It was an exciting week for the Big Red Baseball team. Not only because of the personal achievement of Sophomore Pitcher Kevin McGuire as he pitched a Perfect Game, but the Covers also won 4 of 5 this week, sweeping Bellmore. Then on Saturday, Ninth Grader Mark Czerniawski started his first varsity game and responded with a 4-hit shutout, striking out 8!

Glen Cove started off the week on the road at Bellmore. Craig Hansen pitched a complete game, giving up only 3 hits and striking out 12 for the day in a 7-4 victory. The Big Red used their bag of tricks and stole 5 runs from an unaware Bellmore defense.

The next day, pitching was once again the story as Keith Dempster took the mound. Keith gave up only 6 hits and fanned 9 with 2 walks for the complete game. The Big Red hitters stepped up with 9 hits for the day. Joel Basilion - 2 hits, Frank Carrotta - 2 hits and 8th grader Bruce Testa - 2 hits. Anthony Pizziatola led the team with 2 RBI's.

The third game of the series, the Big Red continued their assault on the Bellmore pitchers with 10 hits. Craig Hansen led with 2 hits and 2 RBI's, Matt Lindenbaum had 2 hits and Anthony Pizziatola had 2 hits, 1 RBI and Joel Basilion had 2 RBI's. This sweep of Bellmore put the Big Red in the hunt for a playoff spot.

On Saturday, April 28, the Big Red played neighborhood rival Friends Academy. The game was a tough one until the third inning when the Glen Cove offense erupted for 14 runs, sending 18 men to the plate. Matt Lindenbaum, going 3 for 4 with 8 RBI's, highlighted by a grand slam for his first career homerun, led the 18-hit attack. Joining in the hit parade was John Williams - 2 hits, 2 RBI's, Frank Carrotta - 3 hits, Craig Hansen - 3 hits, 2 RBI's, Anthony Pizziatola - 2 hits, Tom Monahan - 2 RBI's and Bruce Testa - 2 RBI's.

This Saturday, May 5, the Big Red will take on the Vikings of North Shore in their traditional night game at Glen Cove City Stadium. Game time is 8:00 P.M. - Come on out for a night at the ballpark and support the Big Red! Boys' varsity baseball is coached by J. Dolecki and K. Nolan.

On Wednesday, April 25, local rivals Glen Cove and Locust Valley took the field for another exciting Girls' Varsity Lacrosse game. The Glen Cove girls had some trouble keeping their game together during the first half. Locust Valley was dominating the game, even though the score was tied at 4-4. But the Big Red came out in the second half re-energized and began playing up to their regular standard - passing well on the move, slowing the ball and being patient in the offense. Glen Cove put in the go-ahead goal 15 minutes into the second half and maintained constant pressure to control the game. The Big Red scored another victory, 7-6 and improved their undefeated overall record to 9-0!

Key players for the day were Jaime Basile (1 goal, 1 assist), Kristie Anzalone (1 goal), Erica Schor (2 goals), Laura Gabbamonte (1 goal), Laura Tripp (1 goal, 1 assist), Nicole Trotta (1 goal, 1 assist), Jessica Stoker, Alex Ravener, Victoria Dilgard, Sara Dorfman, Liz Beisler and Jackie Bruce (11 saves). When the going got tough, these girls dug in and showed real tenacity and determination. Go Big Red!

Just one day earlier the girls had traveled to Plainview and got off to a quick start with a goal by Erica Schor within 3 minutes of the opening whistle. The team played an excellent game, moving the ball around and waiting for the right shot. The defense was extremely strong, forcing Plainview to drop their sticks and be checked. On attack were starters Laura Tripp, Laura Gabbamonte, Jessica Stoker, Erica Schor, Kristie Anzalone and Jaime Basile. Kristie had her best game to date. She was everywhere on the field and Jaime found her shot in the second half, having hit the post at least 5 times. Defensively the unit of Alex Ravener, Liz Beisler, Nicole Trotta, Victoria Dilgard, Sara Dorfman and Jackie Bruce really forced Plainview away. The younger players on the squad, Diana Langenbach, Mora Isip, Eunice Ju, Gabby Anastasio and Paola Martinez all made valuable contributions to the game. Glen Cove came home with an 11-4 victory! Varsity girls' lacrosse is coached by Jacquie Gow.

The Glen Cove Boys' Varsity Lacrosse Team swept its games last week, evening their league record to 3-3 and improving to 6-4 on the season.

On Wednesday, April 25, the Big Red traveled to West Hempstead to butt heads with the Rams. Just 5 minutes into the game Pascual Figueroa put the Big Red on the scoreboard on a feed from Brian Cavallo. Brian Fugazy would convert a botched Ram clear and put the Big Red up by two. In second quarter action, with Glen Cove on a powerplay, Joe Kopito scored two of his four goals on the day, the first on a feed from Jason Lindenbaum, the second from Cam Bocchino.

The third quarter saw the Big Red net three more goals as the Rams paraded back and forth to the penalty box! Fugazy would score his second goal, Kopito his third and Lindenbaum his first.

Carlos Serrano relieved Dan Bellissimo in the goal to start the fourth quarter and the Big Red kept hitting the net, scoring three more for the final score of 10-2. Kopito scored his fourth on Cam Bocchino's fourth assist. Bocchino then scored his own goal and Marcus Bianconi rounded out the day for the Big Red.

The Hewlett Bulldogs came to town on Saturday, and before your could say "Baha Men", the Dogs went out to a 3-0 lead! After the scary wake up call, the Big Red started their fight back on a Pascual Figueroa goal on an assist from Cam Bocchino. After another Hewlett goal, Cam Bocchino would cut the margin for the Big Red, on a Joe Kopito assist. The Big Red came out storming in the second quarter, scoring on the first two face-offs! Jason Lindenbaum fed Pascual for his second goal and Bocchino fed Kopito to even the score at 4. Hewlett would score again before the half, making the score 5-4 at the half.

Defensemen Jeff Oglesby, Chad Gleason, Nick Discala, Sean Basdavanos and Gianni Maraia kept the Bulldogs at bay while goalie Dan Bellissimo stopped the Bulldog offense cold. The Big Red then went on the offensive scoring the next three goals to take the lead 7-5! Brian Fugazy scored on Bocchino's third assist to end the third quarter. Joe Kopito scored to open the fourth quarter then added his fourth goal on a feed from Jason Lee.

Hewlett would not go down easily though, as they scored with 4:30 left in the game. Once again Bellissimo would take control of the game as he and the Hewlett goalie stopped four shots each in the final minutes of the game! Dan would make the last save and outlet the ball to Brian Cavallo, who was able to run out the clock for the victory. Boys varsity lacrosse is Coached by Steve Tripp and Marc Checola.

On Monday, April 30, the Glen Cove Varsity Softball team took the short ride to Glen Head to meet local rival North Shore High School. The game was a pitching duel for the first four innings. North Shore took the lead 1-0 in the bottom of the fourth inning. The pitcher from North Shore stumped the Big Red for 6 innings. It was a very stressful 6 innings for some very anxious Glen Cove coaches and fans. But the Glen Cove girls were not about to give up. In the top half of the 6th inning the Big Red woke up their bats and scored 10 runs to blow the game wide open! Joanna Moccia went 2-3 with a triple and a Grand Slam Homerun. She had 5 RBI's and scored twice. Eileen Heeren went 2-4 with a triple and scored twice. Lyndsey Testa had a triple with 4 RBI's and a run scored. Lisa Kasyjanski went 2-4 with 2 runs scored. Michelle DeJesus pitched an amazing game, facing only 27 batters in seven innings, striking out 10 and allowing only 2 hits and 1 run. She also went 2-4 with a run scored. The Big Red came home with an 11-1 victory!

On Wednesday, April 25, Roslyn gave the Big Red a scare. In the third inning the Bulldogs came out hitting and scored 6 runs to make the score 6-3. When the Glen Cove team came off the field they were badly in need of some encouragement. Coach Johanson took them aside, gave them some words of support and told them it was time to pull together and play like the winners they have become. In the bottom of the sixth, the Big Red did just that. Glen Cove scored 6 runs to equal the charge of Roslyn - The game would now belong to the Big Red as they dominated hitting. Stephanie Graziosi was 3-3 with 4 RBI's and scored twice. Joanna Moccia was 4-5 with 2 RBI's and scored twice. Karina Alverenga was 3-4 with 2 RBI's, Joan Starkman was 3-5 with 3 runs scored. Aubrie Dillon was 2-4 with 2 RBI's and she scored twice. The entire team had a total of 19 hits. Michelle DeJesus pitched a complete game and had 9 strikeouts.

One day earlier the team took an hour bus ride to Valley Stream South. The trip was well worth the ride as the girls brought home a 20-0 victory. Michelle DeJesus pitched an outstanding game, striking out 13, giving up only two hits, walking two and allowing no runs to score. Joan Starkman went 4-6 with a triple, homerun, two singles, scored 3 times and had 8 RBI's! Joanna Moccia went 1-2 with a homerun, 2 RBI's, scored 4 times and was walked 4 times after her homerun. Meghan DeAngelis and Aimee Kroeger had triples and scored a total of 5 runs. Eileen Heeren and Stephanie Graziosi combined to drive in 5 RBI's. The team had a total of 15 hits and 20 runs. The team record now stands at 9-3 overall and 7-3 league. Varsity softball is coached by Craig Johanson.

For the first time since 1993, Glen Cove High School had a 100m-dash runner break the 11.0 barrier. Junior Rich Tarver's time of 10.9 has been equaled by only 5 other GCHS athletes in the past 30 years. The school record is 10.5 set in 1975 in the 100-yard dash (9.6 before conversion). After coming in 2nd in the semis he took 5th place at the St. John's University High School Classic. Also running very well at the HS Classic was Tin Chin who ran the first 3000m-steeple chase of his life and the first one for Glen Cove in over 5 years with a time of 14:09.1. The race is about 2 miles while jumping high wooden hurdles and over a water trap. Phillip Kong had a personal best 1:15.88 FAT in the 400m Intermediate Hurdles. In the Long Jump Jiraj Hampton leaped 14'11". In the triple jump Travis Watson came in 8th with a personal best 37'0.75" and in the high jump Travis had an 8th place leap of 5'4". In the 100m dash trials Travis ran a personal best 12.0 (12.29 FAT) and Jiraj ran a personal best 13.9 (14.19 FAT). In the Mile, Mike Biscardi ran 5:24.5, Allen Shin ran 5:31.6 and Joe Mazza ran a season's best 5:47.4. The 400m run saw Anthony Condello set a season's best 1:01.8 while Anthony Hui set a personal best 1:09.6. Also running the 400 were Tin Chin (1:02.6) and Miguel Quinines (59.7).

Rising to the occasion meant overcoming some missing athletes and facing three very tough division teams. The Big Red finished fourth with 44 points behind Clarke's 46, Seaford's 62 and Lynbrook's 92. But the Big Red team ran some of its fastest races of the year. Rich Tarver took first in the 100m dash (11.3), 200m dash (23.2) and helped anchor the winning 4x100m relay. Jeff Rudloff took first in the 110 High Hurdles (17.0) and third in his first discus throw ever (102'5") and also ran in the 4x100m. Travis Watson came in third in the High Jump (5'2") and second in the triple jump (35'9") and ran the 4x100m relay. Will Ng ran the 110 HH (21.6) came in 5th in the triple jump (33'9") and threw the discus (86'). Miguel Quinones came in second in the 400m (57.3) and fifth in the 200m (26.1) and ran the 4x400m relay. Mike Biscardi ran fourth in the 800m (2:24.2) and ran the 4x800m relay. Dave Paskoff helped the 4x100m relay win and threw shot (33'7") and discus (96'). The team is coached by J. Vignolini and S. Gallo.

Wrestling is a unique high school sport in the sense that you need athletes of varying sizes to cover all of the weight classes. It is for this reason that smaller freshmen and sophomores may find themselves competing at the varsity level. Some athletes may be fortunate enough to start on the varsity for three or four years. When you have wrestlers who compete on varsity for several years, their personalities define the team. Three athletes, Jeff Rudloff, Steve Sarmiento and Mike Smith have defined the personality of the Glen Cove Wrestling Team of the past several years. As they graduate, we see the end of their era.

The accomplishments of these three athletes are impressive. They have combined for 212 varsity wins. Mike has 64 wins, Jeff has 70 wins and Steve will be graduating with 78 varsity wins. As far as we can tell from the record, 78 are the most wins for a wrestler in Glen Cove High School history. They have competed in the finals for a varsity tournament 28 times, winning 14 of those tournaments. Together, they won all-conference honors seven times with Steve Sarmiento winning all-county honors his sophomore year. The three wrestlers were members of the Conference 2A Championship Team in 1999 as well as key members of the 1998 team that placed eighth in the County out of 50 teams. They were also key competitors when Glen Cove won the Mamaroneck tournament in 1998 and 2000. All three went to the finals of the 1999 Glen Cove tournament as the "Big Red" took First Place honors.

It is apparent that Glen Cove will miss these wrestlers on the mat. Perhaps the team will miss them in the room even more. They have been among the leaders in the room since their arrival to high school four years ago. Their work ethic is second to none. Jeff is also a football player and runs track in the springtime. Jeff has stated that "Nothing is as tough as wrestling practice". He further states that "The physical conditioning that wrestling demands exceeds all other sports I have played". Mike took pride in his work ethic as well. "You have to use your conditioning as one of the tools to win a wrestling match. You want to wear down your opponent". Steve says that "Being in superior physical condition is the only way to be mentally tough. If you get tired on the mat, your desire to win leaves you. You have to work so hard during a match that the other guy doesn't care about winning or losing. He just wants to rest". Steve should know, he has first place trophies form eight different tournaments. This work ethic that they share is important as Glen Cove competed in some of the toughest tournaments in New York State. The competition in Nassau County alone is staggering with over 1000 wrestlers going to five qualifying tournaments. Only the top 20 in each weight class make all-conference and earn the right to wrestle in the counties. Once at the counties, only the top 6 competitors receive all-county honors.

In the recent years for Glen Cove wrestling, there have been several eras. In 1996 coaches Pete Kopecky and Savy Gallo led the team. This era will be remembered by the Class of 1996, which was led by All-County wrestlers Greg Cohen and Jesus Marcano. All-Conference wrestlers Gioele Spagnoletti, Brian Buhgman, Otto Delcid and Armando Cerna. This era saw Glen Cove become one of the top teams in Nassau County.

The Class of 1998 defined the next era for Glen Cove. This group of wrestlers took Glen Cove to the Top 10 in Nassau County. They were led by Nassau County tournament finalists Dave Boyajian, Joel Bolivar and Nick Petikas. All-County wrestler Ralph Martinez and All-conference wrestlers Garrett Charon and David Luna. Bridging the gap between these two teams were County Champion Ryan Fletcher and County finalist Ernest Baskin.

Several key competitors were teammates of Jeff, Steve and Mike the last few years. They were all-conference wrestlers Angelo Filipone and Matt Capobianco with Joe Loiodice making up the Class of 1999. The class of 2000 saw All-County wrestler Dave Graziosi graduate with All-conference wrestlers Mike Petikas and Carmine Portaro. With the Class of 2001 graduating, we see the end of a third great era.

There are many wrestlers in the high school who have already made their mark in the Glen Cove wrestling record books. Junior Charles McCullough is a two-time All-county wrestler who is looking for bigger and better things his senior year. He will be joined by All-conference wrestlers Pete Loiodice, Matt Hurwitz and Jeff Oglesby. With several other experienced wrestlers returning, the dawning of a new era is just around the corner. The squad coaches are S. Kocienda and P. Kopecky.