Well, the Mineola Athletic Booster Club wants to thank the Mineola School community. This year's "Bigger Event" celebrity basketball game was a resounding success. The Mineola High School gym was filled to capacity as the players from the NBA and NFL came to challenge our community, and also came to support our athletes and athletic program.

The teams that competed are to be congratulated for their courage and for helping the Booster Club. Everyone had a great time, the players were wonderful with the young children and the Booster Club will now be able to offer more athletic camp scholarships and college scholarships to graduating athletes. On behalf of the Booster Club and our athletes, thank you Mineola!

PS. - The Booster Club meets on the first Tuesday of the Month in the HS library. New members are welcome. If you are the parent of a Mineola athlete, come on down and lend a hand. The rewards are great.

Congratulations are in order for the members of this year's boys varsity basketball team from Mineola HS. At a Nassau County Coaches Association meeting, Stan Smith was chosen as a member of the All-Conference team while Steve Philip was selected as honorable mention All-Conference.

Vishal Gandhi was selected as a scholar athlete recipient while Noah Molina received a sportsmanship award from the association. Locally, Matt Damon was Coach Jim Smith's selection for the "Strive for Excellence" Award.

Next year the team returns three starters: two-year starter Vishal Gandhi; three year starter Matt Damon; and four-year starter Stan Smith. (Thanks to Coach Smith for the highlights).

Coach Mark Miller has submitted these final highlights and comments on the season of the varsity rifle team. (The writer apologizes for the delay in getting these scores into the paper).

Jan. 28

Mineola 831 - Valley Stream 1060

On Thursday, Jan. 28, the Mustang varsity rifle team lost to a very good team from Valley Stream by a score of 1060 to 831. The top four scores for Mineola were Chris Kang with a 215, Ricky Marques - 213, Pio Park - 204, and Johnny Chang who shot his personal high for the season thus far with a 199. Next week the team finishes up its air rifle portion of the season.

Feb. 3

Mineola 459 - Baldwin 471

In a rematch of Mineola's only victory thus far this season, the Mustangs came up just short (12 points) to Baldwin in an air rifle match 471-459. The top three scores for Mineola were Ricky Marques with a 157, Pio Park - 152, and Rick DiCandia - 150. Also of note was Johnny Chang's 146 whch was his high for the season.

Feb. 4

Mineola 460 - New Hyde Park 536

On Thursday, Feb. 4, the Mustang rifle team hosted New Hyde Park in an air rifle match that had been postponed back in January due to snow. The marksmen from Mineola lost again but scored their second highest team score of the season, 536 to 460. The top three scores for Mineola were Ricky Marques with a 155, Chris Kang - 153 and Pio Park - 152. Steve Bonetti also shot his high score for the year with a 151.

On Feb. 6, Mineola was represented by Chris Kang and Pio Park at the Section Eight Air Rifle Individual Championships. Although no medals came home with them, they shot above their average in their first experience in post-season competition.

Feb. 9

Mineola 851 - New Hyde Park 1043

Due to the up-in-the-air status of the Willis Ave. School where the high school's range is located, the cartridge match on Feb. 9 against New Hyde Park may well be its last in the Rifle Team's long history. I wish I could report that we went out with a bang (no pun intended) but an outstanding team from New Hyde Park defeated the Mustangs 1043 to 851. The top four scores for Mineola were Ricky Marques with a 221 - his highest of the year, Chris Kang - 214, Rick DiCandia - 209, and Johnny Chang - 207, his highest score of the year also. At this time we don't yet know if any of our shooters qualified for the individual championship in cartridge.

I'd like to thank the six guys who made up this year's team - Jr. Capt. Chris Kang, Jr. Capt. Johnny Chang, sophomore Ricky Marques, sophomore Rick Candia, freshman Pio Park and freshman Steve Bonetti for their hard work and commitment. Even though we didn't win that many (air rifle record 1-6; cartridge record 0-6) everyone improved over the course of the season. I'd also like to thank their parents for putting up with the long practices and even longer matches. Special thanks to Athletic Director Tony Gulli and his secretary, Janet Langer, for their support. Thanks again to Mr. Nelson for getting these summaries into the paper.

As this column is being written, Mineola senior and wrestler Beau Bruno is competing at the New York State Wrestling Championships in Syracuse. We will report on Beau's competition next week. In the meantime, varsity wrestling coaches Guido and Massaro have written this year-end summary of the very successful season that the wrestlers had.

With only three returning experienced seniors the expectations for this season were not very high. With the majority of the team being ninth and 10th graders, the success of the team was a pleasant surprise. The Mustangs finished with a 5-7 record (3-2 in the league) and four of those seven losses came down to one match each time.

During the season the boys competed in four Invitational tournaments. Sophomore Hernando Gauto placed fourth in the Hank Paris and senior Nelson Dovale placed third in the same tournament. Senior Rupesh Singla took a fourth in the Valley Stream North Tournament. Junior Owen Dugan took third and fourth in two tournaments and junior Manny Coelho placed second, third and fourth in three of the tournaments. Some of the boys did well in the JV Tournaments as well with freshman Joe Cerulli winning two and taking a third in the Islip Cup on varsity. Freshmen Craig Gunder and Peter Wain also took first place and Peter Harvey placed second. Sophomore Paul Bispo placed first and second and sophomore Raul Gonzalaz took a first.

Senior Beau Bruno won all four tournaments which included the Hank Paris (at Bethpage), Valley Stream North, East Meadow and the Islip Cup. Beau was also voted the most outstanding wrestler at the VSN Tournament.

After finishing the season with a very tough 35-33 loss to Valley Stream South in the second round of the Nassau County Dual Meet Tournament the Mustangs headed into the Qualifying Tournament. This qualifying tournament is made up of some of the best teams in Nassau. A wrestler must place in the top four to be able to participate in the Nassau County Championship Tournament the following week. The Mustangs did a great job placing eight wrestlers in the County Tournament. Freshman Joe Cerullo was the first to qualify becoming the 94 lbs. champion. Joe is the first ninth grader ever to win a qualifying championship in Mineola history. Sophomore Paul Bispo was the next to qualify taking a fourth at 125 lbs. Paul lost his bid for the championship in the semis. He was defeated in a very close 7-6 match to the eventual champion from Hicksville. Sophomore Hernando Gauto also wrestled very well and placed fourth at 130 lbs. Freshman Craig Gunder had a super tournament winning four out of five matches to take third place at 135 lbs. Craig's only loss was to the eventual county champ Tom Paladino of Bethpage. Sophomore Raul Gonzalaz also did an excellent job winning four out of five matches to take a third at 189 lbs. Senior Rupesh Singla was a big surprise as he took a fourth place at 171 lbs. Senior Nelson Dovale did a great job and wrestled his way into the finals and took second place at 215 lbs. Senior and team captain Beau Bruno did a superb job in becoming the 130 lbs. champion. Beau pinned two opponents and won by a technical fall in the finals. This brings Beau's record to 28-0 for the season. Although not qualifying, freshman Dan Harvy also did a fine job placing sixth. Due to an injury the day before the tournament, senior Mike Shuler was not able to wrestle at his potential and did not qualify. Mike had been wrestling real well and this was a very frustrating way for Mike to finish his year. Juniors Manny Coelho and Owen Dugan also wrestled well only to lose close matches to be eliminated from the tournament.

Now it is on to the Nassau County Championship Tournament at Nassau Community College. Although all the outcomes were not what was hoped for, all the boys wrestled extremely well. Joe Cerulli wrestled a terrific match only to lose in the final minute on a take down to the eventual third place finisher from East Meadow. Joe finished with a record of 20-6. Paul Bispo pinned his first opponent in the first period. Paul lost his next match to the number one seed and eventual county champion John Masa, of Long Beach. Paul had a great year finishing with a record of 19-8 and we're looking for great things from him in the next two years. Hernando Gauto also wrestled a terrific match only to lose 12-10 in overtime. He has a very bright future ahead of him as well. Craig Gunder lost two painfully close matches. Craig lost his first match 5-4 to the eventual fourth place finisher and then lost 3-2 to the second seeded wrestler. Craig had a tremendous year finishing with 19-5 record. We have very high hopes for him in the years to come. Nelson Dovale also wrestled very well. He won by pin in the first round and then lost to the eventual county champ from Freeport. In Nelson's last match he lost a very tough 5-4 to miss out on placing. Last, but not least, was Beau Bruno. Beau won all four of his matches with ease including a 12-3 win in the finals. Beau now has a record of 32-0. Although there have been many boys that have come close, especially in the last 10 years, Beau Bruno is Mineola's first county champion since 1963. Congratulations to Beau and his father, Joe, for such a tremendous achievement. We will let you hear more about Beau after he competes for the State Title in Syracuse. Good luck, Beau.

We are also looking forward to our other returning wrestlers who worked hard all year. Freshmen Phil Orsano, Leandro Frietas, Ken Chin, Peter Napoli, J.P. Cifuentes, Joe Selby, and juniors Al Silva and Kevin Dusling. I would also like to thank senior Tim Hayes for all the hard work he put in for the last two years.

See more photos of "The Bigger Event" on next week's sports page.