The 2001 Indoor Track season started out with a large number of athletes trying out. At one time there were over 55 people who wanted to share in the experience of indoor track. In the end about 37 athletes maintained consistent tough practice. This is very special to me since in the 1998-99 season we only had about 10 athletes. Last year we grew to 27 athletes. The program is building and growing, in large part due to the dedication of the athletes who promote the sport by their actions, achievement and spirit. I am very proud of the team this year because while we graduated several great athletes last year, we were still a presence at each meet. Athletes stepped up and worked hard at practice and performed well at meets that usually were long and ended late in the evening.

For those who do not understand how the team trains and what they do, this is it in a nutshell. For practice, when we could be, we were outside. We ran to Crescent Beach and back - taking a dip in the ocean when we arrived. Often this winter we were forced to practice upstairs in the hallways. This is very difficult and strenuous on the lungs and the legs. The distance upstairs is about 270 meters. We would often run several miles of distance or speed workouts in the hall. After a long warm-up and practice running, we could then lift weights or play some basketball for conditioning and fun. Shot Puts, Long/Triple Jumps, Hurdles and High Jumps were done in the back gym when we could.

The meets seemed to never end at times. A track meet usually is in excess of four hours long. We would leave for the Armory (and Princeton) at 7 a.m. and return at 7 p.m. The meets on the weeknights would start at 6 p.m. and end at 11 p.m. The athletes would not complain, they would always make the most of it. After the races, most athletes did homework, caught some Z's, or just watched the day's events. Despite the hot dry air and long meets, the bus rides were eventful!

This team has shown true team spirit, a dedication to healthy training and a determination to improve. Track and Field is the sport where athletes compete against each other, the clock, the tape measure and themselves - where one must rely on an inner strength to excel and improve. I hope that we continue to grow with dedicated athletes who want the chance to see how great they can be. I enjoyed the season very much and wish to say thank you to them. I would like to wish the seniors good luck and hope that the legacy of the team lives on into next year's team.

The Varsity team members are: 1st year student athletes: Kristie Anzalone (12), Sean Basdavanos (12), Jaime Basile (12), Ridge Beale (12), Daniel Bellissimo (11), Chris Corbin (11), Akia Dean (11), Steven Filippone (9), Joseph Kopito (11), Diana Langenbach (11), Grace Liang (11), Hung-I Liao (9), Italo Naves (11), William Ng (11), Miguel Quinones (10), Alexandra Ravener (11), Samantha Renisen (9), Allen Shin (9), Manjit Singh (10), Richard Tarver (11), Jasmine Thompson (11), Nicole Trotta (12) and Ashkan Zandieh (12). 2nd year student athletes: Liz Beisler (12), Michael Biscardi (11), Iesha Brown (10), Brian Cavallo (12), Tin Chin (10), Antonio Condello (11), Ashanti Davis (10), Diana Kim (10), Jason Lindenbaum (10), Matthew Lindenbaum (12), Ben Lowell (10), John Mahoney (11), Amanda Moretto (10), and Lucia Son (11).

Junior Varsity honors were given to Tiana Taliep (9) and Manny Ramos (10).

I would like to thank Assistant Coach Savy Gallo for his constant support and his dedication in helping to create healthy and happy student-athletes, the administration, Mrs. Berhang, Mrs. Perlman and the Booster Club for their continued support of the growing program. I look forward to next season and much more success.

On March 10 Akia Dean, traveling through snowstorms, competed in the triple jump at the New York State Indoor Championships held at the Carrier Dome in Syracuse. Her best mark at the meets was 30'9, 75" and placed her 26th in the meets. She is only a junior and should be in strong contention for a return to the State Championships next year.

Akia's competition at the State Meet represents the third time in four years that Glen Cove has sent an athlete to compete in the Indoor Track Championships. Congratulations to Akia for bringing this great honor to the City of Glen Cove!

The Glen Cove Varsity Rifle Team finished their season on Thursday, Feb. 15, by shooting at the County Championships for the second straight year. Our team placed 2nd, even though we were ranked as the 6th best team in the county at the beginning of the season. The 2nd place win was made possible because the entire team shot very well when they needed to, including two young shooters who were moved up to the varsity team after we lost our first two matches. Dawn Saepia and Yasir Javed, who are both 10th-graders, accepted this challenge. Yasir Javed is a first-year shooter.

Our team had the lowest season average out of all the teams that were at the counties, however the entire team shot very well. This enabled us to shoot the best team score and upset both Freeport and Bellmore/Merrick, both of which we lost to this season. Anna Glinianska shot a 178, Malgorzata Kurjanska shot a 177 and both Aubrie Dillon and Yasir Javed shot a 171 for a team score of 697 points. This score was only 9 points shy of what the #1 ranked Massapequa team shot for the day. Also shooting for Glen Cove were Kamila Lis with a 164 and Dawn Saepia with a 152. All six shooters also qualified to shoot as individuals at the counties because their own averages were within the top 32 in the county. Anna finished with the fifth highest score of the day.

Senior Malgorzata Kurjanska was selected to the All-County team with a 166.29 season average, which was the 11th highest average of all of the shooters in the county. The All-Division team is made up of the next six highest averages in our division. Glen Cove once again dominated this by making up 50 percent of this team for two years in a row. Selected to this team were Senior Kamila Lis with a 166.13 (1/100th of a point away from All-County), Sophomore Aubrie Dillon with a 163.75 and Senior Anna Glinianska with a 163.25. Not very far behind were Yasir Javed with a 158.71 and Dawn Saepia with a 158.5.

Kamila Lis was also honored this season by being selected and published in Newsday for being a Scholar-Athlete. Kamila was not the only scholar on this team however. Our team has won the scholar-athlete team award for the past three years by having an academic average that was above 90.

I am looking forward to another strong season next year since we have three very strong returning varsity shooters. The JV team is a very young team but I hope to have three of them step up to fill the openings on our very competitive varsity team.

Great job to all varsity and junior varsity shooters. Keep up the hard work both on the range and in the classroom, because it shows just how much hard work pays off.

As the coach of both teams, I extend my utmost thanks to all who have made this wonderful experience possible to these young adults. I am sure that they will remember this experience for a very long time. I would also like to thank the Booster Club for their most gracious donation toward our team.

The Glen Cove Wrestling team had a very successful qualifying tournament, sending 8 wrestlers to the counties with their minds set on All-County honors. Two of those wrestlers, Dave Paskoff and Charles McCullough, saw their goals attained.

The Big Red had a nice mix of four seniors and four juniors make All-Conference and go to the Counties. Two of the juniors, Matt Hurwitz and Pete Loidice wrestled well at the counties and earned the much-needed experience to be successful next year. Matt was winning his match before being caught in a cradle by his tough Long Beach opponent. Matt wrestled back but came up short. Pete gave up points early to his Bethpage opponent, which proved to be too much to overcome.

Tri-Captains Jeff Rudloff, Steve Sarmiento and Mike Smith led the team. All three wrestlers scored points for Glen Cove and won matches, but literally came up 1 point short of advancing. All three know too well that 3-points or less decides most matches at the counties, and on any given day anybody can go all county. The three will graduate with 212 wins between them for their varsity careers at Glen Cove. The Big Red has never had three wrestlers in one graduating class combine for as many wins as these three have. They have been great leaders and will be sorely missed.

Another senior, Dave Paskoff had the tournament he had hoped for. Dave won his first round match pinning Mark Russell from Levittown Division. Russell was the fourth seed in the tournament. Dave was beating Greg Dalton from East Meadow when he was caught with a big move. Dave was not done for the day though. He then went on to pin Ryan Murphy from South Side setting up a huge match with Chris Bretton of Bethpage. Bretton and Dave met twice on the football field this year and both wanted bragging rights on the wrestling mats. With a minute to go in the match Bretton looked to be in control, ahead 3-0. Dave would not be denied however. He managed an escape for one point and before Bretton could adjust, he quickly scored a two-point takedown to tie it up. Dave faced a tough task of having to ride his opponent for almost 45 seconds. He did not need to do so as he quickly locked up a cross face cradle. Dave earned three more back points and finished the match in the pinning combination!

Dave was not done just yet. He followed the Bretton win with a great win over the tough Ed Parra from MacArthur. At this point Dave was facing Keith Phillips of Massapequa for 3rd place in Nassau County. The two faced off in the finals of the Huntington Tournament earlier in the year. Dave came up short both times losing by 2 points. Dave had a great tournament and a well-deserved 4th place finish in Nassau County.

Junior Charles McCullough added to his All-County totals by finishing third in the 275-pound-weight class. Charles was similar to Dave in that he won his first round match by a pin and was then caught by an opponent. Charles tried to force a move, that is a mistake. There is no room for mistakes at the Counties, and Charles learned a valuable lesson. He then went on to pin Dave Marguiles of Mepham and out-point Shaun Giles of Freeport to go All-County. Charles, who took 6th in the county last year, had his sights set a little higher. Charles went on to pin Joe Sampson of Valley Stream North and Garrett Wycoff of MacArthur to place 3rd in Nassau County. This gives Charles two years of experience to go for his ultimate goal of County Champion next year!

Great job guys. Go Big Red.