Keith Feldman, Jarrett Gold, Georgia Holland and Kevin McElhone share two things in common: they are all graduates of Ward Melville High School and all four have achieved success at the collegiate level.
Feldman, a fencer, enjoyed seeing Notre Dame win the 2011 NCAA Fencing championship. Gold is one of the top scorers in the history of SUNY Cortland ice hockey. Holland, a standout freshman at Yale last fall, recently competed for the USA Under-19 field hockey team in South America. McElhone, a freshman at Dowling, recently scored five goals to help the men's lacrosse team win a game.
KEITH FELDMAN
A junior at Notre Dame, Feldman competes in sabre for the Irish after excelling for coaches Jeff and Jennifer Salmon at Ward Melville. In his senior year in 2008, the Patriots won the Long Island fencing championship. He was also a starter for the Patriots' boys' tennis team.
"I enjoy [fencing. I am tall, have long arms and I am pretty fast," said Feldman, who lives in Stony Brook. "It is a very mental game. I enjoy it; an individual sport but also a team component."
Feldman has trained for several years with the Salmons at their club, Mission Fencing Center in Rocky Point.
"It is a big part of my life; something I love to do and will continue to do," he said. "It is really nice to spend so much time with your friends."
Feldman posted individual records of 35-6 and 35-12 for his first two Notre Dame seasons. This year, he was the No. 4-ranked sabre on the roster for the Irish (29-1), but only the top two competed in the NCAA events. Feldman produced a 21-4 record this past season, and boosted his three-year-varsity record to 91-22.
JARRETT GOLD
When he was little living in East Setauket, his father, Ron, introduced him to hockey.
"I have played since I was six years old," Jarrett Gold said, "and it is what I love to do the most."
This past season, he led SUNY Cortland in scoring for the fourth consecutive season and totaled 95 career games. He ranks seventh in school history for scoring (46 goals and 55 assists).
Gold was the captain and leading scorer for Ward Melville during the 2003 and 2004 seasons. He excelled in the Suffolk County High School Hockey League and, after graduation, he played three years for the New York Bobcats of the Atlantic Junior Hockey League.
He often visited The Rinx in Hauppauge and hoped to earn a NCAA Division I opportunity. The 6-1, 200-pound left winger eventually joined Cortland for Division III action. As a freshman in 2008, he produced a team-high 13 goals and 11 assists.
GEORGIA HOLLAND
The freshman standout at Yale has just returned from Chile, where she helped the USA Under-19 field hockey team build a 3-0-1 record. Holland, who grew up in Stony Brook and graduated in 2010, was named a first-team prep All-American in 2009 after she scored a combined 40 goals her last two seasons at Ward Melville.
Her senior year, she sparked the Patriots to a 23-2 record in field hockey and won Ward Melville's Most Outstanding Female Athlete award. She was also a starting guard for the girls' varsity basketball team.
Last fall, Holland started all 17 games for Yale as a versatile midfielder and she was named the Ivy League co-rookie of the year. Currently, she is on the roster for the USA Field Hockey High Performance squad for New England, and may even compete May 19 through 27 during the USA National Championships in Washington, D.C.
KEVIN McELHONE
Of these four Ward Melville graduates, McElhone stayed closest to home for his college career.
The 5-7, 165-pound McElhone, who lives in Setauket, is one of the highest-scoring freshmen in Division II lacrosse's East Coast Conference. His biggest highlight this spring came April 8 when he impressed with five goals to propel the Golden Lions to a 14-6 victory at Lake Erie (Ohio) College.
For Dowling, which owns a 10-3 record and a repeated Top 10 national ranking in NCAA Division II, McElhone has tallied 15 goals and four assists so far. He scored four goals April 27 when Dowling defeated Molloy College, 16-9. He and his Dowling teammates end their regular-season schedule on Saturday at 7 p.m. with a home game against Mercy College.
