Well, it's been a long time since the last column. Since then, the fall teams have collected their team and individual honors, and the winter teams have finished their non-league games and are now into their league schedules. In this week's column you will find the complete schedules of the JV and varsity teams, as well as some of the highlights of their non-league, pre-season games and matches. Also, the boys varsity bowling and girls varsity basketball team profiles are included to get you familiar with the athletes you will be reading about over the next few weeks. The coaches have prepared their teams for league play. We wish them well in their seasons.

The boys varsity bowling team comes off of a very successful season last year. They are coached by Bob Young. Hopefully, they will once again make the county playoffs. Here is what coach Young had to say about this year's bowlers.

Coach Bob Young

Head Coach: HS attended - Mineola; College attended - Adelphi.

Returning Players:

- Tom Brown: team leader.

- John Pirrone; All County as a junior

- Anthony Scapicchio: All League as a sophomore

- John Randazzo: All League as a sophomore

Expectations for the season: We are striving to make the county playoffs. Hopefully we can be in the top 10 of Nassau County.

"Hot" Newcomers: Adam Tuthill and Eric Kruse - both must improve to replace All County bowler Dan Maloney and help in county playoffs if we get there.

Players to watch: John Pirrone, John Randazzo, Tom Brown, Anthony Scappichio, Eric Kruse, Adam Tuthill.

Toughest Opponent This Year: Great Neck South - defending county champs.

* * * *

The Lady Mustang girls varsity basketball team also had an excellent year last year. Unfortunatly, they graduated three key seniors - Katie Zunno, Jessica Hegemann and Katie Sharp. This year, the team has a combination of young talent, as well as experienced returning players. Coach Zunno has prepared the following comments in her team profile.

Coach: Denise Zunno

Coaching Staff: JV - Darren Luskoff; MS 8th Grade - Mike Robolotto; 7th Grade - Marty Joyce.

Head Coach Profile: HS attended - Northport HS; College attended - SUNY Cortland.

Returning players:

- Nicole Adams: All-Division, center, strong rebounder, consistent scorer off the offensive rebound.

- Theresa Berkowitz: shooting guard, aggressive defender

- Kristen Cusato: small forward, consistent shooter, will give us the offensive spark when needed.

- Katherine Hock: point guard, exceptional speed, will most likely lead the team in steals, strong defender.

- Kim Rossi: strong rebounder, great jump shot from the perimeter of the key.

- Daniela Santamaria: All-Division guard, strongest defensive player, averages eight points per game, exceptional speed, will be an offensive threat off the dribble.

- Heather Savignano: All-Conference, power forward, averages 10 points per game and 10 rebounds, runs the floor extremely well, being recruited by Division 1, II, III schools.

- Kristina Tsabasis: shooting guard, can shoot the "3," heart and soul of the team, strongest competitor.

Expectations for the season: After losing All-County players Jessica Hegmann (playing BB for Nazareth College) and Katie Zunno, who together averaged 31 points a game, the Lady Mustangs will be looking for players who will take their place. Our style of play will more from the 1/2 court offensive set to a "run and gun" type of play. We have tremendous speed and hopefully will get a lot of points off the fast break.

"Hot" Newcomers:

- Erin Cloghessy: a junior with heart and hustle. Erin is a "shooting machine" and will have to give the offensive spark needed to win games this season.

- Samantha Didrikson: strong rebounder, runs the floor well, should fit into the transition game.

- Maren Deuter: an exchange student from Germany, Maren has potential. She is very athletic and has a strong build. She is fairly new to the game of BB. With practice, she will be able to give our starters some valuable rest time.

Players to watch:

Heather Savignano - power forward. Heather is stronger than ever before. She has exceptional body control and can handle the ball well. She is the main focus offensively. We need to get her the ball inside, opening up our outside shooters.

- Kristina Tsabasis - Kristina has the potential to be one of our strongest offensive threats. Because of her experience, we will rely on her leadership skills on the court. If she stays healthy (shin splint problems have kept her off the court), she will give spectators a show.

Toughest Opponent: As always, Floral Park and Wantagh. Both teams have at least five AAU travel BB players who have been recognized as All-County or All-Conference players. They are very aggressive defensively and will try to put incredible pressure on our guards. If we can move the ball down quickly, we should give them a challenge.

* * * *

Here are the full schedules of all the varsity and JV teams this winter. If you get a chance, come on out and watch the Mustangs in action. The players enjoy it when the stands are full. We promise that you will see some excellent competition.

Date	Opponent	Site	Time
1/13	West Hemp	Sheridan	4 p.m.
1/20	Lynbrook	Sheridan	4 p.m.
2/1	Posi Round	Sheridan	4 p.m.

1/13	Garden City	Away	4:15 p.m.
1/15	Seaford	Home	7 p.m.
1/16	Pt. Wash. (NL-TM)	Away	9:30 a.m.
1/20	Roslyn	Away	4 p.m.
1/23	Lawrence T-M	Away	9:30 a.m. at Manhasset
1/29	Glen Cove	Home	8 p.m.
1/30	W. Islip Tourn.	Away	9 a.m.

1/14	Lynbrook	Home	6:15 p.m.
1/16	Roosevelt	Home	1:15 p.m.
1/20	GN No.	Away	5:15 p.m.
1/22	Lynbrook	Away	4:15 p.m.
1/28	Floral Pk.	Home	6:45 p.m.
1/30	Plainedge	Away	11 a.m.
2/3	West Hemp.	Home	6:45 p.m.
2/5	Bell JFK	Away	5 p.m.
2/8	Wantagh	Away	4:30 p.m.

1/14	GN No.	Away	7 p.m.
1/16	Plainedge	Away
1/19	Floral Pk.	Away	4:30 p.m.
1/22	Bell JFK	Home	7 p.m.
1/29	Lynbrook	Home	6 p.m.
2/2	Clarke	Home	5 p.m.
2/5	Sewanhaka	Away	6 p.m.
2/9	Roosevelt	Home	4:30 p.m.

1/20	West. Hemp.	Sheridan	4 p.m.
1/25	GN South	Sheridan	4 p.m.
1/27	Garden City	Sheridan	4 p.m.
2/1	Hewlett	Sheridan	4 p.m.
2/6	County Champ.	Garden City	4 p.m.

1/14	Lynbrook	Home	4:30 p.m.
1/16	Roosevelt	Home	11:30 a.m.
1/20	GN No.	Away	7 p.m.
1/22	Lynbrook	Away	5:45 p.m.
1/28	Floral Pk.	Home	5 p.m.
1/30	Plainedge	Away	12:45 p.m.
2/3	West Hemp.	Home	5 p.m.
2/5	Bell JFK	Away	7 p.m.
2/8	Wantagh	Away	6:15 p.m.

1/14	GN No.	Away	5 p.m.
1/16	Plainedge	Away
1/19	Floral Pk.	Away	6:15 p.m.
1/22	Bell JFK	Home	5 p.m.
1/29	Lynbrook	Home	4 p.m.
2/2	Clarke	Home	7 p.m.
2/4	Sewanhaka	Away	4:30 p.m.
2/9	Herricks	Away	4 p.m.

1/13	Garden City	Away	4:15 p.m.
1/15	Seaford	Home	6 p.m.
1/20	Roslyn	Away	4 p.m.
1/29	Glen Cove	Home	8 p.m.
1/30	Novis Tourn.	Away
1/18	Herricks JV Day	Away	2 p.m.

* * * * The following highlights are from early in the winter season. Most of the teams enter pre-season tournaments, and play non-league games to get ready for the regular season.

On Friday, Dec. 11, the boys JV basketball team won their first game of the season, by defeating West Hempstead by a score of 73-43. Dave Terezo led all scorers with 28 points, John Murphy and Chris Gonzalez added 14 points each.

The boys JV basketball team won their second game in a row on Dec. 16 beating Carle Place 52-44. The team trailed by 10 going into the fourth quarter. They were able to rally, led by Chris Gonzalez's game high 20 points, John Murphy's 15 points and Aaron Kelly's six points, all of which came during the pivotal fourth quarter in which Mineola outscored Carle Place 21-4.

On Dec. 14, Mineola Lady Mustangs defeated East Meadow by a score of 40 to 28. Mineola took a quick first quarter lead 16-4 with Heather Savignano scoring eight of her 10 points in the first quarter.

Leading scorers, in addition to Heather, were Daniela Santa Maria with nine points and Wrin Cloghessy with six points.

Leading rebounders were Heather Savignano with six, Kim Rossi and Niki Adams with five each.

In addition, Niki Adams had three assists and two blocked shots. Daniela Santa Maria contributed five steals.

Two nights later, in the championship game on Dec. 16, Mineola defeated host Great Neck South 49-48 in a very exciting game. With 40 seconds left, Daniela Santa Maria hit a 10 foot jump shot to give Mineola a 47-46 lead. GNS drove the ball down, took a shot that missed. With 11 seconds left, Katherine Hock was fouled. She made both ends of a 1 and 1 to secure Mineola's lead.

Leading scorers included: Erin Cloghessy with 14 points, Niki Adams with 10 points, Daniela Santa Maria with eight points.

Katherine Hock had four key steals and Niki Adams led all rebounders with 10 and also added three blocked shots. Niki Adams was also voted the tournament's most valuable player.

Selected to all tourny team were Heather Savignano and Erin Cloghessy.

Congratulations to the girls JV basketball team for their close win over New Hyde Park yesterday. Every player on the team did exceptional playing. Vanessa Gonzalez, Janine Pasillico and Erin Sanderleaf did an outstanding job in the game. Congratulations again for an exciting game. The boys bowling team won their second match of the season by defeating Lynbrook 11-0. That brings their record to 33-11. Their were high games by: John Randazzo 247, John Pirrone 201, Eric Kruse 243. The girls gymnastics team had their first meet against Wantagh. Kerrin Hughes had a great score of 6.1 for her first time on beam. Also, she had the high score of 6.8 on floor. Nikki Weber had a high score of 6.5 on beam. Kelly Fay and Diane Macedo competed all-around. Patti Rose had more great scores on beam and vault. Congratulations to Stan Smith and the boys varsity basketball team as they soundly beat Oyster Bay 66 to 51 in the Garden City Tournament. Smith was voted to the All-Tournament Team scoring a total of 35 points for the tournament. Noah Molina led the Mustangs in assists.

The Mineola wrestling team has started its season partaking in two Christmas tournaments. The young JV Grapplers produced six champions in various weight classes. First place finishes included Joe Cerulli, Paul Bispo, Peter Wain, Mike Gregorious, Paul Gonzales, Craig Gunder, Danny Harvey, Jason Cohen.

On the varsity level, the Mustangs also put six matmen in the medal round. Winners included Nelson Dovale, Hernando Gauto, Manny Coelho, Rupesh Singla and Owen Dugan. The highlight of the tournaments were Beau Bruno's two championship finishes. Along with his gold medal finishes, Beau was also named the most valuable wrestler of all the wrestlers that competed in a 14 team field. Congratulations!

Keep reading this column as all the Mustang teams compete to make the Mineola school community proud.