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Ward Melville High School

Ward Melville Patriots sweep Colonials in 3

by Bill Landon - March 21, 2021

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Ward Melville girls volleyball opened their season with a pair of wins, a road game against Longwood, 3-0, and a nail biter at home versus Pat-Med that went five games before falling to Commack and Sachem East at home both games in three sets. The Patriots snapped their two-game losing streak with a convincing three set romp over visiting William Floyd 25-11, 25-11 and 25-9 March 20.

Unstoppable at net were outside hitter Sophia DiGirolamo, a junior, and eighth-grader Emma Bradshaw, who between them killed 18 along with nine digs by senior Phoebe Bergson to lift the Patriots to 3-2 in League I.

The win puts the Patriots solidly in fourth place behind Commack and Sachems East and North with surprisingly 11 games left in this COVID-19 abbreviated season.

Ward Melville boys volleyball prevail in 4

by Bill Landon - March 17, 2021

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Ward Melville boys volleyball started strong with Sachem East winning the opening set but fell behind in the second clawing their way back to win it by two points.

East had no intention of going quietly when they nipped the Patriots in the third match winning it 25-22 to force a game four. Ward Melville rallied back to take the fourth set to win the match 3-1 at home March 15.

Senior co-captain Bryan McCaffery led the way for the Patriots with 15 kills followed by Christopher Sohl who had five kills and five blocks, along with teammate Charlie Fernandes who served up four aces. Ward Melville took it in four sets 25-16, 26-24, 22-25 and 25-15 in the Division I matchup to lift the Patriots to 2-2 in this COVID-abbreviated season.

Patriots rebound after Feb. 21 loss

by Bill Landon - February 25, 2021

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Photographer John Dielman captured the Ward Melville Patriots boys in their Feb. 23 game against Patchogue-Medford at home.

After a 73-49 loss to Brentwood Feb. 21, the Patriots boys basketball team rebounded with a 52-44 win against Patchogue-Medford. The win put Ward Melville in second place in League I (4-1 in the league and 5-1 overall).

The team will be back on the court Feb. 25 when they travel to Longwood High School.

Pictured clockwise from above, Asher Heilbron, Trevor Dunn, Frank Carroll, Ben Shank, Tommy Engel and Jason Flynn.

Ward Melville boys track braves the cold

by Bill Landon - February 5, 2021

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It was another edition of boys indoor winter track that was held outside at Ward Melville High School Jan. 31. It was 29 degrees at the opening gun where the Patriots hosted Walt Whitman falling 61-50 in a League I matchup.

On the bell lap in a distance event a patriot runner was overheard telling his coach after the race that it was so cold, he couldn’t go on the last lap because his “hammys” locked up.

The Patriots are back in action Feb 6 where they’ll travel to Bay Shore before finishing their regular season at home against Commack Feb. 14.

Three Village Teens Debut Print Art Magazine

by Rita J. Egan - December 21, 2020

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Junk-Dump-Magazine-founders_121920 — Dlisah Lapidus, Grace Brouillet and Mia Schoolman are the founders of Junk Dump magazine.

Looking for a way to connect young artists during a time when schools are unable to hold art shows, three Ward Melville High School students decided to give creative teens a chance to share their work, not only on the web but also in print.

In December, a new magazine called Junk Dump premiered. The publication was founded by Grace Brouillet, 17, of Port Jefferson Station, Dlisah Lapidus, 16, of Setauket, and Mia Schoolman, 16, of Stony Brook. Brouillet and Schoolman are seniors, while Lapidus is a junior set to graduate a year early.

Featuring artwork, photography, fashion designs and writings, the magazine has no ads, as the girls put up their own money to have it published. They used the online service PrintingCenterUSA to have it printed.

The three said the hope was to recoup some of the outlay by charging $10 for the full-color magazine. While they printed 75 issues of the first edition, titled Distorted Time, they had so many people interested that they are planning to print more of their second issue which is set to be released in February.

Schoolman said they chose the name Junk Dump because they wanted the magazine to be a place where artists could share anything, even if their piece wasn’t completed. Or, as she described it, “a place where artists can dump their work and show the raw side of their artwork.”

“We love unfinished or unpolished work, and you never get to see that in exhibits or art shows,” she said.

It’s no surprise that the girls became interested in creating a publication. Schoolman said she’s into studying the fine arts, and she and Brouillet are interested in graphic design. Brouillet is also editor-in-chief of the school’s yearbook. Lapidus said her interests lie in journalism and fashion design.

Lapidus said the objective was to show all talents whether one is an artist, writer, photographer or designer.

“That was really the goal — we wanted to just give every person who had some creative aspirations a place where they can express themselves and get some recognition for it,” she said.

The magazine features work from teenagers all over the country and the world, even as far as Turkey and Scotland. The three invited people to contribute via Snapchat, and the submissions have also led to an Instagram page and website. Schoolman said they also messaged some young artists directly.

Lapidus said they wanted to include young artists from all over the world as they recognized that with current restrictions due to COVID-19, many don’t have a place to express themselves, something they have witnessed firsthand with school art shows not taking place during the pandemic.

“It would be really interesting to see in this digital age that we have, and where face-to-face contact is restricted,” Lapidus said. “I think we can form a community through this magazine that doesn’t have to just be restricted by geography. It doesn’t have to be just in this area. We can even connect people here to all over the world.”

The high school students plan to publish the magazine every other month, and next year when they’re in college they still intend to produce more issues, Brouillet said.

“I think this is something that we’re all really passionate about and love doing, and we all feel it’s making a difference in our own lives and other peoples’,” she said. “When we go off to college, we’ll be able to build a community even bigger and keep it growing.”

Even though the girls run a website and social media accounts, presenting work in print is important to them, especially to Lapidus, a self-described avid reader, who said she’s always connected more with print media than online.

“It’s just not the same as holding paper in your hand,” she said.

She added so many magazines are online, but during the pandemic having a print version made sense.

“I thought when physical contact is taken from us with this pandemic, it’s important to bring print back in some way, and I think that having a physical print magazine connects people even further,” Lapidus said.

Schoolman said Lapidus’ passion for print, along with her and Brouillet’s graphic-design abilities are a good match.

“I think that when we first started the project, not many people really knew what we were doing,” Schoolman said. “We said we were making a magazine but obviously we didn’t have the physical copy in our hands [at the time]. I think when people actually see us go into publishing, printing our own magazine, it’s so important to kind of combine the digital world with the physical world.”

For more information on Junk Dump magazine, visit www.junkdumpmag.com.

Annual Holiday Parade Transforms Into Light Show at Ward Melville High School

by Rita J. Egan - December 16, 2020

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This year the organizers of the Three Village Electric Holiday Parade had to go about things differently due to COVID-19 restrictions and social-distancing guidelines.

Instead of vehicles and floats decorated with lights traveling down Route 25A in Setauket with hundreds bundled up and standing along the road, the parade turned into a drive-thru light show presented by the Rotary Club of Stony Brook Dec. 13 and held on the Ward Melville High School grounds. The show took place from 5 to 6:30 p.m., and spectators lined up in their cars up and down Old Town Road to get a peek of the holiday fun long before the gates opened.

Various businesses were on hand as well as students from Three Village school district. To comply with social-distancing guidelines, only a few representatives from each group stood with their entries. Many used photo cutouts and videos to represent those who could not be there.

To celebrate the high school seniors, Three Village parents set up more than 500 lighted bags on the school’s front lawn, each with a student’s name on it.

Local Teen wins Suffolk Speech Contest

by TBR Staff - December 12, 2020

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Riley Meckley, a junior at Ward Melville High School has won the 84th annual Suffolk County American Legion Oratorical Contest.

Gene Ordmandy Jr., a past commander of American Legion Wilson Ritch Post 432 in Port Jefferson Station, was the representative from the sponsoring post.

On Dec. 5, high school students from public and private schools in Suffolk County came together to compete in a speech contest based on the United States Constitution. Each participant had to prepare a 10 min speech (no notes allowed) based on the Constitution. The contest teaches the importance of research, preparation, speaking and presenting skills as well as the history of our nation’s laws. On Jan. 9, the winners from Suffolk, Nassau and Queens debate for the title of Long Island Champion.

Besides their prepared oration, competitors also have to give a second speech based on an Amendment or Article in the Constitution. Over the next few months, there are several elimination rounds and regional winners advance to the New York State Finals in Albany. Last year, Riley took 3rd place at the NY state finals.

Ward Melville Holds Socially Distanced Graduation Ceremonies

by Rita J. Egan - July 20, 2020

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Ward Melville High School held 11 separate socially distanced graduation ceremonies July 18 and July 19 to comply with New York State guidelines.

During the last few months, like many districts across the state, school administrators discussed several ideas about what to do for graduation. In a letter to Ward Melville seniors and families earlier in July, administrators announced that the school was developing a plan to host in-person commencements over the course of two days.

In June the school had hoped to hold a ceremony with all the students after Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) announced the state would allow 150 attendees at graduations, hoping the number would increase. However, when the maximum capacity was not raised, Ward Melville opted for multiple ceremonies where seniors were allowed to bring two guests each and were spread out on the high school’s front lawn.

Each ceremony began with a recorded version of “Pomp and Circumstance” followed by an in-person performance of “The Star-Spangled Banner” by graduating senior Jordan Amato. Class of 2020 valedictorian William Sun and salutatorian Matthew Fiorella delivered commencement speeches during each of the 11 ceremonies.

Class of 2020 Student Government President Sarah Thornton also announced that this year’s class gift would be a new tree, bench and rock inscribed with a quote at the front part of the school lawn.

William Sun Is Ward Melville’s 2020 Valedictorian

by Rita J. Egan - July 3, 2020

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Ward Melville Val WilliamSun (002) — William Sun

East Setuket’s William Sun ended the school year on a high note.

Sun is Ward Melville High School’s valedictorian with a 105.01 weighted average. The valedictorian is planning on attending Brown University in Rhode Island to major in computer science.

Sun attended Nassakeag Elementary School and then W.S. Mount Elementary for the district’s intellectually gifted classes. Before Ward Mellville, he studied at P.J. Gelinas Middle School. While he has lived in the Three Village area all his life, his father, Yan Sun, a doctor, and his mother, Hong Tan, a nurse, are originally from China and moved here in the 1990s and now run a doctor’s office.

Sun said attending Three Village through the years he has been surrounded by brilliant peers.

“There are so many smart people in this community,” he said.

During his high school career, he has been a member of the Ward Melville High School Varsity Science Olympiad Team and was also the president of the school’s math team and computer science club. He qualified for the International Science and Engineering Fair and won a silver medal at the Long Island math research competition. The valedictorian played piano and violin in the school’s ensembles and was named an All-State pianist, qualified as an All-State alternative for violin and toured in Spain and eastern Europe in eighth- and 10th-grade, respectively, through the Metropolitan Youth Orchestra. In 2020, he was named a National Merit Scholarship winner.

Among his activities and achievements, being the director, creator and manager of Piano for Patients has been one of his favorites. He and other student-musicians would play piano in the Stony Brook University Hospital lobby and over time other musicians became involved performing with other instruments. He’s hoping before he attends college and hands over his responsibilities to a younger student that the group can do one more performance in the summer, since they haven’t been able to perform during the pandemic. Recently, he and his piano teacher Daniel Fogel have organized an online concert as an alternative way to do community service through playing piano.

In addition to Piano for Patients, he volunteered at the hospital helping out with whatever needed to be done to lighten the load for workers, whether it was moving things around, making beds or cleaning floors.

He said choosing computer science came about since he’s been involved in programming since sixth- and seventh-grade, and he also took courses at Stony Brook University where he was involved in programming as well as researching different ways to find data.

“In the future, computer science is going to have a large impact and so I want to be a part of that,” he said, adding he thinks about working at places such as Google in the future.

He said among the teachers in the Three Village school district who had an influence on him was former Gelinas teacher Gary Vorwald, who was both his earth science teacher and the head of Science Olympiad in the school. The valedictorian remembers how the teacher would stay late at school to help students.

“It was the first time that I saw passion for science, he really made me want to join the Science Olympiad,” he said.

As the school was shut down due to the coronavirus pandemic, Sun said he kept himself busy with computer science projects and learning Mandarin.

As he leaves Ward Melville behind, he said he’s impressed with the younger students.

“This is really a tumultuous time but we’ve seen some amazing things, especially from the grades that are coming up,” he said. “People are really pushing for what they believe in. What I would say is fight for what you believe in, because with what’s going on now, people are really fighting for justice and such amazing things.”

Matthew Fiorella Named Ward Melville’s Salutatorian

by Rita J. Egan - July 2, 2020

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Ward Melville Sal MatthewFiorella (002) — Matthew Fiorella

Ward Melville’s salutatorian capped off the school year with a 104.85 weighted grade point average.

With the school year behind him, Matthew Fiorella is ready to head to the University of California, Los Angeles and major in engineering. He said when it came to choosing colleges it was down to the California school and the University of Michigan. He decided he would have better intern and job opportunities through UCLA. Plus, he said he liked California after visiting there a couple of times.

Originally living in Arizona and Ohio when he was younger, Fiorella moved to the Three Village Central School District for second grade. He started at Setauket Elementary School and then entered the Intellectually Gifted Program at Mount Elementary School in fourth grade. He continued his studies at P.J. Gelinas Junior High School.

During his high school career, Fiorella has kept busy both in and outside of school. He was the president of the Junior Model UN, a member of the National and Spanish honor societies and was named a National Merit Finalist. The salutatorian was also a member of the school’s band. He played first alto saxophone and was president of the wind ensemble. He also completed an internship at the biotechnology startup Vascular Simulations Inc.

As far as sports, he worked as a coach for the Three Village Youth Basketball organization and took part in the Sports Arena Basketball team.

He said balancing extracurriculars with schoolwork can be challenging.

“It’s trying not to waste time and not to procrastinate, which is difficult because it’s something that I think is natural to a lot of people,” he said. “I think being involved in a lot of things and moving around a lot helps me stay disciplined.”

Fiorella has been inspired by his father, Dr. David Fiorella, who works at Stony Brook University Hospital, and his mother, Andrea Fiorella, a former physical therapist. Besides his parents, Fiorella said his cousin David Lawrence has been an influence in his life.

Lawrence is an electrical engineer, which Fiorella found interesting because there are creative elements to that field, and he had the opportunity to tour his cousin’s workplace when he was younger.

“It was always very interesting to me, and it was really cool to see the more imaginative side of engineering, and it’s kind of what got me interested in it,” he said.

However, with a recent curiosity in history and politics during high school, he said he may even consider studying law in graduate school one day.

“I like engineering, but I don’t feel like I have had the chance to really validate that interest because most of the courses you take in school don’t reflect engineering until you get into college,” he said.

With senior year behind him, and a possible in-person graduation in July, the salutatorian said he and others never imagined the possibility that they might not have a prom or graduation.

“It’s hard because you really don’t know what you’re missing because you haven’t experienced it or something else like it,” he said. “I feel like it’s a very singular experience.”

For those students he leaves behind at Ward Melville High School, he said his advice would be not to stress so much about the day-to-day things and focus more on enjoying everything.

“This year has really shown there’s so much you really can’t plan for,” he said. “Even just in the way college decisions come out, you really realize that things aren’t the way you expected them to be. You just kind of have to accept it.”

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