Splendiferous Spring
Tri-Valley Athletic Sports Awards Night Celebrates The Remarkable Bears Of Spring 2011
By RICHARD A. ROSS
Tri-Valley spring award winners: Top row left to right: Jarryd Killian Golf Coaches Award, James Bernstein MVP. Not pictured Most Improved Player Kyle Rodgers. Second row: Boys track MIP's (left to right). Brendan Tierney, Justin Weintraub, Aidan Woolsey and Brian Edwards. Second row: Girls MIP's (left to right): Brittany Rennison, Heidi Furman, Sabrena Smith, Alex Brooks, Brooke Gillette, Oliva Rehm and Vicky Tingley. Third row: Baseball MVP Joe Mickelson, Coaches Award Peter DiMilia (not pictured Fred Dumond MIP, Erin Smith Softball MVP. Bottom row Kathleen Thilberg Softball MIP, (Coaches Award Nicole Bradley not pictured) and Tennis Co-MVP Josue Ramos with Coach Janet Carey. Not pictured Co-MVP Jesse Miller.
GRAHAMSVILLE, NY—“Spring , an experience in immortality,” wrote Henry David Thoreau.
By creating an athletic legacy that will have a shelf life for years to come, Tri-Valley teams led by a cadre of outstanding warriors in track, golf, baseball, softball and tennis authored a spring season that many regard as one for the ages.
Words of praise issued forth from the coaches who took the stage one by one to celebrate their teams and those individuals worthy of special merit. Given the enormous achievements rendered by the girls and boys track teams, Coaches Joe and Missy Iatauro deciced to give MVP t-shirts to all team members in lieu of mission impossible, namely choosing one or two competitors.
For the girls team that won its fifth consecutive Section Nine title and which filled the stage front with 27 remarkable young women who could be present on June 8, as well as those who could not, the idea of a collective Most Valuable Player designation was perfectly apropos. As he had done with the boys track team just prior which had won the OCL Division IV title and was Section Nine runner up to Pine Plains by a mere 15 points, Coach Iatauro enumerated each and every track athlete and bestowed words of praise, gratitude and encouragement for one and all.
The role played by the Iatauros, as well as the other spring coaches including first year golf coach Jason Closs, baseball guru John Rusin and Softball legend Mary Feusner cannot be understated in taking stock of the lifelong impact on the bevy of Bears who have competed for them. That, along with the role of sports in life education and the strengths to be gained by facing and overcoming adversity, were part of the subject of this writer’s remarks prior to the chronicle of spring slide show that closed out the night’s proceedings.
At the outset of this storied night, Athletic Director Derek Adams welcomed the audience and set the tone with words of thanks and praise for the athletes, coaches and ground crews that had worked in concert to produce this memorable spring.
A list of all the award winners can be found below. Herein are a few of the highlights mentioned by the coaches in the course of their remarks about their teams this season. Space and time do not permit a recap of what was said about the athletes who took the stage. Those words meant much to the assembled athletes and their parents who as always, were on hand to show their love and support.
Robert Hayes lauded his field assistance students and each was presented with a certificate of gratitude for their efforts beyond the pale during this rainy spring.
Junior varsity baseball and softball coaches Greg Botsford and Ellie Cassidy lauded their teams. Botsford alluded to a pair of come-from-behind wins as emblematic of his teams’ character. Golf coach Jason Closs extolled his Division IV champion team. The title shared with Sullivan West and Eldred was the first since 2005. The golf team was a NYSPHSAA Scholar Athlete award winner with a cumulative GPA over 90. The team’s first 21 practices were held in the gym before the team headed off to Middletown to near freezing temperatures. Boys track and field Coach Joe Iatauro waxed poetic about his Division IV championship team and Section Nine runner up, which works six days a week.
Iatuaro referenced a memorable moment at the Penn Relays when the team made the big board for only the second time ever, even though the actual time of the 400 relay team led by Brendan Tierney turned out to be in error. “Effort=Success “is the mantra of T-V ‘s storied track and field program.
Girls track and field had another season for the ages with their fifth straight Section Nine title and seemingly annual Division championship. The accomplishments of a team from a school with only 289 students from grades 9-11 is nothing short of incomprehensible. And, despite the looming graduation of icons such as Ashley Weintraub, Naomi Weise and Agnes Pompeii, the wave of youngsters from seventh grader Autumn Bender up to the talented junior class is poised for another Coup D’etat next year.
Baseball Coach John Rusin thanked many including Manager John Edwards who has been with Rusin since fourth grade. Rusin extolled his 9-9 (9-5 OCIAA) team’s chemistry and team-first attitude. Winning their first sectional game in ten years by vanquishing Pine Plains, a team that ousted them 5-3 a year ago, the Bears nearly pulled off the upset of the year as they led S.S. Seward in the Class C final 7-0 heading into the bottom of the seventh inning. The events that led to the 8-7 stultifying loss are unimportant now. What matters is the team’s agenda to win it all next season. Seniors Peter DiMIlia and Tyler TerBush were extolled and thanked for their immeasurable contributions. Now it’s up to the junior-laden team to put into action the prerequisite time and energy to bring that coveted title home to Grahamsville.
Softball Coach Mary Feusner, now in her 31st year rued the gruesome spring weather, the injuries and illness that dampened what otherwise might have been a brighter spring. “Murphy’s Law,” summed up the entire enterprise according to Feusner who thanked her assistants including former player Ellie Cassidy and the unbridled enthusiasm added by Peter DiMilia. Feusner fondly recalled her team’s first win on turf versus Chester at the “The Rock and the execution of a triple play versus Livingston Manor, only the second one she has witnessed in 34 years of coaching.
Tennis Coach Janet Carey readily praised T-V’s only two players on the combined squad with Fallsburg, namely Jesse Miller and Josue Ramos, both singles players who joined forces to compete in the OCIAA tournament played on a different surface, indoors and under the lights.
The slide show provided a musical and visual tribute to the wondrous spring. For an album of photos from the awards night proceedings,
CLICK HERE: http://sportsinsights.smugmug.com/Sports/T-V-Spring-Awards
