I recently had the pleasure of hosting Babylon Town Supervisor Richard Schaffer here at Hempstead Town Hall for the purpose of settling a "bet" between our two townships. Over the weekend of Dec. 4 and 5, two high school football teams from the Town of Hempstead played two teams from the Town of Babylon in Long Island championship games at Hofstra Stadium. Placing my "wager" on Garden City to beat North Babylon and Seaford to topple Babylon, I offered a case of Gold's Horseradish to Supervisor Schaffer who, in turn, offered a supply of cannolis, baked in Babylon, to us here in Hempstead.

Well, we each won and lost our little friendly bet as North Babylon defeated Garden City for the Class II Long Island Championship and Seaford beat Babylon for the Class IV Championship.

We were proud to also host members of both championship teams, along with coaches and school administrators and recognize these young men for their accomplishments on the gridiron and in their classrooms. One of the players present was Barry Baker of North Babylon, the 1998 recipient of Newsday's Carl A. Hansen Award, presented annually to Suffolk's most outstanding football player. He capped his career in the championship game with two touchdowns in North Babylon's win over Garden City.

We also congratulated Head Coach Rich Schaub of Seaford High for its victory over Babylon and presented several young men from their championship team with a citation recognizing their accomplishments.

While we did have a great deal of fun paying and collecting on the bet, the best pay of the morning's activities was, without a doubt, the camaraderie shown between the two townships, their supervisors and the athletes who accomplished so much.

Our congratulations go out to all the Long Island champions, as well as to all the players who competed in the championship event. I am sure that it was an experience they will long remember.