the eight-second horn sounds receives no score at all. So it pays to have an active bull, but not one so energetic that staying seated is impossible.

The bulls are not actually wild; in fact, they’re all very well trained. They know that once the gate opens, they are supposed to buck as hard as possible until the rider dismounts (or is tossed off) and then quietly leave the arena. A few got lost amid all the noise and commotion and took a few turns around the floor, sending rodeo clowns scurrying away, before a helpful horseback rider armed with a lasso escorted the bull to the exit chute. Injuries usually only occur by accident, either when a rider is caught by a kicking hoof or during an ungraceful dismount. Moreover, the riders tend to be tougher than most of us could dream of, when faced with very large and angry land mammals. One competitor was tossed 12 feet in the air while another landed on his neck. Both jumped up and walked away as if nothing had happened.

For those who know the Garden only in its basketball or hockey alignments, the show proved a bit unfamiliar. The arenas floor was split in two, with half containing seats and the other half fenced off by seven-foot metal barricades. Seven hundred pounds of dirt was trucked in to cover the riding floor.

I asked Proctor what he thought of the Garden as a bull riding site.

“The history at Madison Square Garden is phenomenal. Back in the 1940s and 1950s, there were month-long rodeos here. It’s great riding here. This is my third time riding in this arena. Last year I finished third in the event, so it’s always been good to me and the crowd is exceptional.”

The Garden was even better for Proctor by the end of the weekend, as he won the Jan. 10 championship round and, with it, the entire invitational.

For Friday’s introduction, a fog machine covered the ground in a mist while a giant screen featured a montage of riders walking around Manhattan to the sound of Ace Frehley’s “New York Groove.” After that, fireworks suddenly blazed, igniting flames on the dirt that flickered in the shape of the letters PBR. A light show accompanied the riders’ introductions, while the screen zipped up to reveal giant posters of the biggest stars, both human and bovine. The bull nomenclature was half the fun; the crowd was treated to performances by such luminaries as Major Payne, Neon Ghost, Aerial Assault, White Lightning, Necessary Evil, Snot Rocket and Smack Down.

The showmanship didn’t stop there. A rodeo clown served as master of ceremonies, peppering the audience with jokes and performing silly dances. A mascot dressed as a giant sheep did flips across the floor at one point. And for intermission, in what must qualify as one of the most questionable practices in youth athletics, a bunch of small children got the chance to copy the pros by trying to stay atop galloping sheep, holding onto their wool for as long as possible. One tot followed a great run by tackling the mascot. Another fell off early and was escorted away quickly, crying and clutching a hurt arm.

Either way, the applause was wild.

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“The season’s been going well so far,” he said. “We had a great fall. I can’t be more optimistic. We have a great group of guys together, really hard working. I have no doubts that I’m going to come back healthy and play well. We have a great vibe on our team right now, and we’re in a winning mood.”

Curtis Roby is captain of the Dartmouth men’s tennis team. Photo by Andrew Schwartz

Roby, a native Upper East Sider and graduate of the Trinity School, picked up tennis when he was 11 and has been playing at a high level ever since, though he feels that he didn’t truly hit his peak until college. During his first two years at Dartmouth, he finished 30-20 in singles and 27-21 in doubles. Now the team captain, he’s focused on maintaining that winning record.

“College sports is certainly a lot more intense than what I was used to in high school,” Roby said. “Being on a team and facing so much pressure every match is a little different, but I definitely embrace that.”

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Cross Country—Of all the fall sports, none had more locals competing in college than cross country. The honor roll of runners started in the city, where Natoya Bromfield (LaGuardia) finished 16th for Hunter College at the City University of New York Athletic Conference (CUNYAC) Championships. Former high school teammates Khrystyna Uhlitskykh and Elizabeth Messina were 21st and 36th, respectively, competing for Brooklyn College. Caroline Chung completed the local LaGuardia contingent, finishing 43rd for Lehman, where Shane King (Environmental Studies) was on the men’s roster. Jeannette Dobosz (Martin Luther King) of St. Francis was 63rd at the Northeastern Conference Championships. Jena Ko, the only other LaGuardia graduate running, was 21st at the SUNY Tech Invitational and 66th at the Liberty League Championships for William Smith.

In the Ivy League, UPenn’s Jeff Weinstein (Dalton) was 65th at the Iona Meet of Champions and 88th at the Heptagonal Championships. Teammate Joe Myrie (Collegiate) placed 113th at the rather pessimistically named Fordham Fiasco. Brian Hill (Regis) was 29th for Harvard at a dual meet with Yale. Dylan Trotzuk was also on the Crimson’s roster, while Dwayne Alexis, another Collegiate alumnus, ran for Dartmouth.

Other former Collegiate runners included Villanova’s Chris Williams, Hamilton’s Hashem Zikry and Ges Adams, who was a captain for Vassar and placed sixth at the Steven Invitational and 43rd at the Albany Invitational. Among his teammates were Rafael Ricaurte (Regis), who finished 21st at the Stevens meet, and William Healy (Loyola), who nabbed 112th place at the NCAA Atlantic Regionals.

The running alumni from Hunter were also numerous. Dan Stair was 120th at the Main Line Invitational for Swarthmore, while Sam Ghitleman competed for Oberlin and finished 14th at the Wooster Invitational and 77th at the North Coast Athletic Conference Championships. At Tufts, Kirsten Brown was 67th at the Trinity Invitational. Her teammate Tina Milburn (Chapin) finished inside the top 200 at the Boston Mayor’s Cup.

Two Brearley alumnae ran for Bowdoin. Skyler Walley placed 37th in a dual meet against Bates, and Christina Argueta placed 44th at the New England Small College Athletic Conference (NESCAC) Championships, 54th at the New England Division 3 Championships and fifth in the Maine State Championships. She was also named to the NESCAC All-Academic Team. Sophie Haas, another Brearley graduate, competed for Grinnell, finishing 166th at the Wartburg Invitational.

Haas’ teammate Sasha Dunbar (Beacon) was 21st at the Midwest Conference Championships, and 126th at the NCAA Central Regionals. Sarah Wenger, who also formerly ran for Beacon, was 11th at the Bard Invitational for SUNY New Paltz.

Luke Willert (Dalton) and Brandon Whitaker (St. Agnes) both ran well as freshmen. The former was 74th at the West Region Preview Meet for Pomona, while the latter was 57th at the Stevens Invitational for Concordia.

Finally, a trio of seniors wrapped up their college careers well. SUNY Old Westbury’s Hakiem George (Life Sciences) earned 39th place at Stevens, Natalia Drozdiak (UNIS) was 18th at the Purchase Invitational for Bard and Bucknell’s Baron Willeford (Columbia Prep) was 31st at the Patriot League Championships and 116th at the NCAA Mid-Atlantic Regionals.

Volleyball—Once again, CUNY schools benefited tremendously from local Manhattan volleyball players. At York, Norman Thomas alumnae Emely Vasquez and Sashe Almonte made big impacts as freshmen. Vasquez started 24 matches and recorded 36 kills, 13 assists, 26 aces, 122 digs and nine blocks, while Almonte started 16 matches and produced 20 kills, 21 aces, 67 digs and 13 blocks. Another Norman Thomas graduate, Rodesha Donaldson, played in 35 matches for Hunter, tallying 25 kills, 20 assists, 41 aces and 165 digs. City Tech’s Stephanie Novas (Art and Design) started all 18 matches and had 28 kills, 16 assists, 14 aces and 21 digs. And at Brooklyn College, Thea Schlieben (Rudolf Steiner) played 21 matches and recorded 22 kills, 16 assists, 14 aces and 69 digs.

Freshmen Adelynn Shreffler and Hannah Cassius competed at upstate colleges. Shreffler (Brearley), who played nine times for Skidmore, notched 11 digs, while Cassius (LaGuardia) played 17 times at Vassar and produced 28 assists, five aces and 63 digs.

Farther afield, there were four locals playing in the NESCAC. They included Amherst’s Mary Reiser (Nightingale), Connecticut College’s Jamie Honohan (Marymount), Middlebury’s Charlotte Heilbronn (Spence) and Bowdoin’s Victoria Edelman (Trinity). Honohan had nine digs in seven matches, Heilbronn recorded 10 digs in four matches and Edelman played 27 times and contributed 120 kills, 30 assists, 10 aces, 34 digs and 51 blocks.

Out in Ohio, Lizzie Orfaly (Fieldston) was a libero for Oberlin and put together nine aces and 113 digs in 23 matches. At rival Kenyon, Meggie Strew (Trevor Day) had 10 aces and 15 digs.

Football—In varsity play, Peter Eames (Riverdale) had the only statistical contribution, playing in three games for Hamilton and breaking up a pass. Three others didn’t get into a game but were on their teams’ rosters: Greg Barton (Dalton) at Washington and Lee, Terence Mooney (Hunter) at Kenyon and Columbia’s Dan Cohen (Horace Mann).

In sprint football, David Jean-Baptiste (Regis) had one catch for 24 yards, one forced fumble and one recovered fumble for Princeton. The Marin Brothers (Riverdale) played at UPenn, with Jordan getting one tackle and Jason running 130 yards on 19 carries.

Other Sports—Mount Holyoke’s Nicole Nounou (Horace Mann) played one game for the field hockey team. And at Vassar Hal Moore (Hunter) Guillermo Farias (UNIS) and Matthew Elisofon (Trevor Day) were members of the rugby squad.

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Dan Hicks isn’t used in either way by the Bowdoin College soccer team, but he still managed to net a goal this season. Playing against New England Small College Athletic Conference (NESCAC) heavyweight Trinity Oct. 26, he took a free kick from the edge of his own box. After 80 yards and a deceptive bounce on the wet turf, the ball found its way past the opposing keeper.

“My first reaction was that I felt pretty bad for their goalie because I’ve been there before. Sometimes it’s tough to judge the bounce,” Hicks said. “I have a strong kick, but it’s inconsistent. Sometimes I shank it.”

Bowdoin College goalie Dan Hicks was named Second Team All-New England Small College Athletic Conference.

Not this time, though. Hicks’ peculiar goal gave his team a 2-0 lead, one that he had helped preserve several minutes earlier by stopping a penalty kick. With him protecting the net this year, Bowdoin finished 11-4-2 and qualified for the Division 3 NCAA Tournament for the first time in six years. Hicks started 14 games and made 48 saves, surrendering only 10 goals in nearly 22 hours of playing time, for which he was named Second Team All-NESCAC. He also was a member of the NESCAC All-Academic Team.

“Overall, it was probably the best season we’ve had here,” he said. “It was a big step up for Bowdoin soccer.”

Hicks, a native Upper East Sider, played soccer at Trinity in high school, but he credits two years with the Manhattan Soccer Club for providing the foundation of his skills. Originally a baseball recruit at Bowdoin, he eventually decided to play two sports, and the soccer team has benefited ever since.

Hicks isn’t the only Trinity graduate playing soccer at Bowdoin. Daniel Chaffetz started 16 games this year and had three assists on defense. Andrew Scott, yet another Trinity alum, played 14 games for NESCAC foe Hamilton and had one assist. Elsewhere in the conference, Alisha Neptune (Beacon) capped her career at Wesleyan by starting 11 games on defense and serving as team captain. Alex Klotman (Collegiate) appeared in three games for Tufts as a freshman, while Chelsea Davies’ (Beacon) first year at Williams included 11 games and 144 minutes of playing time.

Beacon, always a powerhouse in New York City soccer, had a strong contingent playing at the next level. From last year’s PSAL runner-up, Will Congdon saw action in 10 games for St. Lawrence, while Caetano Sanchez played 18 games and started five at Hobart for a team that went 15-4-2 and was ranked fourth in Division 3 at one point. Aldin Dervisevic and Byron Walker teamed up at George Washington, with the former playing four games and the latter starting 12 on defense. At SUNY-Albany, Lily Honor appeared in two games, while David Grad was a goalie for SUNY-Binghamton.

Elsewhere in the SUNY system, Hussam Buoyancy (Lycée Français) was part of the team at Old Westbury. And George Kiladze (Beacon) played two games for Purchase, while Alyssa Rosado (Cathedral) appeared in one.

Among local colleges, Hunter enjoyed the services of Devin Leahy (Trevor Day), who started 11 games in midfield, and Leander Kotsopoulos (Beacon), who started three. Ousmane Toure (Brandeis) had five goals and one assist while starting 16 games at York. Emiliano Tramontozzi (LaGuardia) started all 18 games as a senior for Long Island-Brooklyn. Baruch’s Brian Wright (Eleanor Roosevelt) appeared in 11 games, had two goals and one assist and was named his conference’s “Rookie of the Week” Oct. 12. Another freshman, Vincent Mark (Art and Design) started 14 games for City Tech, and had one goal and three assists. His teammate there, Harold Villegas (Environmental Studies), played in 10 games. City College boasted a strong array of locals: Rafael Dymek (Eleanor Roosevelt) played one game as goalie; America B. Nazario (Julia Richman) started all 15 games on defense; Oisin McGoldrick (UNIS) appeared in four games; and Abdul Jalloh (Martin Luther King) started nine times and had a goal.

As always, MLK had plenty of alumni still showcasing their skills on the pitch. Bazoumana Bamba played in 16 games and scored six times for Monroe. At SUNY Tech, Malick Faye had one game in goal, and Emelio Haughton was named Third Team All-North Eastern Athletic Conference for starting in 16 games and registering three goals and four assists. Hartwick’s Steven Amaya recorded two goals and two assists in 16 games. Archie Dweh played one game for St. Bonaventure. And Mohammed Ahamed started 17 games and had two assists for Nazareth, where Mike Chuqui (MLK) and Giancarlos Molina (St. Agnes) were also on the roster.

Other locals playing upstate included Michael Chew (Collegiate), who appeared in four games for Bard. Marist’s Tim Garger (Regis) had two assists in 14 games and was named to the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference All-Academic Team. Luci Rawe (LaGuardia) got into 11 games as a freshman at Vassar.

Lucas Neustadt (Beacon) started twice at Clark, where Rachel Minsky (LaGuardia) played 18 games and registered a goal and an assist. Haverford’s Max Stossel (Dalton) started 13 times, recording three goals and two assists along the way. And Chris Weinstein (Trinity) played in three games at Washington University in St. Louis.

Justin Griffiths took his game from Regis to Oberlin, where he got into 11 games this fall. Briggin Scharf (Spence), also at Oberlin, played 12 times. Her conference rival, Kenyon, fielded Clara Fischman (Riverdale) in seven games and Shanna Keown, who got two assists while starting all but one match. Finally, Eric Libby, another Spence alumna, played two games in goal for Claremont McKenna and had one save.

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Jets rookie Keith Fitzhugh and Adrienne Smith of the New York Sharks Independent Women’s Football League team instruct students from P.S. 111 Adolph S. Ochs School. Photo by Daniel S. Burnstein

“We’ve had a boys’ program for a while now,” said Tim Rodgers, a physical education and health teacher from Anderson and West Prep, which share a building with the Computer School on West 77th Street. “Previously, we incorporated the girls with the boys’ teams. This year, we got the opportunity to start a girls’ football program where they could really shine and show off their talents just among themselves. So far, it’s been a blast. There’s a lot of camaraderie. They love it. They love coming to practice and working out together.”
And everyone seemed to love playing in the tournament last week. They not only got a chance to compete but also received coaching from a bevy of professional football players, including two New York Jets and six members of the New York Sharks, a women’s team.
Adrienne Smith of the Sharks and Keith Fitzhugh, a practice squad player for the Jets, quickly got an intense scrimmage going after splitting up members of the team from P.S. 111 Adolph S. Ochs School into two groups. Even with Fitzhugh calling the plays, though, his offense stalled. The first pass was batted down, and the second glanced off the hands of a receiver running deep down the field. On third down, he dialed up a trick play: a handoff followed by a pass back to the quarterback, but the ball fell short. A Hail Mary on fourth down also failed
as Smith’s defense celebrated. Unfortunately, her offense had little more success, and Fitzhugh got some redemption later in the day when he took over as quarterback for the Anderson/Computer/West Prep team and tossed a deep touchdown pass.
“The NFL is involved in giving girls a place to play football,” said Samantha Rapaport, manager of the Flag Football Leadership Program. “We’ve identified areas of the country where we’re trying to get girls’ flag football into high schools and middle schools. We’ve got schools from all five boroughs participating. Over 300 girls in the city are being introduced to the sport of flag football for the first time, which is very special for us. It’s very interesting because these girls didn’t know much previously about football, and now I can see them running around and playing.”

Girls from P.S. 111 Adolph S. Ochs (white shirts) try to stop a drive by the team in blue, comprising students from Anderson, West Prep and the Computer School. Photo Daniel S. Burnstein

The NFL and the Jets helped out with more than just informal coaching and organization. The Jets also presented a $50,000 donation to C.H.A.M.P.S. (Cooperative, Healthy, Active, Motivated and Positive Students), a sports program that provides after-school games and activities for middle schools around New York.
“We provide an opportunity for middle school students to engage in physical activity,” said Ron Gonzalez of C.H.A.M.P.S. “We do traditional activities like football, basketball and soccer. We also have some non-traditional activities like tai chi, martial arts and crew. The gist of the program is just getting kids moving in whatever it is they like to do.”
The “Thanksgiving Classic” was the second tournament of the season for girls’ flag football. The final showcase will take place Dec. 5 on Randall’s Island.
“This is the first time girls are able to play flag football legitimately in New York City schools,” Rapaport said. “There was some hesitation initially. I heard it not so much from the girls but from parents. But our coaches explained that it’s non-contact and extremely popular among girls around the country. Girls flock to the sport once you offer it. To have 300 girls in the first year is incredible.”
One of those girls, a 7th grader from Anderson named Selina Lim, was waiting during the first game somewhat impatiently on the sidelines for her turn to get into the action.
“I just like playing,” she said. “You have to get really, really aggressive. Everyone is very intense and into the game. You have to be alert. So it’s hard, but it’s fun at the same time.”

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“All I really wanted to do was play every day,” Smith said. “I realized that in college if you can hit, you can play.”

He ended up doing plenty of both. By the time he graduated earlier this year, he owned the all-time Kenyon batting-average record with a .410 mark and on-base percentage (OBP) at a .506 rate. During his senior season, he also set the single-season RBI record by knocking in 48 runs while starting all 45 games and leading the squad with a .418 batting average and .508 on-base percentage. He was twice named to the All-North Coast Athletic Conference First Team and also earned an All-Region nod in 2008 when he was the team’s MVP. And his defense didn’t suffer either; he finished tied for fifth in the record books with a .979 fielding percentage.

By the time Will Smith graduated earlier this year, he owned the all-time Kenyon batting-average record with a .410 mark.

According to Smith, his hitting abilities developed when he first arrived at Kenyon and was introduced to the weight room.

“That was when I started lifting weights,” he said. “I got pretty into that, hitting the weights and working on my swing, and good things happened. I never thought I’d have as much success as I did. I guess I just put the work in.”

Smith has moved back to New York City, and though he doesn’t know how baseball fits into his long-term plans, he played this summer in the Westchester Rockland Wood Bat League, a competitive association filled with former college and minor league players. No surprise: he led his team in most major offensive categories.

Three other locals played with Smith at Kenyon last spring. Andy Hoffman (Beacon) appeared in four games and struck out seven batters. Outfielder Jamie Keyte (Trinity) started 18 games, batting .237 with a .375 OBP, two homers and eight RBI. Fellow Trinity alumnus Pat Gunn started 30 games and recorded a .296 batting average, .375 OBP and 22 RBI.

At New York colleges, Jorge Rosado (Martin Luther King) stood out for his efforts at Baruch. The senior shortstop was named City University of New York Athletic Conference Player of the Year. He started 34 games, batted .465, slugged .806, stole 34 bases, batted in 36 runs and hit 18 doubles, four triples and six homers with a .594 OBP. He led his league in batting, slugging OBP, runs scored, hits, doubles, home runs, walks and steals.

Lehman’s Jose Santiago (Food and Finance) started 14 games and batted .261 with three RBI and a .370 OBP. At Long Island-Brooklyn, Paul Lopez (Beacon) made 18 appearances in relief and went 1-2 with a 7.17 ERA and 20 strikeouts. Jacob Tobin (Dalton) of St. Joseph’s Brooklyn appeared in eight games and had two hits and three walks.

Two other players wrapped up their collegiate careers at Fordham. John Kahn (Trinity) played in 34 games as an outfielder, batting .301 with 17 RBI and five steals. Jake Rabinowitz (Beacon) made 22 appearances and five starts, finishing with a 3-7 record, 7.80 ERA and 29 strikeouts in 42.2 innings.

Farther upstate, Difre Reyes (Beacon) started 46 games at Concordia and batted .218 with two homers, 23 RBI and seven steals. At Alfred State, Berto Vargas (Norman Thomas) put together a memorable senior season, for which he was named All-Region, All-Western New York Athletic Conference and the school’s Senior Athlete of the Year. He led Alfred with a .407 batting average, 11 doubles, six home runs and 49 RBI. He also added a .667 slugging percentage and 19 steals.

Four locals got playing time in the Ivy League, three of them Regis graduates. Harvard’s Tom Zollo appeared in 10 games and reached base four times. At Cornell, Jerry Vitiello played in 13 games, batting .222. Andrew Bakowski made 14 relief appearances at Brown, finishing 2-1 with a 4.32 ERA and 11 strikeouts in 25 innings. Finally, Princeton’s Stephen Elmore (Horace Mann) made one appearance as a freshman pitcher, surrendering three hits and three earned runs in one inning.

In the New England Small College Athletic Conference (NESCAC), a pair of Trinity graduates made a mark at Bowdoin. Dan Hicks played in 31 games and batted .357 with a .438 OBP, .620 slugging percentage, five homers and 13 RBI. Adam Marquit appeared in 35 games and had a .264 batting average, .319 OBP, 21 RBI and seven steals. Hamilton’s Jeremy Brenner (Collegiate) played 22 games and batted .235 with a .300 OBP. Fellow Collegiate alum Martin Green appeared in 16 games at Williams and put up a .227 batting average and .320 OBP. He was also named to the NESCAC All-Academic Team, as was Mike Neff (Dalton) of Amherst. Neff played in 22 games and batted .273 with a .342 OBP and 10 RBI.

At Brandeis, John McGrath (Trevor Day) made 14 appearances as a pitcher, going 0-2 with an 11.48 ERA and seven strikeouts in 13.1 innings. Teammate Julian Cavin (Beacon) played 16 games and was third on the team with a .340 batting average. Will Perry, another Trevor Day product, made two appearances and threw three innings for Dickinson, striking out three and surrendering three hits and six earned runs. Two other freshmen got more significant playing time. Jake Chaplin (Fieldston) started 27 games at first base for Haverford, batting .210 with two homers, 15 RBI, a .325 OBP and ten steals. Fairfield’s Mark Skrapits (Regis) started all 47 games at shortstop and recorded a .281 batting average, .356 OBP and 23 RBI.

Jason Friedman (Browning) played 28 games at Macalester and hit .167 with three RBI.

Finally, two locals helped Pomona-Pitzer go 37-7 last spring. James Brunswick (Collegiate) made eight starts and appeared in 15 games, earning a 5-1 record and 4.73 ERA. He struck out 38 batters in 59 innings. James Klingensmith (Riverdale) saw action twice and earned a walk.

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But wait! Hold on just a moment!

Copeland-Halperin does not get to enjoy her home run trot. It turns out she batted out of order in the lineup, an innocent mistake, but one that gets her tossed from the game and her home run crossed out of the box score.

More than three years later, she has yet to see the humor in the situation.

Libby Copeland-Halperin is second in the Williams College record books, with 12 career home runs.

“It’s still not funny,” she said in a huff.

Maybe not, but Copeland-Halperin’s team won anyway, and she managed to go yard again (officially this time) several days later. By the time her career at Williams College ended, she was second in the school’s record books, with 17 career homers. Despite that initial misstep, the former Horace Mann slugger and Upper West Side native became a bona fide power hitter.

“I’ve always been more of a power hitter, even in high school,” she recalled. “We didn’t keep track of stats back then, but I definitely had some luck when it came to power. It’s not something you want to take for granted. You don’t want to ever say you can reliably hit a home run. But freshman year, I got more confidence every time I hit a home run or a double.”

For whatever reason, New York City is not the incubator of softball talent that it is for basketball, tennis or even baseball ability. Copeland-Halperin has played softball for as long as she can remember, but she never fell into the routine of elite youth athletics. Until after her junior year at Horace Mann, she didn’t even play on a summer team. So when she headed to Williams and joined a team poised for a run deep into the postseason, she felt a little unprepared.

“I came in liking softball, but it was never a full-year commitment,” she said. “That was unlike most of my teammates.”

But Copeland-Halperin, who is starting at Mount Sinai School of Medicine this fall, still played in almost every game for the squad that year, and she’s gotten only better ever since. This spring, she concluded her career by batting .300 with five home runs, 24 RBI and a .578 slugging percentage. She was also named to the New England Small College Athletic Conference All-Academic Team.

More important, she never batted out of turn again.

Among the few other locals playing softball in college, the majority still compete in New York City. Baruch’s Gisell Alix (Brandeis) was named a City University of New York Athletic Conference Second Team All-Star after starting 35 games as a freshman and hitting .354 with a .436 on-base percentage and 24 RBI. Monroe’s Kary Frias (Art and Design) had a standout first season by playing in 17 games, batting .426 and collecting nine RBI, 17 steals and a .557 on-base percentage. Two more freshmen, Monique Sampson and Lidymar Riera (both Cathedral graduates), played at Lehman. Sampson started 24 games while leading the team with a .333 batting average, a .508 slugging percentage and 14 RBI. She also stole eight bases. Riera started three games and made five plate appearances, reaching base twice. Christine Vega (Environmental Studies) appeared in 14 games as a junior for Buffalo State. Finally, Carly Klingensmith (Nightingale) started all 38 games at Macalester, batting .154 and knocking in eight runs.

Tennis—Three Ramaz graduates played at Yeshiva this spring. Gabrielle Hess and Moshe Neiman complete their senior seasons, with the latter finishing 5-2 in singles and 2-2 in doubles. Zack Charles, meanwhile, was named to the Skyline All-Conference First Team after going 3-7 in doubles and 6-4 at first singles as a freshman.

Elsewhere in the city, Yelnar Nurseitov (LaGuardia), a junior at Baruch, was 1-1 in singles and lost her only doubles match. New York University’s Lisa Mijovic (Nightingale) finished 5-7 in singles and 7-6 in doubles during her sophomore season.

There were also a bunch of locals playing upstate. Bard’s Jesse Bogner (Browning) finished his career by going 4-2 in singles and 5-3 in doubles. Rebecca London moved from Birch Wathen Lenox to play at Rochester Institute of Technology. And Jeremy Arthur (Fieldston) and Max Willner (Dwight) both competed for Vassar. Willner was named to the Liberty League All-Conference First Team for the second straight season in singles after going 9-7. He also received an Honorable Mention in doubles for an 8-9 record.

Two freshmen joined the team at Oberlin: Miles Bogner (Browning) and Rebecca Brown (Dalton). Brown was 3-1 in singles and lost two doubles matches. Sara Reed (Riverdale), another freshman, went 10-8 in singles and 13-6 in doubles at Claremont-Mudd-Scripps. But undoubtedly the best freshman season belonged to Warren Elgort; The Trinity alumnus was 11-5 in singles and 14-3 in doubles at Johns Hopkins.

At Pomona-Pitzer, Kathryn Myers (Spence) finished her career with a 12-3 singles record and lost one doubles match. Titus Levy (Fieldston) was 8-11 in singles and 9-10 in doubles as a junior at Macalester. And Hunter Holbrook’s (Trevor Day) junior campaign for Dickinson included a 10-3 mark at second singles and an 8-5 doubles record.

Lacrosse—Scott Margolis (Riverdale) played 13 games in attack for Colby as a freshman and scored eight goals with six assists and 12 groundballs. Yale’s Max Rodman (Trinity) appeared in five games as a junior, picked up two groundballs and went 9-for-15 in face-offs. Two more Trinity graduates played lacrosse: Sanford Nunes at Trinity and Ross Lovern at Skidmore. Nancy Planitzer (Hewitt) wrapped up her career at Pomona-Pitzer. Finally, two former Horace Mann players saw action on collegiate fields. Sofia Adler played in six games on defense for Colgate, and Katie Guthrie appeared in two games at Amherst, taking two shots and getting one groundball.

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“It’s pretty weird,” the 19-year-old conceded recently while reviewing his up-and-down career.

Segan has overcome injuries, burnout and apathy during the past half-dozen years. But undoubtedly the biggest impediment to his progress was the most obvious hallmark of his playing style: his two-handed forehand.

Max Segan at a 2009 tournament versus John Jay College. Photo by Joe DeBenedictis

“My dad had a two-handed forehand,” Segan recalled. “When I was 2 he took me out on a tennis court, and my first time out I refused to leave. He just kept tossing me balls. I was hitting with two hands probably out of necessity more than anything else, but I kept hitting them.”

It’s no surprise that Segan’s athletic idol is no megastar but rather Fabrice Santoro, the obscure favorite of tennis aesthetes known simply as “The Magician.” Like Segan, Santoro (and almost no one else in the history of professional tennis) wields the two-handed forehand with surprising effectiveness.

“It’s an ugly stroke, but my forehand is probably my best shot,” Segan said. “So there’s not much people can say about it. Most end up asking me how to get more topspin on their forehands.”

With that topspin rocket of his, Segan prospered on the court throughout his young years. But when he was 13, he felt burned out and stopped playing tournaments. Back surgery also kept him out of tennis completely for several months. For a few years, he only played as a member of the Hunter College High School team. In 2007, though, the squad got a new coach, and Segan suddenly felt re-energized.

“He made me captain of the team, and I got into it,” Segan said. “I was a lot more competitive. Junior year was a bit of a wakeup call.”

As a senior, he led Hunter to the city championship game. At that point, despite all his previous struggles, he knew he was meant to play collegiate tennis. A native of the Upper East Side, he ended up at Hunter College, where he prospered athletically contrary to his own expectations. The transition from high school to college only seemed to improve his game. This past spring, he went 10-5 at first singles and 11-3 at first and second doubles. He was named the City University of New York Athletic Conference’s (CUNYAC) Rookie of the Year, chosen as team MVP and also served as its captain.

“It was a bit of a breakthrough for me,” Segan said. “I beat some players I never thought I could have beaten in college. I’m now obsessed with tennis. My whole summer has been dedicated to it.”

Still, he was dissatisfied at Hunter. Preferring the atmosphere of a traditional college campus, he transferred to Colgate University and will play Division I tennis there in the fall. It’s a big jump, but based on past results it should hardly be a problem for him.

New York is a center for young tennis talent, and colleges last spring were brimming with plenty of great players from Manhattan besides Segan. Mieszko Tomczak, his high school teammate, was 1-2 in singles and 6-9 in doubles as a freshman at Georgetown. Another former Hunter player, Anika Fischer, went 4-7 at first singles and 9-2 at first doubles as a junior at Wesleyan and was named to the New England Small College Athletic Conference (NESCAC) All-Academic Team. Michael Piderit (Dalton) also played at Wesleyan, going 7-3 in singles and 6-5 in doubles as a freshman.

Other standout freshmen include two stars from the Beacon powerhouse: Milo Hauk and Imran Choudhury. Hauk was named to the All-Big East First Team after finishing 13-7 in singles and 12-9 in doubles at St. John’s. Manhattanville’s Choudhury was named the Freedom Conference Rookie of the Year and a member of the All-Conference First Team. He was 19-1 at first and second singles and 16-5 mostly at first doubles. He also won the Middle Atlantic Conference Championship in singles.

Rajeev Deb-Sen and Haig Schneiderman, two more freshmen, went from Horace Mann to the collegiate ranks, where they helped to lead Columbia to the Ivy League title. Deb-Sen was 9-2 in singles and 11-4 in doubles. Schneiderman was the conference Rookie of the Year and Second Team All-Ivy in doubles, where he finished 14-5. He was also Honorable Mention All-Ivy in singles thanks to a 13-6 record. Other Horace Mann alumni playing college tennis include Michael Yassky, who was 11-8 in singles and 12-8 in doubles as a junior at Colgate; Robbie Erani, who had a great freshman season at Claremont-Mudd-Scripps, going 17-7 and 19-10 at second singles and doubles, respectively; and David Orbuch, a freshman member of the Dartmouth team.

One of Orbuch’s teammates at Dartmouth was Curtis Roby, a sophomore from Trinity who was 11-10 in singles and 9-12 in doubles. He was named team captain for next season.

At other Ivy League universities, Hilary Bartlett (Brearley) and Coleman Crutchfield (Riverdale) both played as freshmen at Princeton. Bartlett was First Team All-Ivy in both singles (thanks to a 19-5 record) and doubles (16-8). Crutchfield was 2-4 on his own and 1-1 in the doubles format. Jonathan Pearlman (Fieldston) was Second Team All-Ivy in singles after going 19-9 at Brown. He was also 15-6 in doubles. Emily Wolf (Columbia Prep), yet another freshman, was Honorable Mention All-Ivy in doubles after a 7-6 record at the University of Pennsylvania, where she also went 4-8 in singles.

In the NESCAC, Kathryn Friedman (Chapin) concluded her sophomore season at Williams with a 3-0 record in singles. She lost only two games during those three matches and was part of a team that won its second straight Division 3 national championship. Julian Camacho (Columbia Prep) was 7-4 in singles and 6-2 in doubles as a freshman at Amherst. Josh Cranin, his high school classmate, finished 7-7 in singles and 6-5 in doubles for Bowdoin. Sophomores and Fieldston graduates Arielle Leben and David Dessau played at Trinity. Dessau lost his lone singles match, and Leben was 6-11 in singles and 11-9 in doubles. Olivia Merns (Spence) was also a regular for the Bantams, earning a 12-5 singles record and 11-5 mark in doubles.

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“I like the drive, the power, the intensity, the angles, the lobs, everything,” said 15-year-old Josh Garcia of Sunset Park, Brooklyn, still breathing hard moments after a long semifinal doubles match.

Like the several dozen others wandering around, he was playing in the 2009 Sky Bounce Handball Championships, a tournament now in its 15th year. (It was previously called the Inner City Big Blue Championships before Sky Bounce, which manufactures handballs, became the title sponsor last year.)

An athlete takes aim at an oncoming ball during the 2009 Sky Bounce Handball Championships, in Central Park. Photo by Isaac Rosenthal

The tournament is only one of several notable endeavors that Paul Williams has started. He founded ICHA 18 years ago and has shepherded it to a place of prominence in the enthusiastic handball community of New York City. The nonprofit organization arranges handball clinics, games and tournaments on both indoor and outdoor courts for about 5,000 kids. That’s a heady number, but it’s one that Williams is still unhappy with.

“There are still a lot more kids in the city,” said Williams, a towering figure with a thin, salt-and-pepper mustache. “This city has 2,000 handball courts, so 5,000 kids suddenly doesn’t seem like so many.”

Handball typically comes in one-, three- and four-wall varieties. For years, one-wall handball was exclusive to New York and regarded as perhaps the city’s most emblematic sport. The best players still come out of the five boroughs, but the one-wall version of the game has now spread to 20 states and even to Europe.

Williams has played the game for 41 years and intends to head to the World Championships in Portland, Ore., this October. He has twice won his age bracket there and twice finished second in the open competition.

“It’s a hobby,” he said in a remarkable bit of understatement for something that seems more like a passionate obsession. “My game is still pretty good.”

Williams, who is also president of the World Handball Council, hopes to take some of ICHA’s kids to Portland with him. Teenage players have to earn their way by showing success both on the court and in the classroom. Garcia, who makes no bones about his handball obsession, might be one who gets to make the trip. Williams placed him among the top junior players in the city.

“I don’t think that I’m the best,” Garcia said. “I just have more experience and play more than the other players.”

When he isn’t in school, Garcia plays 10 games per day, three or four days per week. During the school year, he plays for Brooklyn’s High School of Telecommunication Arts & Technology and is coming off a near-perfect season. This spring, he went 15-0 and led his team to the city championship final before it lost its only match. His father started teaching him the sport when he was 3 and still occasionally runs him ragged out at the courts, but Garcia never loses his enthusiasm. On July 19, he won the under-17 singles draw at the Sky Bounce Tournament and then showed off his skills in the doubles format, consistently hitting low, hard shots and keeping his opponents off balance.

“When we go on defense in the back, our goal is to move them back so we can go to the front and take control,” Garcia said, explaining his strategy. “It’s all about taking control by using lobs or drives to send them to the back of the court. Then you can block out your opponents so it’s a struggle for them to reach for the ball.”

Moments after Garcia finished his semifinal match, Williams strolled to a court on the opposite side of the recreation center and began playing a casual game. He was without athletic garb and had more important tasks at hand: keeping matches going, running errands, ordering pizza for his players. The noontime sun was withering overhead, with the concrete underfoot attracting every bit of heat, but for a handball diehard like Williams, that familiar thwack-thwack was just too much to resist.

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“Attack the hurdle,” he urges with commanding repetition. “Don’t be scared of the hurdle. You can’t be scared of it because it won’t hurt you. Lean. Lean!”

Then, a crash.

“That’s all right. Now you know it can’t hurt you. After a while, you’re going to get so used to the hurdle that you won’t even see it anymore.”

Lindsay, 45, has a trim build, shaved head and sports one earring and a salt-and-pepper goatee. When he talks, his students listen. That’s because his voice doesn’t just offer unceasing encouragement; it dispenses the experience of three Olympic Games and more than three decades of running.

Lindsay was born in Jamaica and grew up in the tiny Caribbean island nation of Antigua and Barbuda.

“We’re so small that we don’t really rival Jamaica or The Bahamas,” he said. “And the facilities down on the islands aren’t very good. I grew up running on 300-meter grass tracks. I didn’t start training on rubber tracks until college.”

A Caribbean native, Howard Lindsay ran in three Olympics Games, and netted a scholarship for the University of Maryland Eastern Shore.

College was both a beginning and an end point for Lindsay. It may have marked his first opportunity to train in top facilities, but it was also the fulfillment of a longtime goal that first drew him to the track. Antigua is so small that most youths seeking higher education leave the island. His parents couldn’t afford to send him to school overseas, so when a high school coach told the sophomore how much potential lay in his talent, an idea emerged.

“That’s when I took track seriously, thinking that I could get a scholarship,” Lindsay said. “I knew I was fast, but I didn’t really believe that I was that fast. But my coach at the time had a lot of faith in me and built up my personal faith.”

Several years later, in 1984, Lindsay was at the Los Angeles Summer Olympics, running before more than 90,000 people. He returned to the games in 1988 in Seoul, South Korea, and in 1996 in Atlanta. In Seoul, he had the distinct pleasure and misfortune of running the 200 meters in the lane next to Carl Lewis, one of the greatest track and field athletes ever. Lindsay spent the entire race watching the back of Lewis’ jersey, finishing about a second behind, but he got a lot of airtime on TV as the camera followed his far more famous competitor. Not once at the Olympics was he able to advance past the first round, but in recounting the experiences it hardly seems to matter.

“It’s unbelievable,” Lindsay said of running at the games. “I always joke that I almost fainted the first time because I never had run before that many people. I’ll never forget that just before I ran, there were some people in the front row. They didn’t know who I was, but they saw Antigua on my singlet and started cheering for me. The camaraderie was great.”

The appearance in Los Angeles drew the attention of collegiate scouts, and Lindsay spent the next four years on scholarship running at the University of Maryland Eastern Shore. He got a degree in construction management and technology and worked in that field for more than 20 years.

But he never stopped running. Lindsay can no longer summon the speed that took him to a personal best of 45.7 seconds in the 400 meters, but he still competes and took up hurdling several years ago—30 years of running just the 200 and 400 got boring after awhile. At the same time, he tries to teach the sport to his students at UNIS, where he has coached for seven years. When he arrived, the team was small. Now he has 25 kids. He helped start up a cross-country squad last year and is aiming to begin an indoor team as well. This winter, he informally coached a smaller group that didn’t want to stop running between seasons.

“I’m a track fanatic,” Lindsay said. “I was given a talent by the big man upstairs, and I think it’s only fair and right to try to pass it on to the kids.”

Earlier in the year, a few of his runners came out to watch him compete in a meet for masters, runners older than 40. Can any of his students beat him in a race yet?

“Umm, no,” Lindsay said with an almost indignant tone. “Not yet at least, but a few of them are close.”

One day, when the years have let age take its toll, they’ll catch him. But that doesn’t seem to bother their coach much.

“I intend to keep running as long as possible.”

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