A Mattituck High School student won a national video contest after filming a PSA about the harmful effects of distracted driving. 

Last month, Mattituck senior Lucas Kosmynka was awarded $5,000 and $500 to a nonprofit of his choosing through SADD/Lear Corp.’s 3rd Annual End Distracted Driving contest. End Distracted Driving aims to save lives through advocacy, education and action according to its website.

“The main point is that a little, simple mistake that may be habitual could lead to an everlasting outcome,” the Syracuse University-bound student said.

Lucas said he shot the one-minute video, titled “Heads Up,” one chilly morning last March in Tasker Park in Southold after Mattituck High School student assistance social worker Andrea Nydegger suggested he enter the contest.

Shortly after he was notified about the contest, Lucas and one of his closest friends, district custodian Michael Fedele, 56, teamed up to create the video.

“Sometimes me and [Mr.] Fedele feel like a small custodian and small student in a small community,” he said. “To touch another person’s heart in such a bigger world … it was an amazing feeling.”

The film opens with a father, Mr. Fedele, and son, played by Mattituck elementary school student Ethan Sciotto, playing baseball in an open field. As the sun sets and the duo head home, the father answers a phone call. After the screen goes black, viewers later see the impact of distracted driving — the boy is confined to a wheelchair.

Although Lucas said his father is parapalegic, that did not influence the decision to put the son in the wheelchair. Instead, he said, it was because the father would “see the mistake he’s caused every day.”

Lucas said the film was inspired by longtime Mattituck High School baseball coach Steve DeCaro, who did not return to his 17th season on the field after being placed on administrative leave in October 2018.

The first line in the short is “have a day,” a phrase coined by Mr. DeCaro, Lucas said. Every lunch period, Lucas said, the teacher, who is now reassigned, would ask students to “drive safe” and “have a day.”

Lucas donated the $500 to Kait’s Angels, a nonprofit founded in honor of Kaitlyn Doorhy, a Mattituck High School graduate who died in August 2014 after she was hit by a vehicle.

Mr. Fedele has teamed up with Lucas on some of his other projects since 2016. In March, they produced a video on suicide awareness that being used by Suffolk County Office of Health Education.

“I think I’ve helped teach Lucas that we need to bounce ideas off of one another,” he said. “I’m going to miss working with him after he graduates, because he was a partner … but I feel like a part of me will travel along with him.”

knalepinski@timesreview.com

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A unique Mattituck tradition that dates back two decades may be on its last legs.

On Monday morning, Mattituck High School principal Shawn Petretti waited outside the school as students began arriving by bus and car, as usual. He feared the school’s annual Tractor Day tradition might have reached its end. 

Then he saw a bright red tractor pull into the campus parking lot with senior Wylee Sanders at the controls. Mr. Petretti said he was “relieved” to see a student continue the tradition.

This year, it turns out, Wylee was the only student to arrive at school in a tractor.

A 20-year tradition, Tractor Day coincides with one of the final days of classes. Students are permitted to park their tractors in the student parking lot.

For Wylee, the typical six-minute commute along Main Road from Cutchogue instead took about 40 minutes, she said. The Farmall Cub tractor, brought to Cutchogue from Setauket Sunday morning, came from a family friend. As a safety precaution, Wylee’s father, Thomas, followed her to and from school.

“They were looking forward to doing it,” he said. “It’s just a shame there wasn’t anybody else.”

In June 1996, then-senior Peter Ruland struggled to start up his truck one day, Mr. Petretti said. With no alternative, he rode a tractor to the high school instead. The tradition has stayed in the district ever since.

Mr. Ruland, now 41, who currently lives in Aquebogue, was reached by phone Monday evening. He said he drove the tractor to school as a joke after a dare from his friends. For several years, he said, he didn’t know the prank had evolved into an annual tradition. In 2016, Tractor Day brought out about a dozen tractors.

This year’s low turnout wasn’t a surprise for Wylee, who only learned to drive a stick-shift tractor Sunday morning.

“A lot of the students that I know don’t have access to tractors,” she said. “I knew it’d be a small amount.”

She said her senior classmate, Christopher Imbriano, had planned to participate but decided the distance was too far from his Cutchogue home.

Mr. Petretti said the lack of participation might signify a decline in the number of students who come from agricultural families on the East End.

Those who do have agricultural backgrounds, he said, “look forward to Tractor Day — and they have the equipment. This year, I don’t think we had too many folks from farming families … but it comes in waves.”

Mr. Ruland agreed: Fewer agricultural families could be contributing to the decline.

“You certainly don’t have the volume of farms, in the industry or at least definitely in the same capacity,” he said. “But again, this was in 1996. … things have changed.”

Mr. Ruland also cited declining enrollment overall as a potential reason for the lack of participants this year.

“If you look at the population of the school itself, it shrinks and grows,” he said. “We could be in a down-cycle.”

In March, the district projected that enrollment in grades 9-12, which had 435 students as of February 2019, is expected to shrink by 22 students for the 2019-20 academic year.

This year’s senior class trip to Walt Disney World, which took place June 13-16, may also have distracted students who might otherwise taken part in the annual event, Mr. Petretti said.

“They’re trying to do so many things in such a short time frame,” he said.

Regardless of the reason for this year’s decline, the principal said he hopes to keep the Mattituck tradition alive.

“I think it’s a very unique and special thing to Mattituck and the North Fork,” he said.

knalepinski@timesreview.com

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The Mattituck High School Class of 2019 celebrated its graduation Saturday morning with its commencement ceremony inside the gym.

The students then went to the front of the school for the ceremonial tossing of the graduation caps.

Photographer Christine Heeren captured the ceremony. Learn more about the class in this Thursday’s issue of The Suffolk Times.

See more photos below:

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Times Review Media Group honored five student journalists representing each high school in the coverage area with scholarships at a ceremony Thursday night.

This year’s winners were: Brynn O’Connor of Riverhead, Caroline Morgan of Shoreham-Wading River, Madison Storm of Mattituck, Anakin Mignone of Southold and John Wright of Greenport. All the winners are seniors.

Brynn began focusing on journalism in her junior year, when she took an elective in journalism. She wrote op-eds, researched prominent journalists and developed an interest in the field. She recently submitted an essay on the stigma against modern journalism for a New York Times contest. She plans to attend Emerson College where she hopes to continue exploring journalism.

Caroline was editor-in-chief of the high school newspaper this past year and she said she fell in love with it. She wrote articles and helped organize and lay out the paper. She said she enjoyed the creative freedom of writing, even in “hard news” stories. She plans to pursue journalism as a career and will attend SUNY/Stony Brook. She said she was most proud of story she wrote about the Notre Dame Cathedral fire in Paris. The story struck her on a personal level because she had visited the site and she said she enjoyed learning about its history.

Madison worked on her school newspaper as well, The Mattitalk. She said she found a love for documenting events and writing about them in detail. She said one of her favorite pieces of journalism was writing about her attendance at the Women’s March in January 2017. She said she enjoyed sharing her perspective on the political climate. She’s passionate about sustainability and protecting the environment and those are areas she hopes to pursue in journalism. She’ll attend the University of Vermont in the fall to study English and journalism.

Anakin spent the past two years working for SOHO TV and was an executive producer. He was also a graphic editor for The Sentinel, the school newspaper. He helped lead SOHO TV’s exclusive coverage of showing the house where Louise Pietrewicz, the Cutchogue woman who had been missing for a half-century, was found buried. He also helped lead live election coverage. He plans to attend CUNY/Brooklyn College to study film production and theater.

John will be attending Clemson University on an Army ROTC scholarship and majoring in computer science. After college, he will become an officer in the United States Army. In journalism he said he loved voicing his opinions by writing freely about his interests. He was editor-in-chief of the school newspaper, The Quill. He described it as an incredible experience to write with other students who also share a love of writing. He particularly was proud of an article he wrote highlighting the heroin epidemic on Long Island.

Photo caption: (from left) Southold winner Anakin Mignone, Riverhead winner Brynn O’Connor and Greenport winner John Wright. (Credit: Joe Werkmeister)

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A mobile app coming to North Fork school districts might bring students one step closer to community service opportunities.

Beginning in 2020, Southold High School students can download and use an app called Passport For Good, which tracks each student’s involvement in community service, career development and school clubs and activities. Mattituck High School adopted the app in the 2018-19 academic year.

For several years, principal Shawn Petretti said, the district has offered students a Service Learning Enhancement on their diplomas if they accumulate 65 hours of community service over the course of their high school career.

However, the tedious process of tracking service hours on paper was discouraging students from registering for the credit they were due, he said.

“We found students were doing community service, but the paperwork was so cumbersome they weren’t submitting their hours,” he said. “Passport for Good approached us and … [it ] allows them to do all of that previous paperwork online.”

In only a few months, Mattituck students have logged over 1,700 community service hours and 30% of students are registered with the app, Mr. Petretti said. Members of the Community Service Club and the school secretary have been trained in the app.

Program founder and CEO Gayle Farman of Albany, N.Y., said the app was created in 2015 to solve a problem her own children faced while preparing for college.

“There was no way for them to chronicle their journey of everything that they were doing outside of the classroom,” Ms. Farman said.

She contacted hundreds of school district administrators and counselors in upstate New York and found the problem was widespread. It prompted Ms. Farman to find developers for an app that measured and verified student engagement in education.

Now, school districts are able to purchase a subscription to Passport for Good through BOCES, which then becomes a service supported by state aid. Approximately 22 districts are using the app in New York State.

The app also provides each district with engagement data that shows how many community service hours students are pursuing and which partnerships they’re creating, Ms. Farman said.

Although Southold has not yet rolled out the app, administrators there “have a vision for Passport for Good to establish the importance of capturing the whole student,” Ms. Farman said.

“The whole student might not just be doing community service, they may be participating in chess or newspaper club, they may be working a job after-school to support their family, they may have to watch siblings after school,” she said. “All of this can go into [the app] and give teachers and counselors a bigger picture of who their students are.”

Similarly, Mr. Petretti said the high school consistently tries to connect students with outside career opportunities to promote a more well-rounded education.

Community service is a prominent part of the Mattituck community, Mr. Petretti said, with organizations like Mattituck Lions Club and Kait’s Angels often donating scholarships and funding to the schools. One of the messages he tries to convey to students, he said, is how privileged they are to be a part of a generous community.

“There’s only so much we can teach students within the brick and mortar of this building and I feel it’s important that they go out and interact with the community and be involved,” he said. “There’s a lot to learn through doing and being exposed to something, and that could be life-changing for them.”

knalepinski@timesreview.com

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Winning hurts.

Lately, that’s the way it has been for the Mattituck High School girls basketball team. Injuries have been hitting the Tuckers hard from all directions, and yet they continually find ways to prevail.

Coach Steve Van Dood was heartened before Monday night’s 47-30 home win over visiting Center Moriches about the return of Emily Nicholson, who had suffered a concussion Dec. 12 in a game against Southampton. “Having Emily back is huge for us tonight,” he said. “I’m so happy she’s playing again.”

It wasn’t long before that happiness turned to concern. Nicholson’s return lasted a little over a quarter before the sophomore guard went down on the court in obvious pain. After the game, Van Dood said he understood that the problem was a tight hamstring, “not a tear or an ACL. We’re going to keep a very close eye on that. We have to keep that girl healthy. I think she’s had her share of injuries, and [hopefully] that’s all behind us, but it seems like every game we’re getting an injury.”

Aniah Thompson (ankle) and Sarah Santacroce (coming off an illness) were unavailable.

Such is life these days for second-place Mattituck (7-4, 6-1 Suffolk County League VII).

“Every game I’m missing a starter,” said Van Dood. He added, “We’ve been missing girls for a lot of games now and we’re still finding ways to win because we have different leading scorers every night.”

Van Dood counted seven Tuckers who have been the team’s top scorers in games this season. That speaks to Mattituck’s depth and also the contributions of young players like freshman guard Abby Woods and sophomore guard Kate Schuch, who were brought up from the junior varsity team in early December and were both in the starting lineup Monday.

Meanwhile, Mattituck has been winning. Since their only league loss to Port Jefferson, the Tuckers have rolled up league wins over Babylon, Southampton, Smithtown Christian, Greenport/Southold, Babylon again and Center Moriches.

“We had bad luck with injuries this year, but no matter what, we are a force to be reckoned with,” said forward Kathryn Thompson.

Nicholson buried a three-point shot for a 16-11 Mattituck lead just moments before falling to the floor 2 minutes and 24 seconds into the second quarter. It had appeared as if she banged knees with a Center Moriches player.

That was the last thing the Tuckers wanted to see, especially with the way Nicholson’s game has progressed. “She’s at a whole new level right now … going to the rim confident shooting-wise,” said Van Dood.

That three-pointer by Nicholson gave her eight points and ignited a 22-1 run in which seven Tuckers scored.

“We’re playing as a team instead of individual players, and when you pass to each and boost each other up, that’s really what you need in a team,” Kathryn Thompson said. “You can’t play individually.”

Mackenzie Hoeg, who has a lot to do with the win streak, was the top scorer Monday with 17 points. She shot 8-for-14 and also had five assists.

Rebounding and altering shots is Kathryn Thompson’s business. She did her job, pulling down nine rebounds and blocking four shots.

“I think she did very well,” Woods said. “She always comes out energetic and strong.”

Kathryn Thompson’s teammates worked to try to get her on the scoresheet. The senior, not known for her scoring prowess, made a close-range bucket while being fouled for the game’s final two points with 33.8 seconds left.

“I was ecstatic,” she said of the basket. “I was like, ‘One’s going to go in,’ and I had a great feeling about that one.”

Center Moriches, coached by former New York Liberty player Sue Wicks, received 10 points from Emma Morris and seven points and 15 rebounds from Lily Murphy. Megan Magill grabbed 10 rebounds to go with six points.

Both teams struggled with their shooting. Mattituck went 3-for-21 from the field in the first quarter and shot 29.4% for the game. Center Moriches (1-10, 1-6) suffered through a first-half stretch in which it missed 11 straight shots and finished at 20.8% for the game.

How much longer can Mattituck take this win streak?

That may be tough to say with the ever-present threat of injuries and big games coming up against Pierson/Bridgehampton/Shelter Island and Port Jefferson, but Woods was confident enough to say, “I think we’re going to have a good season.”

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By mid-2020, one Mattituck student will complete his high school career with seven-plus years of lacrosse experience, two fully conceptualized and assembled birdhouses and the highest rank the Boy Scouts of America can award: Eagle Scout.

Luke Wojtas, 18, has been the Mattituck lacrosse team goalie for the past seven years. In October, he set in stone another accomplishment, earning Eagle Scout honors, making him one of just 6% of Scouts who ever achieve the coveted rank.

The Mattituck resident became a Boy Scout in fifth grade, joining Troop 39 and staying consistent for years before his interest began to wane.

“When I was a younger Scout in my troop, I had a lot of fun,” he said. “When I turned 16, 17, I kind of lost a little interest and I didn’t really feel like going anymore because we weren’t doing all these fun things that we normally [did].”

Despite his temporary disinterest, he realized he would soon turn 18, at which point Scouts age out and can no longer pursue the highest achievement. He became reinvigorated when he learned that his older brother, U.S. Navy Petty Officer 1st Class Daniel Brinker, 36, had also been an Eagle Scout in high school. He was further struck when a Mattituck alumnus turned Marine Corps officer attended one of his troop’s Court of Honor ceremonies.

“That made me think, ‘Well, he’s an Eagle Scout and look where he is,’ ” Luke said. “I can become an Eagle Scout and I can get where I want to go.” 

Through “non-stop work,” he explained, he was able to get back into gear, brainstorming project ideas from late fall to early winter of 2018.

“My dad and I were taking a walk through the woods one day with my dog because he was trying to help me think of a project,” Luke said. “He and I were walking and we see a couple of [purple] martin houses and he goes, ‘Oh, why don’t you do that? Build a martin house.’ ”

Purple martins, common in eastern North America, are the largest swallow on the continent. According to the National Audubon Society, their population “has declined seriously in parts of the west, and [is] currently declining in the east.” On the East End, however, these birds are not so hard to find. Many local homeowners and organizations have taken to purchasing or building houses, or “miniature condominiums,” for the martins, welcoming both their return in warmer months and their proclivity to forage for pesky insects.

Luke’s father advised him to consult with town representatives, who expressed support and even offering to assist him with finances. Board members had just one request: that Luke remove the deer stands located on two nearby properties in Greenport. He agreed, and managed to raise funds for his project without town assistance.

Between the end of winter and the start of spring 2019, he set out with an anticipated budget of $1,500 to $2,000, ultimately raising around $1,800 by way of a car wash he organized and donations from family, friends and the community. Most of his needed resources were purchased at discounted rates because he bought locally and businesses honored his Scout status. Riverhead Building Supply, for example, discounted his purchases of wood and screws. 

Late last spring, he installed one of the completed martin houses near the former Skyway Drive-In in Greenport, close to Sills Pond. The second was installed down the road, near the Greenport Long Island Rail Road tracks. 

“Now that I look back, there really isn’t too much that I would change,” Luke said. “We were able to make do with what we had.”

He expressed gratitude to those who donated and discounted his purchases and to his friends.

“I was happy to have them there,” he said. “I really appreciate them coming out and helping me because if they didn’t help me, this project wouldn’t have been able to get done and I wouldn’t be an Eagle Scout.”

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At the end of the first act of the musical “Into the Woods,” the central characters — Cinderella, Jack (of the beanstalk), Rapunzel and Little Red Riding Hood — get exactly what they each desire. This, they believe, will bring them the happily-ever-after they’re all seeking.

The second act reveals just how wrong they are.

When Mattituck High School senior Gabrielle Finora takes the stage as Cinderella in her school’s production of the play starting Feb. 27, it will mark a second act of sorts in her own life. For most of her later-elementary school, middle school and high school years, Gabrielle’s main passion was basketball. But ACL tears in both knees in the span of four years took their toll, and by the end of her junior year on varsity, Gabrielle faced a tough decision: Try to grind out one more year playing through the fear of another injury, or direct her energies elsewhere.

Gabrielle ultimately chose the latter, leaning into a talent she’d always had for singing by trying out for the school musical. To her surprise, she was chosen for one of the lead roles — Cinderella — and now says that whatever hesitation she may have had about forgoing her senior basketball season to join the school play has long since disappeared.

Arriving at that decision wasn’t easy, however. Gabrielle’s love for basketball had deep roots, starting when she was little, watching her two older brothers play on youth and school teams and shooting baskets for hours on the hoop outside their home.

“I really just wanted to play with them,” she said, smiling. “I wanted to be just like them.”

Gabrielle was involved in dance as a youngster as well, but said she never cared much for other sports she tried, like soccer or lacrosse.

“I fell in love with [basketball],” she said.

Gabrielle started playing as a fourth-grader, on a CYO team coached by her father, Joe Finora. She continued playing into middle school, before tearing her right ACL as a seventh-grader. The surgery and yearlong recovery period were tough, she said, but she was determined to get back out onto the court, and was relieved when she did a year later.

“I was just so overjoyed that everything worked like it was supposed to,” she said. “It felt like I could breathe again.”

Gabrielle said she was “thrilled” to make the junior varsity team as a freshman. But during a summer league game before her sophomore year, she sprained her left knee. She was told initially that she could return to action soon, and finished out the summer season. But her knee still didn’t feel right, and a doctor’s appointment and subsequent MRI delivered the worst-case scenario news: She had torn her left ACL.

“I remember feeling so heartbroken even when they said I needed to go for an MRI,” she recalled. “I was like, no, this already happened, this shouldn’t happen again.”

During October of her sophomore year, Gabrielle’s doctor told her she needed another surgery.

“My heart sank,” she said. “I wanted to be on varsity so bad; that was my dream.”

Gabrielle went through the surgery again, and once again endured the months of physical therapy, which ramped up to two-hour sessions three times a week. A return to basketball after the first surgery wasn’t even a question. This time around, her future in the sport was murkier. Two ACL tears in the same knee bring with them a strong recommendation to stop playing. But with one in each knee, the way forward is trickier. Gabrielle ultimately played her junior year, achieving a longtime dream of making the varsity squad, but it wasn’t what she hoped for.

“Going back my junior year, things just didn’t feel right,” she said. “I think I just lost confidence in my knees, which really affected the way I saw the sport.

“I felt like it was a constant internal battle,” she continued. “I kept saying to myself, you have to go for it, you can’t do this half-hearted. And my brain was telling me, ‘No, you have to protect yourself.’ I developed a fear of being injured.”

Gabrielle ultimately decided not to return for her senior season, but admitted that giving up basketball left a void she wanted to fill. Before long she filled that void, and pointed to what she later realized was a turning point — making the All-State Chorus during December of her junior year, in the middle of her basketball season. Gabrielle has always loved singing, and sang in the school chorus while also investing in voice lessons. Attending the NYSSMA chorus competitions made Gabrielle realize that there were people who put their heart and soul into singing, just as she always had in basketball. Just weeks before her senior basketball season was scheduled to start, Gabrielle still wasn’t sure if she would return to the team or try out for the musical, jokingly comparing herself to Troy Bolton, Zac Efron’s character from the Disney movie “High School Musical,” who was the star of his school’s basketball team before surprising his classmates and joining the musical.

“I had always loved music, and it was always in my house,” Gabrielle said. “My brother played the baritone, and he was really good, and I always heard him when I fell asleep at night. My brother had auditioned for All-State band and got in eight years before I did [All-State chorus], and I wanted to do the same thing.”

The confidence boost from making All-State chorus ultimately gave Gabrielle the push to try out for the musical, a choice she says she hasn’t regretted.

Gabrielle’s parents — Mr. Finora and his wife, Mary Grace Finora — were happy to see Gabrielle give the musical a go after they encouraged her to try out.

“I knew she would get a lot out of it,” Mr. Finora said. “She had the tools, it was just a matter of her making the commitment.

“She always loved music, and thankfully she had an alternative,” he added. “I always had complete confidence in her.”

Putting all her energy and focus into something different didn’t come naturally, at least not immediately. But Gabrielle said she soon realized that being part of the musical could be just as fulfilling.

“It was difficult at first, because I really had to put myself out there in a way I never had before,” she said. “In basketball, you have your teammates, but when I first started out [in the musical] I felt really alone. But the musical has a cast that’s like a team, in its own way. We support each other, and if one person messes up, people have to improvise and go along with what’s going on. They have to continue the story, which is very similar to a basketball game; if you mess up a play, you still go, the game’s still on, the show doesn’t end. So it’s been a really great feeling to be able to put myself out there in a way that I never did before, and to be so welcomed by the cast.”

Looking ahead, Gabrielle plans to attend college and is still waiting to hear back from several schools. She isn’t planning to pursue a theater major, but didn’t rule out continuing to appear in community theater productions, if the opportunity presents itself. She’s excited about the upcoming play, feeling a mix of nerves and excitement, especially for the solo she’ll be singing. Mostly, she’s happy she found her way through the woods of her own life.

“I was bummed for a long time because I loved that team feeling, and I felt like I’d lost that, and I wasn’t sure if I was going to get that with the musical, but I did,” she said. “The cast has really become my new team, and it’s the most incredible feeling.”

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A new era of Mattituck High School baseball — the first day of the Dan O’Sullivan era — began Monday in splendid sunshine and calm weather that saw temperatures reach the 60s.

Mother Nature isn’t always so accommodating this time of year.

“Last year, I recall, it was raining,” junior Connor Fox said of the first official practice day. “The year before that it was snowing. I don’t think it ever was above 40” degrees.

The Tuckers ushered in the unofficial arrival of spring with their first preseason practice under the guidance of O’Sullivan, the team’s third head coach in as many years. O’Sullivan, 27, takes over from Gene Rochler, who filled in last year after Steve DeCaro’s 16-year run came to an end.

One could see the excitement in O’Sullivan’s eyes and hear the enthusiasm in his voice. “It’s awesome,” he said after throwing countless pitches in batting practice and joking that his arm might fall off. “We’ve been planning workouts and stuff since like January.”

O’Sullivan is familiar with the players, having served as Mattituck’s junior varsity coach the past two years (the JV team went 13-3 last season). The two years before that he was the Center Moriches JV coach.

A product of Eastport-South Manor High School, O’Sullivan’s high school baseball career was cut short by a case of mononucleosis that cost him his entire junior season, and the removal of his tonsils, forcing him to miss the first month of his senior season.

O’Sullivan worked with the Center Moriches Battlecats, a club that played in the Hamptons Collegiate Baseball League in 2012 and 2013 and was owned by his father-in-law. He said he likes to think of himself as a player’s coach who his players can feel free to talk to. “I always liked to be a player’s coach,” he said. “You hear that in the major leagues. The kids, I feel, they like to come to me, they have questions, playing time, strategy, whatever they need. I like to be able to have those conversations with them, of course being firm when you have to be, but just for them to know that they can come to me, whether it’s school-related, outside of baseball.”

Players have nice words to say about him.

“He’s a great coach,” junior Nate Demchak said. “Yeah, he’s really good with all the players. He understands us. He gives us a lot of freedom, but he also knows what he’s doing.”

Fox, who like Demchak played for O’Sullivan at the JV level, said: “He’s really fun. He gets to know us real well. He just understands the game of baseball real well and he’s able to have fun with us while at the same time teaching us the game.”

What does O’Sullivan ask of his players?

“The guys that are here know the game,” he said. “I just want to see them work hard, try their best. We’ve been putting in the work … We’re in a gauntlet of a league.”

Mattituck went 17-8 last year and was swept in two games by Center Moriches in the Suffolk County Class B finals. The Tuckers have been bumped up from League VIII to League VII, where they will tangle with Bayport-Blue Point, Elwood/John Glenn, Mount Sinai, Center Moriches, Babylon and Southampton. O’Sullivan is one of four new head coaches in the league. “It’s going to be an infusion of young blood now,” he cracked.

O’Sullivan said the biggest difference in going from being the JV coach to the head of the program is the paperwork. “When you’re on the field, it’s all the same,” he said. “You’re hanging out with the guys.”

O’Sullivan will be helped by assistant coach Jim Finnican, who he said brings a “wealth of knowledge,” and the new JV coach, former Mattituck player Mike Onufrak.

The Tuckers worked on drills, baserunning and hitting, both on the field and in the team’s new outdoor batting cage. Even Mattituck athletic director Gregg Wormuth, a former college baseball player, took some hacks during batting practice, sending some balls warning-track distance.

O’Sullivan indicated it was an excellent start to the team’s preparation for its season opener March 31 at Glenn.

He said, “Everything’s been great so far.”

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In the age of coronavirus, people are being urged to stay home and flatten the curve. A series of orders from Gov. Andrew Cuomo has shuttered schools and nonessential businesses and banned gatherings of any kind.

But visit any of the area’s many beaches and trails and you’ll find nature isn’t closed.

It’s something that struck Mattituck High School principal Shawn Petretti recently while he walked along Long Island Sound in Shoreham with his wife.

“We’re doing it on a daily basis,” he said, to try and get outside while working from home. “It hit me while I was walking: there’s no reason our kids couldn’t be out doing community service while we’re on home instruction.”

Mattituck began using Google Classrooms for remote instruction last week, making room for all nine periods under an abbreviated schedule ending at 12:24 p.m. Gov. Cuomo announced Friday schools across the state will remain closed through at least April 15.

“Typically, [after ninth period,] our students would have sports,” and other extracurricular activities, Mr. Petretti said. “Some of them are maybe losing the ability to be active, especially if they participate in team sports.”

Instead, Mr. Petretti has charged his students to opt outside: head down to a beach or park and earn community service hours by cleaning up trash. He reminded students to remember to practice social distancing and not congregate in large groups while they’re outdoors.

For each bag of trash they collect, photograph and email to their principal, students will earn two hours toward their community service log. Mattituck students have the option of earning an enhanced diploma by completing between 65 and 85 hours of community service hours by the end of their senior year. Mr. Petretti estimated that approximately 30% of each graduating class has typically achieved the enhancement.

“Our students have always done a lot of community service work. We wanted to keep up with that and keep everyone going,” he said. “To try and create some normalcy and help them realize that we have to keep trucking, we have to keep going,” despite the disruptions. Plus, he said, it gets kids outside for fresh air and away from their Chromebook screens.

Several students have already answered the call, sending their photos to Mr. Petretti, who shares them on a school Facebook page.

Some students took to Breakwater Beach in Mattituck on Thursday afternoon to participate in the challenge. Wearing latex gloves and making sure to spread out along the jetty, Alexis Stavrinos and her brother, Nikolas, were joined by friend Jeremy Stanzione, each carrying a bag halfway full after just 15 minutes of combing for trash.

“It’s everywhere,” Nikolas, 13, said as he walked along the shoreline, adding that he picked up a slew of shotgun shells on a walk earlier this week.

“I’m at the beach every summer pretty much at least twice a week,” Jeremy, 15, added. Most of the trash in their bags included straws, bottle caps, balloons and ribbon. “A lot of plastic,” he said. Alexis, also 15, said it’s disheartening to see the amount of plastic left on local beaches. “It’s scary to look at, when you see pictures of turtles and how much plastic they have inside of them,” she said.

Each is adjusting to learning from home and working through technical difficulties—Google Classroom was briefly down Thursday morning, which Mattituck School officials attributed to an increase in online learning as schools across the country have started using the platform.

“I miss the people,” Jeremy added.

His mother, Stacy, joined for the walk.

“It gets them out, they get to see friends a little bit without being on top of each other or too close,” she said. “And I was surprised honestly with how much garbage was down here.”

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On the last day of school, students at Mattituck High School usually gather to watch a video yearbook created by their classmates; a highlight reel of their most treasured memories.

It’s one thing on a laundry list of traditions meant to culminate 12 years of hard work: the senior trip, senior prank, senior skip day, final sports season and finally, turning a tassel, walking across the stage and receiving their diploma.

Amid a global pandemic, the likelihood that the class of 2020 will get to participate in these rites of passage wanes as stay-at-home measures persist and schools remain closed until at least April 29 under an order by Governor Andrew Cuomo.

As the health crisis worsens, many educators are preparing for an even longer closure than first anticipated. While Gov. Cuomo hasn’t announced anything about the fate of schools, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said earlier this week that a decision on whether to resume school this year would be forthcoming.

“We worked hard for 12 years, and it just feels like it’s gone,” said senior Jenna Lisowy, peeking her head out from the sunroof of her Subaru at Breakwater Beach in Mattituck Monday.

As she spoke about the uncertainty, anxiety and loneliness of ‘distance’ learning during the coronavirus outbreak, several more classmates pulled up to the beach to enjoy the sun on one of the first days temperatures reached 60 degrees.

Soon, two dozen seniors sat atop their cars or rolled their windows down — maintaining ‘social distance’ of six feet — commiserating, laughing and listening to music together. 

Jenna, together with classmate Cole DiGregorio, is charged with compiling footage for this year’s video yearbook. “Most of our events are at the end of the year, so we can’t really record that. We’re trying to find ways to not break the law, but also get footage,” she said.

In between launching a drone and panning a camera across his friends’ unconventional meeting, Cole said in addition to working on the video project, the beach is simply an escape from their houses. “We can’t hang out at somebody’s house or really do anything, so we said, let’s just go to the beach and sit in our cars.”

They hadn’t seen each other in nearly a month, since their last day at school on March 12.

“You appreciate school a lot more once you’re not able to go,” said Viki Harkin.

“At first it was kind of exciting, because it felt like an extended spring break,” added Hayden Kitz. Then the reality of how bad the COVID-19 virus actually is set in. “As time went on, there’s been this realization that we might not actually go back,” she said.

High School principal Shawn Petretti said Thursday that he feels for his students and totally understands what they’re going through — his daughter is a senior at Shoreham-Wading River High School this year.

“With every passing day, these decisions are coming closer and closer,” he said.

For the first time since 9/11, an annual eighth-grade trip to Washington D.C. was postponed. Junior prom — Mattituck does not have a senior prom — is still tentatively scheduled for the end of May and Mr. Petretti said if necessary, that event will be switched to the fall.

For underclassmen, delays are frustrating but doable. For seniors, it’s a different story. “To go home from school one day and then it all be over, that’s a tough pill to swallow,” Mr. Petretti said. “You’re talking about the best three months of their high school career.”

If ‘senioritis’ hadn’t set in prior to March 12, remote learning isn’t helping. “A lot of people are wondering if we even have to do work anymore,” Hayden said, pointing out that everyone’s been accepted into colleges already. As deadlines approach to commit to schools, though, decisions must be made without relying on last-minute spring break visits. “I have to pick blind now,” she said, though she’s leaning towards the University of Rhode Island.

Student athletes, Mr. Petretti said, are also missing out on opportunities during what would have been their final season at Mattituck. And juniors who would typically be vying for college recruitment this year aren’t quite sure how things will play out. “It’s a challenge every kid in the country is facing right now,” he said.

To date, the seniors’ trip to Disney, planned for the first week in June, as well as graduation June 27, have not been altered.

Mr. Petretti said he’s holding out hope. “I’m not cancelling anything until I have absolutely no other choice,” he said, still confident that graduation will proceed as usual. “If we can’t, we will get creative,” he said.

Every passing day chips away at the optimism.

“It’s the time of year you look forward to most. But it is what it is,” Viki said. “Once this blows over, I think it’ll bring our grade much closer.”

One thing’s for sure: It’s an unforgettable year for the Class of 2020.

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Kelsey Bundrick had been one of the top students in her grade when attending Bishop McGann-Mercy High School in Riverhead. When the school closed its doors for good in June 2018, Kelsey transferred back into her home district, Mattituck-Cutchogue, from which her older siblings had all graduated.

As she transitioned into a new school to start her junior year, Kelsey thought about the possibility of earning one of the coveted top two spots as valedictorian or salutatorian. But she didn’t know how she would stack up against a new group of students, or how different teachers and their grading styles would line up to her learning.

“I figured I was just going to try my best at Mattituck,” she said.

Shortly before the pandemic closed schools across New York, Kelsey received a notification to stop by the principal’s office. Around the same time, Shelby Dufton received a similar notification. Shelby was hopeful it had to do with the class rankings. Her second-oldest brother, Jack, had earned salutatorian honors at Mattituck in 2016 and pushed her to follow in his footsteps.

“I usually don’t get called down to the principal’s office,” Shelby said with a laugh.

High school principal Shawn Petretti had welcome and surprising news for both. The were co-salutatorians, following valedictorian Jessica Scheer.

It’s the first time Mattituck-Cutchogue has awarded the title of salutatorian to two students, school officials believe. Across Long Island this year, Mattituck is the only district to have co-winners. (Brentwood, the largest district in Suffolk, awards a valedictorian and salutatorian for both its Ross Center and Sonderling Center).

Both girls said they were honored to share the title.

“I think it’s really nice because Shelby worked really hard for these four years,” Kelsey said, adding that she didn’t know when the announcement would be made, so she was surprised. “It makes sense. We had these different teachers and different grading. … We had similar GPAs and it’s like, how do you compare them when you come from a different school.”

Mr. Petretti said Kelsey and Shelby were “really neck and neck. All three were, really.” He added that the students and their families were supportive of the move.

When the girls talked about their accomplishments in March, Shelby noted how she was hopeful that they would both give a speech during commencement and share that community moment. At the time, she couldn’t have predicted the strange turn of events their senior year would take, ultimately leading to a split commencement ceremony Saturday to limit the size of the gathering and follow state guidelines.

Kelsey will give her speech during the first ceremony at 9 a.m. and Shelby will follow during the second ceremony. 

“I think the three of us, we’ve really tried to build each other up — there’s no competition here,” Shelby said.

Jessica, who will speak at both ceremonies, agreed. “Yeah, we’re not out to get each other. We all just do our work, help each other and try to be the best we can be.”

Kelsey said she plans to draw on her experiences from leaving Mercy to how the class adapted during these past few months in her speech.

“I think I’m going to be talking about how change can actually be a really good thing and teach us a lot of lessons,” she said.

Shelby said on Monday her speech is still a bit of a work in progress. She said the last few months will influence some of what she says, but she also wants to remember the entirety of the Class of 2020’s time together. She said the last six year have been “really special and really great.”

The final few months of distance learning didn’t present too much of a challenge for Mattituck’s top three students, since their high school academic careers were largely winding down already. Jessica will attend Cornell University to major in biology. Kelsey plans to major in chemistry at Liberty University. Shelby will attend Dartmouth University to study music. She said the pandemic has actually given her more time to focus on music. She performs in a band called Audawind with her 16-year-old twin brothers, Ben and Sam. They record music at home and just released a single on streaming services Tuesday called “Dream You Have.”

As Saturday’s ceremonies, all three of Mattituck’s top graduates will represent a unique class that has experienced far more than most.

“Everyone really supports you in this community,” Jessica said. “It’s this whole family thing, because most of us have known each other since we were in kindergarten, or even before that. It builds this family for you so you feel supported.”

WITH KATE NALEPINSKI AND TARA SMITH

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To say being a senior in the Class of 2020 was unlike any other year at Mattituck High School would certainly be accurate.

At a pair of graduation ceremonies Saturday, where everyone wore masks and social distanced, the students’ unusual experience was a running theme.

“To half the class of 2020 and our limited guests here on the field … we’ve survived a school year for the history books,” valedictorian Jessica Scheer remarked at the top of her address, which had to be delivered twice as social distancing guidelines forced the senior class into two groups. “This is the first year for an outdoor graduation and for a last day of real school in March and for losing out on so much because of a global pandemic.”

“We didn’t have the future we planned for, so we made our own,” continued Scheer, who also celebrated her 18th birthday Saturday. “We gained a new perspective and learned that we have to live in the moment, because life can change in an instant.”

Perhaps no member of Mattituck’s Class of 2020 knows that better than co-salutatorian Kelsey Bundrick, who delivered her speech at the first ceremony, then gave way to fellow salutatorian Shelby Dufton for the second session. Kelsey attended Bishop McGann-Mercy High School before it closed in 2018 and then, like all the other students on the field Saturday, lost the final three months of her senior year as schools closed due to COVID-19.

“I think many of us learned not to take things for granted, because we never know when they’ll be gone,” she said. “We should always be thankful for what we have.”

As a precaution outlined by the state, each student was limited to two guests for graduation, mostly parents who sat in chairs placed within a circle six feet from the next set of guests. A couple dozen other visitors not fortunate enough to make it onto the field for the ceremony, stood outside the fence around the field.

Masks, with the school logo, were handed out to students and guests alike. Though some students tried to pose for pictures in the parking lot with each other and their guests after the ceremony was over, they were urged to go straight to their cars. There could be none of the traditional mingling this year.

High school principal Shawn Petretti spoke of how impressed he was with the way this particular class was able to “stay the course,” an expression that became a rallying cry for the group.

“You did that,” the principal said. “And from where I sat, you did it with perseverance and a refreshingly positive attitude. It really shouldn’t be that surprising, you’ve been staying the course for years. There’s really no quit in this class.”

Both sessions were streamed live on Facebook and can be viewed at Webster Sports Network.

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The welcomed sounds of the crack of a bat and pitched baseballs popping into catchers’ mitts were back.

Although it doesn’t come close to making up for a lost high school baseball season, the Town of Brookhaven Wood Bat Tournament offered recently graduated seniors one last chance to play for their schools. One last chance to play alongside their teammates. One last chance to create some lasting memories.

And the Mattituck Tuckers can take away good memories from their participation in the event. Mattituck didn’t qualify for the playoffs, but won its final two games, including a 7-0 stomping of rival Center Moriches, the reigning two-time state Class B champion, Sunday at Moriches Athletic Complex. Chris Nicholson hurled a one-hitter with 11 strikeouts in the six-inning game (time limit) as Mattituck split its four games in the tournament.

“It was awesome,” Nicholson said of the tournament. “It meant so much to get back on the field again with all of these guys we’ve been playing with since forever.”

Thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic, the boys of summer became the boys of July 8-13, 2020. In this oddest of years, this baseball had a little different look, concessions to social distancing. The home-plate umpire could have been called the pitcher’s mound umpire because instead of crouching behind the catcher at home plate, he was positioned about 10 feet behind the pitcher and wearing a facemask. No more than three people were allowed in the dugout at a time, sending most players to sit in the bleachers. Tips of the cap replaced postgame handshakes.

Sure, it was a little strange, but it was still baseball, and that was perhaps appreciated most by the seniors playing for the last time. It was, in a sense, an unofficial senior day.

Asked how much it meant for him to be able to play in the tournament, Mattituck senior centerfielder Emmet Ryan said: “So much, oh so much. Every time I saw one of the umpires, one of the other coaches, I said, ‘Thank you so much.’ It was amazing just to have this.”

After watching the school season do a going, going, gone, a victim of the pandemic, the Town of Brookhaven director of baseball, Sal Mignano, thought of a way to give high school players a chance to play this summer. The main impetus, he said, was to do something for the seniors.

A survey was put out to gauge interest and 45 teams said they were interested, Mignano said. Thirty-five teams eventually competed, playing games on four fields in Moriches, two in Medford, one in Eastport and one in Yaphank.

How has the tournament fared?

“Beyond what I thought it could be,” Mignano said. “The feedback from the coaches has been phenomenal, from the parents it’s been phenomenal.”

Nicholson, a senior righthander, said what he wanted to get out of his final game was simple: “Honestly, have fun. This is a win no matter what, just to be out here. We didn’t expect to be out here at all this season, so being out here with these great guys and having fun is awesome.”

It could be said Nicholson was pretty awesome himself. After accounting for all three outs in the first inning on strikeouts, Nicholson fanned two batters in each of the next three innings. Six of his Ks came on called third strikes.

The only Center Moriches (1-3) hit came two outs into the third inning when Jordan Falco bounced an infield single past Nicholson. Nicholson, who walked five and hit a batter, threw 107 pitches.

“He’s such a student-athlete of the game,” Mattituck coach Dan O’Sullivan said. “He knows what he’s doing.”

Earlier in the tournament, Mattituck dropped losses to Babylon, 8-0, and Pierson, 4-3, before beating Hampton Bays, 10-5, on Saturday. The team’s hitting picked up.

Brady Mahon (3-for-4, three runs batted in) and Ryan both connected for booming two-run doubles that left Mattituck with a 4-0 lead by the fourth. Three more runs followed in the fifth. Mahon singled in the first of those runs and the other two scored on a throwing error.

“A big ‘W’ against Center Moriches is good every day,” said Nicholson.

Also among the seniors playing for Mattituck Sunday were Josh Starzee, Sean Jester, Joe Corso and Bill Hickox. They put a closing chapter to a crazy senior year they won’t soon forget. The Tuckers were missing players, including seniors Chris Talbot, Matt Czujko and junior Connor Fox.

“I was getting a little choked up my last at-bat,” Nicholson said. “I looked over to Coach and he said, ‘This might be it,’ and it really hit me.”

The end had finally arrived.

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Having devoted his professional career to calculations, it wasn’t a struggle for longtime Mattituck High School math teacher Dennis Deerkoski to figure out this equation: The COVID-19 pandemic plus remote learning added up to retirement.

“They always said you would know when it was time to retire,” Mr. Deerkoski, 69, said by phone Monday. “When this remote learning came down, I knew it was time.”

After 47 years in the teaching profession — the past 39 at his alma matter, Mattituck High School — Mr. Deerkoski said he had no desire to return for the 2020-21 school year. And that was solely because of his dislike for teaching via virtual classes. That’s something he got a taste of for the first time this past spring when the COVID-19 outbreak interrupted in-person education in schools. Mattituck is planning on a hybrid model this coming school year for students from kindergarten through 12th grade.

“I could have retired 14 years ago, but I didn’t retire because I really did enjoy going in and working with the students,” Mr. Deerkoski said. “It wasn’t a job.”

With remote learning, though, he said it felt like a job.

With remote learning, he said, it was difficult to ascertain if the students understood what he was talking about because he couldn’t see their facial expressions.

So that’s what led Mr. Deerkoski to write a letter of resignation to the school board a few weeks ago. That’s why he has been cleaning out his classroom, Room S109, in the science wing.

If not for remote learning, he said, he would have been back in September. He didn’t know at the time that March 12 would be his final day in front of a class.

Mr. Deerkoski recalls being an eighth-grader, helping fellow students with their math work and influenced by his own math teacher at the time, Robert Krudop. He had a sense that teaching was what he wanted to do. The class salutatorian went on to become a teacher’s assistant while attending St. Lawrence University in Canton, N.Y. He taught in Baldwin for 7 1/2 years before receiving a call one day from the Mattituck-Cutchogue School District. A teacher was leaving Mattituck. Would Mr. Deerkoski like to teach at the school he once attended?

That wasn’t a grand plan. Things just fell in place, and in January 1981, Mr. Deerkoski was back in Mattituck, teaching eighth- and 12th-grade classes. “It was just a mixture of stuff, and I was in five different rooms,” he recalled. “I was running all around.”

Calculus was Mr. Deerkoski’s subject. He taught advanced placement and Regents classes, among others.

What is it about calculus that he finds alluring?

“What I like is it’s just so consistent and it just makes sense,” he said.

Mr. Deerkoski figures he has taught at least 100 students over each of those 47 years. (Simple quick math: That amounts to some 4,700 students.) He taught students whose parents he also taught.

“I’ve gotten some nice notes back from students, how I have impacted their lives,” he said. “I think that’s worth it more than anything else.”

Brendan Kent, a senior civil engineering major at Virginia Tech, studied pre-calculus and AP calculus under Mr. Deerkoski for two years.

“He is an all-star math teacher, 100 percent,” Mr. Kent said. “He was just so dedicated to his students and making sure everyone learned it at their own speed … Calculus is not an easy thing to learn and at the same time probably harder to teach, and he made it understandable, fair, and everyone I know, all my friends and kids I graduated with, we all have great things to say about him.”

Mattituck High School math teacher Frank Massa said Mr. Deerkoski set the bar high for math teachers. “The way he can deliver high-level information in a way that it’s understandable is something that most teachers would want to emulate,” said Mr. Massa.

Mr. Deerkoski was immersed in the school experience. He attended school board meetings, was the Mattituck-Cutchogue Teachers Association treasurer and was involved with the National Honor Society and Math Club.

“I’m satisfied with what I did and what I accomplished,” he said.

What about future plans?

Mr. Deerkoski said he plans to remain in Mattituck with his wife, Bernadette. Beyond that, he said, things happened so swiftly that he’s not sure how he will spend his newfound free time.

“I know I’m going to do something,” he said. “I’m not going to sit home. I’m actually going to do something, I just don’t know what yet.”

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Under a gorgeous, blue October sky on a brilliant weekday afternoon, the Mattituck High School campus had taken on the appearance of a sports camp. Tennis players were hitting balls on the courts. Cross-country runners were stretching out and loosening up on the track. Flag football players were tossing a ball around. Soccer players were getting their kicks, too.

A typical, peaceful fall scene. One might have thought all was well with the world. By all appearances, life was normal (discounting the facemasks being worn). Of course, it wasn’t, not with the world in the throes of the worst pandemic in a hundred years.

Then again, that was one of the points of all this athletic activity — to help get the minds of students off of coronavirus (even if only for a couple of hours), give them something to look forward to and allow them to have some fun and exercise at the same time. That’s the aim of intramural athletic programs being run on the North Fork.

Interscholastic sports for Long Island public schools have been put on hold until 2021, when the three sports seasons are to be condensed and run from January to June.

Intramurals could be the next best thing for now, a steppingstone to normalcy, perhaps. That’s the hope as the North Fork’s three high schools are home to after-school athletic activities for students in grades 7-12.

Asked about the purpose, Kim Gerstung, who coaches soccer in Mattituck, said: “Just to get these kids involved in something, get them active because literally for six months they were sitting in front of a computer at home. They weren’t doing a lot of activity, so now at least they’re out doing something … They’re with their friends. They’re having fun. We just want them to have fun.”

In Mattituck, 198 students have registered for intramural cross country, tennis, flag football and soccer, said athletic director Gregg Wormuth. The program started Sept. 29 and will run until Nov. 19. “It’s our fall sports season, just in a different way,” he said.

Mattituck’s intramurals have proven to be popular with junior high school students, who can attend intramurals four days a week because they’re in school every day. High school students can take part on the days they are in school, typically every other school day.

So, what have intramurals been like?

“Different,” said Chris Robinson, who is coaching Mattituck cross country with Frank Massa. “Different is a good word, but it’s good because these kids have been kind of trapped for a little while now and to get them out in the fresh air is a good thing.”

Mr. Robinson added: “I think sports in general [are] an important thing for this age group. The camaraderie and bonding and just work ethic and determination, and a lot of these kids, they’ve been wanting this since February and it’s been something that’s been put on pause … I just think it’s something they need to get their minds off of the situation that’s going on and get back to what they know, and that’s playing sports and being active.”

At Greenport High School, about 90 students are registered for an intramural program for soccer, track and field and field hockey as well as a weight-training program, said athletic director Chris Golden. It all started Oct. 13.

Mr. Golden said he has been “thrilled” with the interest. “The purpose is to get these kids, give them an opportunity to get back outside and to participate in some type of athletic activity,” he said. “More importantly, it’s to see them laughing and really enjoying themselves again.”

Southold High School has taken a different approach, with the focus on conditioning and skills. One week has been devoted to each of the three high school sports seasons, said athletic director Steve Flanagan. This current third week is reserved for spring sports. Mr. Flanagan said he hopes to repeat the three-week cycle once more before the weather gets too cold for outdoor activity.

Well over 100 Southold students have signed up. Students spend 15 minutes each at strength, cardiovascular, agility/flexibility and mental preparation stations before moving on to work on sport-specific skills for 45 minutes, said Mr. Flanagan.

“The energy is a good energy that we see out there,” he said. “It’s been great.”

Coaches said intramurals have drawn some students who might not have tried out for school teams. A similar thing can be said of coaches. Sean Morgan, a social studies teacher, doesn’t come from the coaching community, but he’s coaching flag football in Mattituck.

“I’m not from the coaching world, but I’ve played football growing up and I’m an avid football fan so I signed up, jumped at the opportunity to come out here and help these guys out,” said Mr. Morgan, who played football at St. John the Baptist High School.

Mr. Morgan recognizes the value of sports. “That’s a reason kids come to school, you know,” he said. “They look forward to the end of the day. They keep showing up and it’s been a lot of fun.”

One of the Mattituck flag football players, sophomore Kevin Koch, said he always wanted to play football, but flag football may be the next-best thing. “I like how it’s kind of laid-back and still competitive at the same time,” he said.

Mattituck intramurals may be primarily about having fun, but there is a competitive aspect to it, too. Ms. Gerstung has added salt to the soup, making things interesting by instituting a points system for the soccer players. An app is used to randomly place players on different teams every day. Each player is awarded one point for every game his or her team wins and half a point for a tie.

“The kids like it,” Ms. Gerstung said. “They can’t wait for me to post the updated” standings for each grade.

Twins Sean and Casey Szczotka were atop the eighth-grade standings at the start of this particular day.

“I didn’t think it was going to be as fun, but it really is, especially going against him,” said Casey Szczotka, gesturing toward her brother.

On Mattituck’s four tennis courts, coach Cory Dolson said he’s running things like a clinic “only because we have some kids who have never picked a racket up before, and then we have some kids who played on the tennis team, right, so the skill levels are very different.”

Mattituck senior cross-country runner Kylie Conroy mischievously alluded to Mr. Robinson when she was asked what she likes best about intramurals.

Undoubtedly grinning under her facemask, she answered, “Annoying Rob.”

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At some point in the not-too-distant future, grateful Mattituck High School students who don’t know and had never met Piper Altman will be thanking her.

Ms. Altman, a sophomore at the school, will have left a lasting legacy in the form of solar energy.

Ms. Altman, 14, is building a solar charging station for the school so students will be able to charge their USB-powered devices outside the school building. The project is for her Girl Scouts Gold Award, the highest achievement a Girl Scout can reach.

Ms. Altman, who lives in Laurel and has an interest in engineering, expects to have the prototype completed this coming spring.

The need for such a device became apparent to her back when she was an eighth-grader on the school’s junior varsity girls tennis team. She discovered that after school, when the building was closed, there was no place for students to charge their cellphones. If they ran out of battery power, well, they were out of luck.

“I thought bringing reusable energy to my school would be a good project,” she said.

It’s an ambitious project, but not one that Ms. Altman has shied away from. She said she has been “confident from the start that I could definitely get it done.”

Those who know her don’t doubt her ability, either.

“She’s an impressive young lady,” said Mattituck High School principal Shawn Petretti, who is assisting Ms. Altman on the project along with Andrew Joinnides, owner of APJ Builder. “She’s very driven. But one of the things that makes Piper special is, yes, she has the drive and she has the intelligence, but she is such a kind and caring person and she just has such a positive attitude about things. She’s a hard person to say no to when she comes to you with an idea. When Piper knocks on the door and she has an idea, you listen to her.”

The underclassman already has built quite a résumé for herself. A high honor-roll student, she is a member of the Art Portfolio Club, DECA business club, National Art Honor Society and is on Mattituck-Laurel Library’s teen advisory board. She also holds two jobs, competes in track and field as well as tennis and, oh yeah, is a tutor for younger math students.

Ms. Altman received the Presidential Volunteer Service Award Oct. 5 for over 100 hours of community service. For her Girl Scouts Silver Award, she raised baby quail and released them into the wild as a control against ticks.

All of that and she’s not even a high school junior yet.

Ms. Altman presented her project to the Mattituck school board Oct. 13. As she outlined, a solar panel will collect energy from the sun, which will be sent to a controller that will regulate the amount of energy that is transferred to a battery. Safety features will prevent overcharging and turn off the current to the battery if it gets too hot. A battery will store enough electricity to charge 12 iPhones, even on a cloudy day.

The solar charging station will be located in a courtyard.

Piper’s proud mother, Christina, said she never questioned her daughter’s ability to complete this project.

“Not a single doubt,” she said. “When Piper sets her mind to something, Piper sees it through. She’s impressive.”

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Full-time, in-person learning will return for Mattituck High School students. COVID-19 permitting, of course.

Students in grades 9-12 will make a staggered return to the classroom for five days a week of instruction under a plan approved by the Mattituck-Cutchogue Board of Education at its monthly meeting Thursday night.

The school district has been providing in-school instruction for students from kindergarten through eighth grade on a full-time basis while the high school students have been working within a hybrid model. Under the scenario outlined by the administration, the anticipated timeline for the full-time return of these students would be Nov. 23 for 10th- and 11th-graders, Nov. 30 for ninth-graders and Dec. 7 for 12th-graders. District officials noted that changes in reported COVID-19 cases could alter plans.

A district survey of parents of students in grades 9-12 conducted two weeks ago found 78% percent of them in favor of full in-person learning compared to 22% who prefer the hybrid system.

Currently, about 400 students attend the school on a given day. The addition of the grades 9-12 students would raise that number to 600, said high school principal Shawn Petretti. “It’s still only about a third of this facility’s capacity,” he said.

Parents are being given the option of having their children participate in livestreamed remote learning five days a week for core classes such as English, math, science and social studies. Those students would be permitted to join in the full in-school instruction at the start of the third and fourth quarters in February and April, said officials.

District officials said safety measures had given them the confidence to consider the proposal.

“When you look at, you know, the safety protocols that we have put in place, a lot of safety protocols are really the reason why we are considering bringing back the 9 through 12, and the students following the safety protocols,” superintendent Jill Gierasch said before the vote. “That’s really a big component of all of this.”

Mr. Petretti, referring to things such as temperature checks upon entering the school building and one-way stairwells, said: “The students here at the junior and senior high school have been incredibly cooperative. I think they understand the importance of the safety protocols that have been put in place and they really have been helping it to run smoothly.”

Desk barriers are being installed for mask-wearing students and an improved, antimicrobial surface protectant has been purchased for all of the district’s schools. The product is said to create a microstatic coating on both porous and non-porous surfaces, inhibiting growth of bacteria, fungi, mold and the like.

When it came time for the vote on what one trustee called a “thoughtful and thorough” plan during the livestreamed meeting, not a single voice in opposition was heard.

That, of course, doesn’t mean there are mixed feelings about the change, which comes at a time when positive COVID-19 tests are on the rise on Long Island. One of the concerns the district heard from parents was the possibility that bringing the high school students back full-time raises the potential for the school being closed because of an outbreak.

Mr. Petretti said teachers are reporting that “the level of engagement for students at home [during remote learning] is beginning to drop … and that’s concerning.”

After the vote, Ms. Gierasch said: “I know some parents are very frustrated, but I can’t thank them enough for the respect that they have shown us and really trusting us that this is the way we needed to do this at this point in time, but it’s during these difficult times that we grow closer together, looking at our setbacks and opportunities, and there are many opportunities, very bright spots in some dark times.”

One of those bright spots is senior Jillian Tuthill, who was presented with a certificate for being a National Merit Scholarship Program commended student.

“Everything is kind of day by day, you know,” she said, speaking of her school experience. “I think everyone here has been experiencing that as well, taking it by the hour, seeing what’s going to happen next, but I think it’s really admirable that we’re all coming together as a community to figure everything out and do the best that we can. I think it’s going really great for Mattituck, and I’m glad to be a part of this community.”

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It’s the nature of this strange, pandemic-cursed year of 2020 that oddities arise, such as high school athletes with little or no varsity game-playing experience signing national letters of intent for college.

The COVID-19 threat wiped out the 2019 season for the Mattituck/Southold girls lacrosse team and endangers what would be a condensed 2021 season. That explains why Rylie Rittberg and Abigail Seifert have one game of varsity experience between them. Should there be a season in 2021, the two Mattituck seniors will undoubtedly play prominent roles.

Either way, they both have college lacrosse in their future, and that was a cause of celebration Thursday when they put pen to paper, signifying their college choices in a ceremony at Mattituck High School. Rittberg, a goalie, signed with Florida Southern and Seifert, an attack, inked with Bloomsburg University (Pa.). They’re both NCAA Division II schools.

“It was an amazing experience,” Rittberg said. “It was something that me and Abby have worked for and forever looked forward to. It’s good to know that my work has paid off in the classroom and on the field.”

Rittberg, who had also considered Colorado Mesa University, said Florida Southern had “the perfect balance between the athletics and the academics for me. I stepped foot on the campus and instantly fell in love with it. It was perfect.”

Seifert said she was looking for a good nursing program and found one at Bloomsburg, which also happens to be the same college her father, John, attended. “It just seemed like a perfect fit/balance,” she said. West Chester University (Pa.) was also considered.

Mattituck won the last two New York State Class D championships in 2017 and 2018. Rittberg and Seifert were both brought up to the varsity team for the Tuckers’ trip to SUNY/Cortland for the state final four in 2018.

Rittberg, who has one varsity game under her belt, often practiced with the varsity team.

“Rylie’s someone that I’ve worked with from a young age, and she’s someone that I physically saw improve,” said Matt Maloney, who earlier this year announced he will not return as the team’s coach. “I know as a coach you talk about everyone trying to improve, but a goalie is easier to pinpoint if they’re improving or not. They’re able to impact the game with saving the ball and clearing the ball. But she’s someone that, again, if she wasn’t understanding how she can get better, she was always asking questions. That’s what I feel like is another great attribute to have for a high school kid, not to just go with the flow. She kind of demanded from herself that she wanted to get better and improve in her craft.”

Maloney said Seifert is “somebody who just loves being around the game. She just loved being at the next level and trying to elevate her game to prepare herself for varsity and the college level. She’s someone who I recognize is a true lacrosse junkie.”

Rittberg and Seifert will become the 16th and 17th Tuckers to play college lacrosse.

Maloney said, “I look forward to seeing them continue on this path of Mattituck players representing the small little town at the college level.”

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The Wall of Honor at Mattituck High School grew by a dozen names as the district held its fourth annual Veterans Day ceremony last month.

Twelve plaques, each bearing the name of a Mattituck alumni and branch of service they represent were added to the wall, located at the junior-senior high school, bringing the total number of honorees to 112.

“That’s an impressive number for a community of our size,” high school principal Shawn Petretti said during the Nov. 6 ceremony. “Every day our Wall of Honor stands as a reminder of the sacrifices made and the sacrifices being made by our alumni in the military.”

The 12 people recognized for their bravery and service this year include:

Wilfred B. Ruland Jr., Class of 1947 – U.S. Navy

Clifford F. Saunders Jr., Class of 1947 – U.S. Navy 

Carl Stelzer, Class of 1950 – U.S. Navy 

John A. Wilcenski, Class of 1950 – U.S. Navy

Timothy A. Haas, Class of 1977 – U.S. Navy

Valerie C. Hubbard-Taylor, Class of 1980 – U.S. Army

William J. Droskoski Jr., Class of 1983 – U.S. Army and U.S. Marine Corps

Brendan Dunnigan Kelly, Class of 1988 – U.S. Coast Guard 

Kevin Wines, Class of 1993 – U.S. Army 

Erik Schwartz, Class of 2015 – U.S. Navy

Greg Sheryll, Class of 2016 – U.S. Navy

Wade T. Foster, Class of 2018 – U.S. Air Force

Maj. William Grigonis, senior instructor of the NJROTC program, said the wall means a lot to him personally, as 36 former cadets appear on the wall from throughout his 20 years in the district. He thanked the veterans, past and present, for their service. “I appreciate what you’ve done for your country. I appreciate your service. I just want to thank you so much,” he said.

The tradition of honoring alumni who serve in the armed forces dates to 2017, when over 40 plaques were added to the wall in a collaborative effort between the school district, NJROTC and Mattituck resident Barbara Sheryll. It honors alumni from as early as 1937 to the present and is an ongoing effort, according to Mr. Petretti, who urges anyone not yet recognized on the wall to reach out to his office to be included next year.

The plaques are free to the veterans recognized and this year, were funded by East End Sporting Goods, Mattituck-Southold-Greenport NJROTC, Southold Town Police Benevolent Association, and the Grathwohl & Sheryll families.

Mr. Petretti said he’s “amazed” by the stories and things he’s learned from the tribute, including the life of 1939 graduate Russell Penny, who was the first Suffolk County casualty of WWII at Pearl Harbor. He also said the wall features parents, siblings, grandparents, and children of students and employees of the district. “It’s an important piece of history for the school and community,” Mr. Petretti said.

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