Sports

With spring sports on their way, Islanders hit the field to gear up for a new season

TED HILLS PHOTO | Coach Peter Miedema throws a pitch to Max Pelletier during practice.

Whether they load up onto a bus to head to East Hampton or just head across the street to Fiske Field, athletes at the Shelter Island School have been practicing hard for the start of another season of spring sports. The JV baseball team is the only all-Island squad on the high school level, but the Indians are well represented on the joint Ross/Shelter Island lacrosse and softball teams.

Junior high baseball also makes a comeback this season after a one-year hiatus, though their season-opener is about a month later than the other sports’ first games.

Coach Peter Miedema is coaching JV baseball this year after a one-year break from baseball — he’s coached junior high in the past. There are 13 players on the JV baseball roster this year, nearly half of them freshmen. Senior captain Andrew BeltCappellino will be the team’s starting pitcher, but the squad will see plenty of performances from his brother, Matt BeltCappellino, as well as Spencer Gibbs, Hunter Starzee and Jay Card.

This year’s roster also includes seniors Max Pelletier and Mike Melichar, sophomores Chandler Olinkiewicz and Myles Clark and freshmen Elias Fokine, Matt Dunning, Riley Willumsen and Thomas Mysliborski.

Coach Miedema sees a .500 season as an attainable record for the team, but the main goal is to see the kids improve over the season. He explained, “Some of the kids are consistent and make good plays, they make contact, but now you want those kids to make tougher plays and really start driving the ball … and putting pressure on the other team to step up their game as well.”

The team’s first game is on March 29 at Port Jefferson at 4 p.m.

The Ross/Shelter Island lacrosse squad lost 5 Island seniors who graduated last year, but Coach Garrett Cutler and returning senior Chris Napolitano will have three new Shelter Island players to mold into lacrosse stars: sophomores Mitchell Clark, Wyatt Brigham and Katy Binder. The players travel to Ross to play on the joint team.

Their first game is at Ross on March 31 at 4 p.m. against East Hampton/Bridgehampton.

Shelter Island sends just two girls to East Hampton to play on the joint Ross/Shelter Island softball team: junior Kelsey McGayhey and freshman Sam Cappello. Coach Jessica Heaney returns to coach the squad this year.

The girls play their home games on the field at a nearby church, Most Holy Trinity, located in East Hampton at 79 Buell Lane. Their first game is tomorrow on Shelter Island at 4:15 p.m., the only softball game scheduled to be played on the Island this season.

New to the district this year, Brian Doelger will be the junior high baseball coach. There are 10 kids currently on the roster. Practice starts on Monday and their first game is at Montauk at 4 p.m. on April 27.