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Sarsen Seeks 4th Straight Gold Medal at 31st Annual Empire State Games
PV's Morgan, Fisher to play key roles, Haldane's Shields back for more
by Ray Gallagher
 | | Putnam Valley's All-NYS middie Ashley Morgan will be making a third appearance in the 31st annual Empire State Games in Binghamton on July 23rd. |
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Binghamton, New York might not be the best place on the planet to visit during late July, but it is without a doubt the perfect venue for New York State's annual Empire State Games, which will be held from July 23 to July 27. For the 31st time in history, some of the best amateur athletes in the state will compete in a six-region breakdown featuring the Hudson Valley, Long Island, Central, Adirondack, Western and New York City.
Binghamton is the perfect host due to the proximity of venues and the genuine feel the city provides by holding the games primarily at Binghamton University or within the confines of the Parlor City. I've covered the Empire State Games for nearly two decades, having trekked off begrudgingly to places like Rochester and Long Island where the games were spread far too thin to enjoy the folksy feel you get from Binghamton. Heck, even Westchester County's 2006 attempt at ESGs was a failure in my mind, so I'll take places like Binghamton and Syracuse for this Olympic-style event any day.
Unfortunately, for as good as our two local schools (Haldane & Putnam Valley) have been in a variety of sports the past few years, neither is well represented in the 2008 Summer Empire State Games. Scholastic volleyball has witnessed the most dramatic drop off, going from three participants (Haldane's Katie McConville, Megan Lyons, Danielle Etta) in 2007 to zero in 2008.
However, the great Brittany Shields, Haldane High's most decorated basketball player and the 2008 New York State Class C Female Player of the Year, will be don the green and gold for Hudson Valley in her first go at an open gold basketball medallion next week. After bringing home silver medals in 2007 and 2006 as a scholastic star, the Pace-bound Shields will participate in her first open competition in preparation for her highly anticipated collegiate career. Sometimes it takes a year or two to adjust to the rigors of open competition, but I don't think Shieldsy will skip a beat at this level.
When it comes to preparing high school players for great college careers, few do it better than Lakeland High field hockey coach Sharon Sarsen, who just happens to hail from Putnam Valley. Sarsen will be looking to accomplish the unthinkable by pinning a fourth consecutive gold medal on each of her field hockey players. Perhaps even more impressive than that is the measure of her consistency, including a 14-1 record the last three years. No coach in ESG accord can speak of such an impressive record at the fabled games, for no coach has this kind of history on her side. The great Sars has copped eight gold, five silver and three bronze medals (17 in all) during her 19 years as boss of the HV scholastic field hockey team. Sarsen did not medal in 1990, her first year, but has medaled every year since except 2004. Sars has more ESG hardware stacked on her mantle than Rita Sharples has on her shelves over at Oregon Hardware in Putnam Valley.
Two of Putnam Valley's finest, Ashley Morgan and Erica Fisher, will make it their business to continue this torrid streak of consistency by playing prime-time roles on the 2008 squad. Morgan was huge last year, playing a versatile two-way role at midfield. Fish will undoubtedly see increased time this summer.
"Ashley Morgan is one of our team captains and the only three-year player on the team," said Sarsen. "She is our most talented player and our team revolves around Ashley. She is unselfish to a fault, and makes everyone around her better. Erica Fisher will be playing for the second year and can play forward or midfield. She is great at creating attack from the right side of the field. She is a team player and has really improved her defense this summer."
Also participating in the ESG's this summer are Putnam Valley's Tara Gleason (Open Soccer) and Anthony Paese (Skeet Shooting), as well as Cold Spring's Bill Thom (Scholastic Men's Basketball Coach). If you know of anyone else, please clue me in. Good luck to all…
Baseball is dang near impossible to figure. On June 24th I was at Shea Stadium when the Seattle Mariners pasted Oliver Perez and the NY Mets with an 11-0 thrashing. I was ready to tear Shea down that night, never mind wait until the conclusion of the season. The negativity within the confines of the doomed stadium was as rampant as I'd ever seen it, due to the unfulfilled expectations of then-Coach Willie Randolph's Mutts. I walked out on that game in the sixth inning, that being my way of bucking the trend of booing and cursing out a corps of blatant underachievers. My buddy Tommy Patterson asked me a few days later if I wanted to catch the Mets/Rockies game this past Sunday, and I nearly told him to find some other sucker. Thank God I had the good sense to stick by my team or I would have missed history in the making during a 7-0 whipping of Colorado for New York's ninth-straight win. When soon-to-be-ace-of-the-staff Mike Pelfrey (8-6) shut down the Rockies for eight frames of scoreless ball and reliever Joe Smith tacked on a scoreless ninth, this current Mets pitching staff put together a streak of four shutouts over the last six games. Right-hander Pelfrey, who has 16 consecutive scoreless innings and six straight wins, possesses some of the nastiest stuff I've seen from a Mets pitcher in years. His eight-inning stint, the longest of his three-year career, was his coming out party. I'm glad I was able to crash.
Texas Ranger All-Star OF Josh Hamilton, he of the 95 RBI at the break, has to be the feel-good story of the past decade. During his five-year drug/alcohol-induced run to the depths of hell, Hamilton crashed and burned more times than Partridge Family drummer Danny Bonaduce, but his dinger display in the Home Run Derby Monday night at Yankees Stadium was the sickest I've ever seen. Everything after his 28 bombs in Round 1 was anti-climatic.
RIP Bobby Murcer: Though you never came close to Mickey Mantle on the field, best I can tell you were ten times the man off it.
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