Shelter Island Reporter

Sophomore player Jay Card takes a foul shot during Saturday’s game.

The junior varsity Indians had a difficult time keeping East Rockaway at bay in their season opener Saturday, scoring just 21 points against East Rockaway's 58. The team knew their East Rockaway match-up would be tough from the start, since the larger school normally plays in a more competitive league. This season-starter was a non-league game.


The Indians looked promising right out of the starting gate, with Jimmy Read putting the first points on the board with a 3-pointer from far out. The team soon fell apart, however, as turnover after turnover quickly gave East Rockaway an untouchable lead.


“In the beginning of the game when we could run our offense against what they had, the score was about the same, things were fine,” said JV Coach Jay Card. “But when they made an adjustment we really had no answer to the adjustment, we had nothing in place.”


This lack of versatility on the part of the Indians was due largely to the few opportunities to practice, Coach Card said. When faced with such a small number of practices before the season's first game, Card had to make a choice: “You gotta spend time either on the fundamentals or working the plays,” he said. The fundamentals took priority, since, as he explained, “if you don't have the fundamentals the plays don't work. So we're paying the price today for spending more time on the fundamental stuff.”


Such a strong focus on the basics should pay dividends in future matches when combined with more complicated plays, but at the moment, “It's just too soon in the season to have covered all these things so far,” he added.


That's not to say the Indians didn't have their moments. Some quick, powerful drives to the net set up scoring opportunities and showed glimmers of what's to come for the Indians basketball squad. Shelter Island players also weren't afraid to get down and dirty, hitting the deck several times to get on top of loose balls. And a fourth quarter 3-pointer from Alex Graffagnino showed that the team still had some life and got the fans on their feet.


But in the end, East Rockaway's polished shooting put the victory far out of reach for the Shelter Islanders. 


“It's a learning step, that's what today is,” said Card. He later said at Monday's practice, “We're moving forward, every day gets a little better.”


Hopefully they'll be able to turn things around in their match against Westhampton at 4:30 p.m. today on the Indians' home court.