One Year, Two Record-Breakers
Dalton hoops girls Lechich and Cecil both break the 1,000-point mark
By Adam Bloch
Inside the main gym at The Dalton School’s athletics building, there is a large banner listing the 1,000-point scorers in the school’s basketball history. The list stretches back decades and includes roughly a dozen entries. But until this year, it featured only one girl, a 2006 graduate named Mia Gliedman. This season, within a month of each other, two girls added their names to the short honor roll.
Steph Lechich started playing basketball with a small, rubber ball when she was 5. She was too small to use a real basket, so her father would mimic a hoop by holding his arms in a circle and allowing her to shoot through it. She’s been draining buckets ever since. Jan. 25, she hit a 3-pointer to pass the 1,000-point mark. Read more
Ride ’Em, Cowboy
The Garden gets a little bit country at bull riding invitational
By Adam Bloch
Any time bulls come to Madison Square Garden, you usually know what to expect: A walking advertisement for big-and-tall clothing purveyors, some intense above-the-rim athleticism, a healthy dose of Derrick Rose and Joakim Noah and, if the past decade is any indication, a loss for the Knicks.
The bulls came to the Garden the weekend of January 8, but they had nothing to do with basketball. And instead of seven-footers, the half-filled arenas got to see 1,600-pounders. The athletes weren’t the Chicago Bulls but rather the bucking bulls of Professional Bull Riding’s fifth annual New York Invitational. Read more
Brief Break from the Courts
On the heels of a winning record, Roby returns to Dartmouth with big plans
By Adam Bloch
Right now, Curtis Roby is enjoying a much-needed break, one that he hopes will help heal his balky shoulder. But it won’t last long. Just like the professional version, the world of college tennis offers little rest during a truncated off-season. After only 10 weeks of recuperation, Roby and the rest of the Dartmouth men’s tennis team will step back onto the court in January.
“The season’s been going well so far,” he said. “We had a great fall. I can’t be more optimistic. We have a great group of guys together, really hard working. I have no doubts that I’m going to come back healthy and play well. We have a great vibe on our team right now, and we’re in a winning mood.” Read more
Hicks’ Lucky Kick
Bowdoin goalie’s score a highlight of team’s winning soccer season
By Adam Bloch
On rare—very rare—occasions, a soccer goalie gets to have a moment of glory on offense. Maybe the keeper is tall and plays well in the air, so he is brought up to play corner kicks. Maybe he is an excellent ball striker and is good at penalty shots.
Dan Hicks isn’t used in either way by the Bowdoin College soccer team, but he still managed to net a goal this season. Playing against New England Small College Athletic Conference (NESCAC) heavyweight Trinity Oct. 26, he took a free kick from the edge of his own box. After 80 yards and a deceptive bounce on the wet turf, the ball found its way past the opposing keeper. Read more
Girls on the Gridiron
NFL assists with new push to bring flag football to city middle schools
By Adam Bloch
Good teams need unanimity of purpose. Members of the girls’ flag football team from the Anderson School, West Prep Academy and the Computer School share unanimity of thought when it comes to their chosen sport. Read more
Kenyon Record-Breaker
Smith, along with other city stars, made their marks on college campuses
By Adam Bloch
Throughout his high school career, Will Smith considered himself primarily a defensive player. He started at shortstop for four straight years at Collegiate. But when he arrived at Kenyon College, he made an important discovery about getting playing time.
“All I really wanted to do was play every day,” Smith said. “I realized that in college if you can hit, you can play.”
He ended up doing plenty of both. By the time he graduated earlier this year, he owned the all-time Kenyon batting-average record with a .410 mark and on-base percentage (OBP) at a .506 rate. Read more
Celebrated Slugger Caps College Career
With stellar stats, Copeland-Halperin enters Williams College record books
By Adam Bloch
It’s late March in California, 2006, and Libby Copeland-Halperin steps up to the plate. She’s still a rookie, a freshman playing one of her first collegiate games for a team that will go 30-10. But on this day, Copeland-Halperin proves she belongs with her more experienced teammates. A poor pitch over the heart of the plate, a blur of aluminum as the bat flashes by and the ball takes off like a rocket, not landing until it clears the fence.
But wait! Hold on just a moment! Read more
NYC’s Tennis ‘Magician’
With a powerful two-handed forehand, Max Segan comes into his own
By Adam Bloch
Among all the tennis players who have called New York City their home, perhaps no one has had a more unlikely journey to stardom than Max Segan.
“It’s pretty weird,” the 19-year-old conceded recently while reviewing his up-and-down career.
Segan has overcome injuries, burnout and apathy during the past half-dozen years. But undoubtedly the biggest impediment to his progress was the most obvious hallmark of his playing style: his two-handed forehand. Read more
The Handball Symphony
Quintessential city sport still going strong
By Adam Bloch
One harsh thwack of rubber ball meeting hand, then a moment later, a flatter, harder thwack of ball meeting wall. Then the same two beats over again. Soon, a rhythm emerges. These are the trademark sounds of a game of handball. Put several games together, as the Inner City Handball Association (ICHA) did last weekend at the North Meadow Recreation Center in Central Park, and you get a symphony of the sport: thwack-thwack, thwack-thwack, thwack-thwack, a squeak of sneakers, a grunt of exertion, an ultimate, determining thwack-thwack and finally a yell of exultation. Read more
That Elusive Perfect Game
Stuy pitcher Nolan Becker aims for a repeat when he heads to Yale this fall
By Adam Bloch
Everyone was ready to see the magic happen again. From the players to the coaches to the spectators to the umpires—they were all hoping to see the lightning bolt of an arm that had just produced a perfect game deliver a repeat performance.
Lightning didn’t strike twice for Nolan Becker, the senior lefty from Stuyvesant High School. During this game, played earlier this spring in Central Park, he was facing a top squad in Norman Thomas, one that sported few weak hitters and went on to win the city championships a couple of weeks ago. Read more
