Winter Sports Preview: Patriots Looking to Finish What They Start

The Patriots will enter the winter season with some teams looking to finish recent years' run at a championship, while one team has all of Long Island targeting in on it.

Girls' Fencing

Last Season: 14-0; won Long Island championship

Head Coach: Jennie Salmon

Key Athletes:

Sabre:

• Laura Barger (All Long Island, National bronze medalist)
• Alexa Rohan (All Long Island, National medalist)
• Alexa Antipas (All Long Island, National Silver Medalist)

Foil:

• Demi Antipas (All Long Island, National Medalist)
• Kristen Fischbach (All Long Island)

Epee:

• Gina Krupp (All County)
• Alexa Parry (All County)

Boys' Fencing

Last Season: 14-0; won Long Island championship

Head Coach: Jeff Salmon

Key Athletes:

Sabre:

• Mark Pulaski (All County)
• Travis Quinn (Empire State Games Gold Medal Scholastic Team)

Foil:

• John Petrie IV (All Long Island, National Silver Medalist)
• Tim Wheeler (All County)
• Kenny Tan
• John Ng

Epee:

• Michael Shaw (All Long Island, nationally ranked)
• Luis Puno (All County)

Led by the Salmons, the boys have won four straight county titles with undefeated regular seasons, while the girls' team has won nine consecutive county titles and is entering the season with 128 straight wins. "It's the job of the current team to look ahead, to go get their own victories and not protect the victories that have already been secured," Jennie Salmon said about dealing with past successes. The Salmons run a training program at Mission Fencing, where much of their talent is cultivated. Salmon says that the talent pool on Long Island is expanding in the sport and there's definitely a target on the Ward Melville program, but, in a way, it seems to fuel the training needed to excel.

Key matches: Dec. 21 @ Commack, Dec. 29 Invitational @ Ward Melville

Girls' Basketball

Last Season: 10-2 (15-3)

Head Coach: Lawrence Combs

Key Athletes:

• Caysea Cohen
• Meagan Murtagh

Finishing 2nd place in Division I last season, the Patriots' only losses came from New York Class AA champion Sachem East. Suffolk County has been represented in each of the last three Class AA state championship finals. As Combs said, "Sachem's still a threat, they have a great program, and no one else in the league is a pushover, either." The Patriots graduated two of last season's four all-county players. "We're going to have to concentrate on balancing the team's performance. We lost our main rebounder, so everyone needs to adjust there, but we have players that were leading the team scoring as underclassmen. With their gained experience, we're going to be contenders," Combs said.

Key games: Season started Nov. 29 at home. The Patriots will face Sachem East for the first time Jan. 11.

Boys' Basketball

Last Season: 4-8 (10-8)

Key Athletes:

• John Edmonds
• Tyler Hegarty

The Patriots have graduated their two top scorers from last season, but their senior captains have had enough experience at the varsity level to bring this team some wins. Suffolk has been a top competitor in New York at the Class AA level for years. The Patriots know they aren't going to have any easy games, but hopefully some wins over non-league teams can carry over to league play.

Key Games: Ward Melville's first exhibition game of the season is at Port Jefferson on Dec. 8. The first home game will be Dec. 28, when Centereach comes to Ward Melville.

Boys' Indoor Track

Head Coach:  Jerry Vessichio

Key Athletes:

• Ryan Gilleeny (600 meter)
• Connor Christian (300 meter)
• Alex Fitzgerlad (1600 meter)

Girls' Indoor Track

Head Coach: Tom Youngs

• Sami Reilly (1000 meter)
• Jeanna Esernio (55 meter hurdle, long jump)
• Caroline O'Hea (1500 meter)

The Patriots' indoor track team has had success in the past: in 2009, the girls finished 2nd in Suffolk County. Some of the standout players from both teams have graduated, but the six athletes named above all placed in last year's Long Island championship, and as Ward Melville's athletic programs have shown, the offseason and growth from year to year is expected to produce results.

Boys' Bowling

Head Coach: John Diel

Key Athletes:

• Chris Brand
• Thomas Slawski

Girls' Bowling

Head Coach: Frank Crocombe

Key Athletes:

• Jill Perniciano
• Es Montemorano

These teams have faced tough competition in the past, and haven't fully established themselves as a top seed in Suffolk County. This season, however, might be the beginning of a line of success for the Patriot bowlers. Slawski, as a sophomore last year, was posting scores of 242. If his skill brushes off on his teammates, Ward Melville could be a threat to the recent Suffolk County leaders.

Key Matches: The season begins Tuesday, Nov. 30 against Riverhead at Port Jefferson Bowl.

Wrestling

Head Coaches: Kurt Ferraro and Bill DeSario

Key Athletes:

• Jackson Hoppey (112 lbs)
• Anthony Piccininni (119 lbs)
• Erik Tangen (171 lbs)
• Anthony Stella (150 lbs)
• Rob Kraus (119 lbs)
• Don Donnelly (96 lbs)
• Nick Piccininni (96 lbs)

The wrestling team returns a core of varsity starters, including two county-ranked eighth graders in Don Donnelly and Nick Piccininni, and expects to be competitive in a tough league. But the real story is the arrival of coach Bill DeSario, a past New York State champion and two-time collegiate All-American wrestler who has been recognized by the National Wrestling Hall of Fame for his service to the wrestling community. DeSario enters the season with 298 wins from previous seasons coaching at Commack and Babylon, putting him at No. 5 on the all-time list of winningest Suffolk County wrestling coaches, and second among active coaches. "We're really happy to have him this year. He brings a lot to the program," said Kurt Ferraro, the program's other head coach.

Key meets: Jan. 12 at Longwood (defending League I champions); Jan. 14 vs. Brentwood; Jan. 25 vs. Sachem East.