After the H. Frank Carey High School team played their hearts out, they lost by less than a point to Sewanhaka High School at the Sewanhaka District Sports Night recently, held, as always, in Carey's gymnasium.

"It was a great evening," said Carey principal Tom Dolan. "All the schools worked hard, but, although Carey came 'this' close to earning fifth District Sports Night title, it just wasn't meant to be for us. Congratulations to Sewanhaka!"

A crowd of over 800 people packed into Carey's gym. The evening began with one representative of each school helping to carry the American flag out to the center of the gym. Carey's representative was senior Melissa Ferraro. Seniors Mary Ellen Petassi and Bridget McDonnell, and junior Suzanne DiPasquale led the crowd in the singing of the national anthem. Next, each school's team flooded the gym floor as their classmates cheered them on. To add to the excitement, each school passed out pompons with their schools' colors to their section of the crowd.

The Carey team dominated both tug-of-war and cage ball. Some members of the tug team were seniors Alexis Whyte and Frank LaRosa. Seniors Bryan Baebler, wearing his orange and black striped socks, helped out in cage ball. Carey's fans were greatly disappointed when they lost to Elmont in the dance exercise. Carey's dance team really had the crowd going wild especially with a medley of songs including Ice, Ice, Baby and theme samples from the professional wrestler The Rock.

Before the final scores were announced, all the teams lined up together and showed good sportsmanship by doing a dance together. Finally, all of the teams sat down and waited for the emcee, Carey health teacher Robert LaCour, to announce the final scores. All teams had worked equally as hard, but someone had to win and someone had to lose. In fifth place was New Hyde Park, then fourth place went to Floral Park, and third place went to Elmont. Second place went to Carey, who lost to Sewanhaka by a mere 0.6 point. The Sewanhaka team and fans went wild and rushed onto the floor to celebrate and receive their trophy from district superintendent Dr. George Goldstein for the third year in a row. Although Carey didn't win, everyone had a great time, and all are looking forward to next year's District Sports Night with enthusiasm.