WILDLIFE CRITTERS: Brian Hoerger’s backyard in Port Jefferson was teeming with wildlife on March 10, searching for a free handout on a snow-covered day. Find more of Brian’s nature and landscape photos on his website, www.briansfeet.com. A portion of the proceeds from the sale of his photographs goes to support pediatric cancer research, a subject close to his heart.
Send your Photo of the Week to [email protected].
By Bill Landon
Gillian Kenah’s focus may have shifted from defense during one game, to offense the next, but the senior showed she performs when the pressure is on.
“We gave Gill the responsibility last game of playing against their biggest threat, and she stepped up,” Port Jefferson head coach Jesse Rosen said. “Today, she didn’t have that same pressure on her, and she played a phenomenal game.”
That’s because instead of guarding, Kenah was under the boards mopping up when her teammates’ shots weren’t falling, scoring 10 of her 12 points in the second half to give her Port Jefferson girls’ basketball team the push it needed to outscore Haldane 43-30 in the Class C state regional final at SUNY Old Wetsbury March 9. The squad becomes the first basketball team in Royals history, boys’ or girls’, to punch a ticket to the Final Four.
“You dream for these things to happen, you don’t expect for these things to happen. We’ve put in so much hard work, we’ve been looking forward to this for years and we’re finally here.”
—Gillian Kenah
“It’s so incredible — it’s another dream come true,” said Kenah, who averaged 3.1 points per game heading into the matchup. “You dream for these things to happen, you don’t expect for these things to happen. We’ve put in so much hard work, we’ve been looking forward to this for years and we’re finally here.”
The heavy lifting first fell onto senior Courtney Lewis, who scored all seven of the team’s first-quarter points, although they were down 8-7 after eight minutes. Jillian Colucci, a three-point scoring threat who drew double coverage outside, was able to space the floor and create opportunities for her classmate Lewis.
Lewis still led a more balanced second-quarter attack, and with her second 3-pointer of the game, helped her team retake the lead, 15-14, and the Royals never looked back.
Port Jefferson’s defense was everywhere, using a zone defense that bottled up shooters and got deflections to upset Haldane’s rhythm. On the team’s last possession of the first half, Lewis picked off a pass and went end-to-end for a field goal that put the Royals up 21-16 heading to the locker room.
“We’ve been working on our defense all week leading up to Monday’s game — even yesterday and the day before it’s just defense, defense, defense,” said Colucci, who had six points and five assists. “If you can prevent the other team from scoring, you’re going to win the game.”
Kenah was also a factor on the other end of the court, grabbing 13 rebounds while converting those possession into six of her own points to help turn a five-point halftime lead into a nine-point advantage, 27-19, at the end of three quarters.
“It’s incredible this journey with these girls — it’s an amazing experience I can’t even describe the feeling and the emotions that I feel before every game, during every game and after every game,” Colucci said. “It’s just amazing.”
Lewis went to the line three times in the final stanza, going 4-for-6 from the line overall, and, although she missed a shot from beyond the arc soon after, Kenah was there to finish with another put-back.
“I can’t even tell you how much this means — wanting this win,” Lewis said. “We’ll celebrate this win tonight, but tomorrow we’ll be right back at it and practice 10 times harder.”
Rosen struggled to find the words the describe the season’s success.
“It’s excitement,” he said. “This scene, not only for the team, but the kids who traveled here, their passion to want to be here and support the girls it just goes to show you why Port Jeff is such an awesome place.”
The Comsewogue School District is in strong financial shape, but as has been the case in recent years, their outlook could be stronger. Superintendent Joe Rella presented a 2017-18 budget draft during a February board of education meeting that would be an increase of 2.9 percent more than the current year’s budget and would maintain all existing academic programs.
The $89,796,337 budget first draft was constructed based on the district receiving nearly $500,000 less in foundation aid than they expected after New York State Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) proposed an adjustment to the formula, used to calculate how much districts receive from the state, which was established in 2007.
According to the activist coalition Alliance for Quality Education, the formula was put in place in response to the Campaign for Fiscal Equity lawsuit resolution, which ensured $5.5 billion would be committed to mostly high-need school districts in 2007, and was supposed to take effect over the course of four years. The decision was reached 14 years after the initial lawsuit in 1993. It eventually reached the New York State Court of Appeals, which ruled high-need districts were being neglected. The money still has not been fully
phased in.
A summary in Rella’s budget presentation said the district is disappointed in the decision to change the formula.
“The district lost out on $462,000 that would have helped lead to stronger educational programs for our students,” the summary said. “The foundation aid formula change is unacceptable…we are going to be forced to reduce services if we do not see additional state aid.”
Rella was vocal in his opposition of the Gap Elimination Adjustment, which was enacted seven years ago in an effort to close a state budget deficit by deducting funds from each school district’s state aid allotment. The aid deducted by the adjustment was fully restored to districts last year.
In total, Comsewogue will receive nearly $31 million in funding from the state for the upcoming school year. About $55 million in revenue will come from property taxes, which is 2.7 percent more than the 2016-17 school year. The increase won’t require a cap-piercing vote because the district did a fund transfer for several capital improvement projects, which are exempt from impacting the tax levy increase cap because the money was taxed previously.
Some of the capital improvement projects slated for the upcoming school year include asphalt replacement at the high school, a new roof at Terryville Road Elementary School and upgrades to the turf on the high school field.
Assistant superintendent for business Susan Casali said the district is also budgeting to increase their reserves.
“I think financially we’re very sound,” Casali said in a phone interview. She added enrollment is increasing by about two percent for 2017-18, which is a positive sign for financial considerations going forward.
Casali attributed a large chunk of the $2,559,120 increase compared to the current year’s budget to the expiration of the district’s transportation contract. A new agreement will be reached after the contract is put out for bid.
According to Rella, the district also plans to expand on a pilot consortium program, which began in 2016-17, where two ninth-grade classes were exposed to a project- and inquiry-based curriculum, alternative to typical Regents classes, to create a deeper understanding for several subjects. Casali predicted the expansion will require the hiring of at least one more full-time teacher.
The final budget discussion is scheduled to take place March 30 before the board can adopt it April 3. A budget hearing will be held for the public May 2 and the vote is May 16.
By Bill Landon
In his book The Precious Present, Spencer Johnson wrote: “I can chose to be happy now, or I can try to be happy when, or if.”
The Port Jefferson girls’ basketball team chose to live in the moment during their March 6 Long Island championship title game, stepping onto a court no Royal had walked on before. Senior Jillian Colucci was no stranger to the limelight, though. The soccer standout, used to throwing the ball inbounds during the fall season, swished a long distance shot that was just three feet inside half court to close out the first half. The buzzer-beater before halftime that capped a 9-0 run sent the crowd into frenzy, and the Royals dancing into the locker room. That happiness carried through the second half, as Port Jefferson outscored East Rockaway 67-49 for the school’s first Class C crown.
“We’re just soaking it in,” senior Corinne Scannell said of the win. “Precious Present … it’s all about living in the moment, so I guess we’ll enjoy the moment and take it from here.”
East Rockaway’s defense focused on shutting down senior Courtney Lewis all across the SUNY Old Westbury court, but it didn’t matter. Lewis fought through double-teams most of the way to score a game-high 30 points. She drove the lane over and over, and even if she didn’t score, she drew fouls to find points from the free-throw line instead. The senior went 9-for-10 from the charity stripe.
“It feels really good knowing that we did it as a team.”
—Corinne Scannell
“We knew they were going to key on Courtney, and we needed our other shooters to be willing to step up and take their shots,” Port Jefferson head coach Jessie Rosen said. “They gained confidence throughout the course of the week, and today when the opportunity was there for them. They did what they needed to do.”
Jackie Brown was first to step up, hitting long distance shots seemingly at will. The senior banked four of them in the first half. Then, it was Colucci’s shining moment. With Lewis cornered, sophomore Jocelyn Lebron passed Colucci the ball. As Colucci sprinted just beyond half court, she let the ball go as the buzzer sounded, and hit nothing but net, giving her team a 36-22 advantage heading into the break.
“There was time for one more, and I heaved it up and it just went in,” Colucci said. “I’m just absolutely speechless. To make it this far with these girls is absolutely amazing.”
Defensively, the Royals hands were everywhere. And they made their steals count. Scannell intercepted a pass, and dished it off to Colucci, who went coast to coast for the score that helped the Royals break out to 43-27 lead with 4:41 left in the third.
“It feels really good knowing that we did it as a team,” Scannell said. “The things we worked on in practice were tailored to this game. It’s nice to see it all come together.”
For Brown, who chipped in 14 points, the magnitude of her team’s accomplishment hasn’t set in yet.
“I hoped we would be here at the beginning of the season — it’s awesome that we won it,” she said. “It’s really cool that we’ll have that 2017 LIC banner to hang in the gym.”
Senior Gillian Kenah echoed Brown’s sentiment.
“At the beginning of the season it was definitely a dream — I imagined us at the counties, but I wasn’t sure about this,” she said. “Honestly, it’s a dream come true.”
I know that sounds like a cliché, but when you practice like you play and play like you practice, it’s nothing short of awesome.”
—Jesse Rosen
Lewis credited the success to her team’s daily preparation.
“I knew we’d come out with intensity,” she said. “But I didn’t think we’d win by this margin.”
Rosen said he could see the team’s determination early on when he took over mid-season as the team’s head coach.
“This is an exciting group of girls — they work their absolute hardest every day,” he said. “I know that sounds like a cliché, but when you practice like you play and play like you practice, it’s nothing short of awesome.”
When the buzzer sounded, the Royals erupted in celebration as they experienced the taste of a Long Island championship for the first time. Thinking back to the short story they read prior to the game, they realized they attained that precious present.
“It is wise for me to think about the past, and to learn from my past, but it is not wise for me to be in the past for that is how I lose myself,” Johnson wrote. “It is also wise to think about the future and to prepare for my future, but it is not wise for me to be in the future for that too is how I lose myself, and when I lose myself, I lose what is most precious to me.”
Kenah said her team will savor the moment , and get back to work preparing for the next game. The Royals will face the winner of the Section I Haldane vs. Section VIIII Pine Plains in the regional finals March 9 at SUNY Old Westbury at 7:30 p.m.
“We’re going to condition tomorrow,” she said. “We have another game on Thursday, so we’ll enjoy tonight, but we’re right back at it tomorrow.”
By Bill Landon
Although the small school matchup may not hold much postseason weight, you couldn’t tell, as Port Jefferson and Mattituck’s girls’ basketball teams duked it out for the third time this year.
Each had grabbed a win over the other in the regular season, but this time, the larger school prevailed as the Suffolk County Class B champion bounced back in the game’s final minutes to edge out its Class C rival, 58-54, Feb. 24 at Riverhead High School.
Scoring stalwart Courtney Lewis did what she’s done all season, as the 2,000-plus-career point scorer led her team with 29 points — the only Royal in double figures.
The senior sank two from the foul line to retie the game at 25-25 with 2:12 left in the first half, and classmate Jillian Colucci hit a field goal to retie the game at 29-29, but Mattituck 3-pointer at the buzzer gave the Tuckers a 32-29 lead.
“We knew who their good players were and we knew how they pressed and the plays that they run,” Lewis said. “I think that we prepared as well as we could have.”
She went back to work driving the lane and muscling her way to the basket drawing foul after foul, scoring 11 points from the charity stripe on the afternoon. Colucci hit a 3-pointer, followed by freshman Samantha Ayotte, for a five-point lead at the 3:15 mark of the third.
During the final eight minutes, senior Corinne Scannell scored back-to-back field goals and Colucci sank her second trey of the game for the Royals to remain in control, 49-42. Both teams trade points at the free-throw line, but momentum shifted Mattituck’s way. Junior Liz Dwyer scored seven of the team’s nine straight points to take a 53-51 edge.
Again, both teams were back at the charity stripe with seconds on the clock, but Mattituck made more of its opportunities to give the game its final score.
Despite the loss, Port Jefferson will take on East Rockaway in the Class C Long Island championship semifinals March 6 at SUNY Old Westbury at 5 p.m.
“I think that with the group of girls that we have here — with the athleticism that’s on the court — we always have a shot in a close game like that,” Port Jeff head coach Jessie Rosen said. “But to have the type of scorer that Courtney is — and she can take over a game at any point — having that as a coach you always appreciate that. We had faith that we could grind it out, but Mattituck wound up on top tonight.”
Royals reign over Suffolk for first time since 1927
By Bill Landon & Desirée Keegan
Jillian Colucci and Corinne Scannell know what being a part of a Port Jeff powerhouse is like. They were both on the two-time state champion girls’ soccer team. Now, they can say they are a part of another team that made history with total team dominance.
The Royals basketball team earned the school’s first Suffolk County Class C title since 1927 Feb. 18. Despite being the first team to take Port Jefferson all the way this year, the Royals hadn’t had success is the finals in seasons past. The girls went 11-1 in League VIII last season, and 10-0 the year before that, but lost to Pierson-Bridgehampton and Babylon, respectively in the final game.
This year, the girls not only made history; they got redemption with a 46-43 win over Pierson.
Senior Courtney Lewis, who scored a team-high 12 points, was limited well below her 27.3 points-per-game average. She and classmate Jillian Colucci were forced to watch the final minutes of the game from the bench, after fouling out as the 13-point lead they entered the fourth quarter with slowly shrank.
“Honestly, it was very stressful and everyone else on the team stepped up,” Lewis said of watching the end of the fourth quarter transpire. “They just played really well today.”
The Royals led 38-25 heading into the final eight minutes of regulation. That’s when momentum shifted the Whalers’ way. The team slowly chipped away at the deficit, with Nia Dawson, who scored a game-high 17 points, leading the way.
With two of the team’s primary ball handlers sidelined, Port Jefferson head coach Jesse Rosen said his bench players were remarkable.
“They may not have been comfortable in the situation they were put in on the court — especially in a pressure situation — but they stepped up and did a nice job,” he said.
Protecting a six-point lead at that point, Port Jefferson was sent to the free-throw line, but couldn’t cash in. Pierson had the same opportunity on the other end, and used it to lessen the Royals’ advantage to four points. Coming down to the wire, Pierson’s Isabel Peters went to the stripe and sank both of her free throws with 17 seconds left in the game.
Port Jefferson sophomore Jocelyn Lebron added a free-throw to extend Port Jefferson’s advantage to three points. Port Jefferson senior Corinne Scannell had an opportunity to put the championship away when she was fouled with eight seconds left, and she didn’t disappoint.
“No matter how much they were gaining on us, we still had the lead and we had to keep that in perspective,” Scannell said. “We put pressure on ourselves, we played as a team and we pushed ourselves.”
Lebron said despite being one of the younger members of the squad, she too knew what her Royals had to do.
“When they got close, we just had to slow this game down a little bit, but keep our energy up,” she said. “I couldn’t be happier with this experience.”
Rosen said he gave his girls some words of advice during the fourth quarter.
“I said to them that runs are inevitable,” he said. “Things like that are going to happen and the key is to be able to weather the run.”
Colucci credited her teammates for how they handled the game’s final minutes, but not before she tipped her hat to her opponents, especially for being the team to top the Royals last year.
“It’s always a tough game against Pierson — they never give up and they play us really hard — but we just had to keep our composure,” she said. “We all made eye contact, we relaxed and we slowed the game down. We tried not to let the crowd get us frazzled and we kept our heads in the game.”
Behind Lewis were Colucci and Scannell with 11 points each. Colucci swished two 3-pointers and Scannell had a double-double with 12 rebounds. Senior Gillian Kenah finished with five points, Lebron added four and freshman Samantha Ayotte scored once, with a shot from beyond the arc.
Port Jefferson will take on Class B’s winner of the Feb. 21 Mattituck and McGann-Mercy matchup for the small school championship title at Riverhead High School Feb. 24 at 4 p.m.
While the team is to get ready for the next game, Rosen said just wants his team to take in the moment first.
“I told them to just savor the win,” he said. “We’ll talk X’s and O’s another time.”
A motor vehicle crash Feb. 18 in Rocky Point killed a woman from Port Jefferson and seriously injured her husband. Suffolk County Police 7th Squad detectives are still investigating the incident.
Florin Tilinca was driving a 2014 Jeep on Route 25A and was preparing to stop for a red light at the intersection of Fairway Drive at about 12:20 p.m. when a 2015 Subaru traveling in the westbound lane of Route 25A crossed into the eastbound lane and struck the Jeep.
The driver of the Subaru, Lucio Costanzo, 73, of Port Jefferson, was airlifted via Suffolk County Police helicopter to Stony Brook University Hospital in serious condition. His wife, Stephanie Costanzo, 73, who was a passenger in the vehicle, was transported to John T. Mather Memorial Hospital in Port Jefferson where she was pronounced dead. Tilinca and his 16-year-old son were transported to St. Charles Hospital in Port Jefferson with non-life-threatening injuries.
The vehicles were impounded for safety checks. Anyone with information on this crash is asked to call the 7th Squad at 631-852-8752.
Port Jefferson take share of League VII title after senior day win
Entering Port Jefferson’s final regular season game just 34 points away from becoming the 22nd player in Suffolk County girls’ basketball history to reach 2,000 career points, Courtney Lewis admitted she was anxious.
Her Thursday afternoon home game was rescheduled for Friday afternoon, only to be pushed back to a Saturday morning matchup as a result of last week’s snowstorm.
“It was stressful,” she said. “There was this build up, and I was so excited to finally get to the game.
When Lewis joined Port Jefferson’s varsity basketball team six years ago, she couldn’t have predicted the feat she would eventually achieve.
She reached 1,500 career points earlier this season, and at that point she said the thought of reaching 2,000 became a goal. The dream became a tangible milestone when she scored a field goal in the fourth quarter of her team’s 64-30 senior day win over Pierson-Bridgehampton Feb. 11. She finished with 39 points to move her to 2,005 for her career.
“Going into the game I knew I was 34 points away, so I told myself I wouldn’t think about it,” Lewis said. “But then, my coach pulled me out when there was two minutes left in the third quarter and said, ‘Do you know how many point away you are?’ and I said no. He told me I was three points away. I had no idea I was that close.”
Lewis scored the first nine points of the game for the Royals, on two field goals and a three-point play. In the second, she sank six more after converting a turnover and two offensive rebounds into three buckets.
Senior Jillian Colucci said she’s always marveled at what her teammate has been able to do on the court.
“Courtney is absolutely phenomenal,” she said. “When I dish the ball off to her she makes these nearly impossible shots and I just stand there in amazement.”
Lewis credited her teammates for her success.
“We did really well pushing the ball and looking for open girls,” she said. “We prepared all season and we’re ready to take on the playoffs.”
Several assists and multiple turnovers caused by the Royals’ defense helped her chip away at the 34 points until her goal was met.
“It was on today,” senior Corinne Scannell said. “We were working on our defense a lot in practice and it just shows that hard work pays off. We were able to get more traps and read their offense better. On the press we were also really good.”
Lewis needed three points heading into the final quarter, and after assisting on the first field goal of the quarter, she made a layup at the 5:49 mark to pull her within one point. She sank her 2,000th career point a minute later.
“It’s one of my best memories of basketball so far — being my senior year, my last home game, it’s great,” she said.
Colucci said the culmination of Lewis’ achievement, senior day and the team’s last game of the regular season made the victory sweeter.
“Being with these girls for the last time on this court, to win, it just tops off the season,” she said. “We had a lot of steals and we played really tough. This is my last sport, my last time playing in the Port Jefferson gym and it’s surreal, but it’s great to do it with these girls.”
With the win, Port Jefferson ended the regular season 15-1 and earned a share of the League VII title with Sayville.
“That was definitely our goal, so it feels incredible to have accomplished it,” Colucci said. “We’re working as hard as ever and I think we’re going to go far. We’re hoping that this isn’t the end.”
February Food Drive
To help give back to the community, Coach Realtors of Stony Brook and Port Jefferson will hold its 4th annual food drive during the month of February for the benefit of the Infant Jesus Food Pantry, Open Cupboard, in Port Jefferson. “Unfortunately during the winter months, the local food pantries are in desperate need of supplies,” said food drive organizer and realtor Debbie Battaglia.
Nonperishable items, including canned foods such as soups and vegetables, diapers and dry or canned pet food, can be dropped off at the Stony Brook office, which is located at 1099 North Country Road, Stony Brook. For a full list of needed items or to arrange a pick-up, email Debbie at [email protected] or call 516-297-6127.
By Alex Petroski
For a dozen years, a pastor from First Presbyterian Church of Port Jefferson has been making an annual trip to Honduras to provide people of all ages with desperately needed medical care.
Reverend Richard Graugh, a Mount Sinai native who has been at First Presbyterian since 2007, first joined a small group of doctors from across North America in making a trip to the third-world country 12 years ago.
In the years since its inception, the mission has expanded to include the establishment of a nonprofit organization, and plans to construct a permanent medical clinic in Honduras now exist.
Belle Terre resident Jackie Gernaey, who has made the trip once before, attended the last visit to Honduras, from Dec. 31, 2016, to Jan. 10.
“It ends up turning into a giant village celebration when we show up,” Graugh said. “It’s not really a party, but they all get dressed up; they’re cooking food like pre-gaming at a football game.”
Graugh described the circumstances of the group’s annual January trip, which lasts for a week and is funded out of the pockets of the doctors and other volunteers who make the trek. The doctors pack suitcases with medical equipment, medicines, supplies and even crayons and coloring books, to hand out to children while they wait on lines to receive treatment. This year, 18 Americans from across the country joined twice as many Hondurans in setting up shop at the Hospital of San Lorenzo in southern Honduras to administer eye exams to 430 people — most for the removal of cataracts — dental care for more than 600 patients and other medical treatments to the hundreds of villagers. Dental and eye care are of extreme importance to the Honduran people because of a lack of clean water and a blistering hot sun year-round. Cataracts are a common problem for people of all ages.
Graugh said 12 years ago, it was a small operation started by doctors from Pennsylvania who essentially just asked around to see if anyone was interested in joining.
“We used to go down there and do this, and there would be no real organization behind it apart from people with good intentions and good faith and good skills to help these people,” he said.
A nonprofit organization called Key Humanitarian Initiative for Southern Honduras was established with bases in Virginia and Honduras, as a way to raise more funds for the annual mission. Now, the group is seeking donations and has received a plot of land to establish a permanent medical facility so that groups can make trips to provide care to Hondurans all year.
“Ostensibly, one from North America is astounded by the quality of joy they have in the day that we’re there,” Graugh said of the trips. “I don’t know if they have the joy all of the time, but there is a palpable sense of joy present even though these people live in very poor conditions.”
Despite the joy Graugh said he observes during his time in the country, the mission is far from a happy occurrence for him.
“If I’m totally honest, I always struggle with how important it is to the individual when it happens, but how small of an effect [it is] on the whole grand scale of things,” he said. “Life is hard. Doing this for 12 years, I’ve seen 12-year-olds [turn into] 24-year-olds [who] have two kids of their own. They’re rung out. Life is hard. At the same time they come and they smile.”
He said beginning and continuing this mission has opened his eyes.
“If you’ve never been to the developing world, there’s a real straightening out of one’s priorities,” he said. “When you come back and we’re all so consumed with so many things and so busy it’s like, ‘did you have food today?’”
Melvin Tejada, one of the founders of KHISH who lives in Honduras, said in an email what the missions mean to the people of Honduras and the group’s mission to provide medical care to people in desperate need.
“[He is] a humble person with a great heart for the poor of my country,” Tejada said of Graugh in an email.
Graugh said he is just glad to be able to help in any way.
“It’s just this real minute part of improvement in their lives,” he said, “but if I can be part of that, it’s enough for me.”
To learn more about KHISH’s cause, to donate or to get involved, visit www.khishprojectvision.com.
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