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Island profile: Billy Boeklen & Tristan Wissemann, Shelter Island’s finest ambassadors

CHARITY ROBEY PHOTO | Tristan Wissemann
CHARITY ROBEY PHOTO | Tristan Wissemann

Standing outside the high school gym near the display case that holds seven 1,000-point game basketballs and across from the Hall of Fame case, Coach Jay Card Jr. described what motivated him to excel as a coach and player during his own distinguished varsity basketball career.

“Children walk down this hallway everyday and they look into that case, and think to themselves, ‘I’d like to have my name on that wall,’” he said. “Those names are an inspiration.”

This year’s varsity basketball team has two inspiring seniors — one of whom has his name on a game ball in the display case — Billy Boeklen and Tristan Wissemann.

Coach Card’s Indians have clinched a spot in the playoffs that start on Saturday, but their poise, respect for each other and for their rivals shows that these nine teenagers, led by the two seniors, are special.

CHARITY ROBEY PHOTO | Billy Boeklen
CHARITY ROBEY PHOTO | Billy Boeklen

 

Billy is a 6-foot guard who averages 16.2 points per game. He grew up on the Island with his younger brother, Danny, his dad, Bill, a captain on the South Ferry, and his mom, Mary. Mary credits countless hours spent with Uncle Jeff — “a member of the tall part of the family” — for forming the solid base of Billy’s basketball skills, along with an awkwardly located basketball hoop outside their house that was so hard to hit, “I think it helped him become a better shooter.”

Anyone you ask (including Billy) says that there’s nothing he would rather do than play basketball. So it was surprising to hear him say that when he first played on a team, he wasn’t sure it was for him.

“It was just something all my friends were doing,” he said. “I came back the next year and started getting closer to my coaches, learning how to play the game, and then I couldn’t stop.”

Billy is responsible for one of the most exciting moments in Shelter Island basketball history, when the varsity faced Greenport in the 2014 county championship game. Assistant Coach Jim Colligan recalled that Billy, who was playing JV, came up and scored 21 points to boost the Indians to the county championship. The Greenport coach was so impressed, he dubbed Billy “The X-Factor.”

Billy’s favorite memory is this year’s the East Rockaway game, where his teammate Tristan scored his 1,000th point playing varsity basketball.

Billy will play college basketball next year, either at SUNY Cortland or Brockport, and plans to study physical education and athletic training.

The draw of basketball for Billy has always been the chance to play with others. From the days when he played on the Fiske Field courts from sunrise to sunset, to the off-Island travel teams that provided him an even higher level of competition, “I made good relationships and connections with other schools and other places,” he said. “Every team we play, I have friends there.”

Friends are different on Shelter Island Billy said. “Here, your friends are more like family,” he said. “The relationships you make here, you will have forever. I loved growing up here.”

Tristan Wissemann is 6 feet 4 inches tall and averages 23.3 points per game,the highest in the county. He is one of seven Shelter Island basketball players in the history of the program to score 1,000 points, one of three (the others are Walter Richards and Cori Cass) to do so in three years of varsity play, and is the third highest-scoring Island player of all time.

Tristan’s father, Gunnar Wissemann, works at Sylvester Manor and Tristan grew up in the Caretaker’s Cottage on the Manor property. His mother, Jennifer, is principal of the Oysterponds Elementary School.

An intelligent and unflappable player, he actually enjoys receiving the on-court verbal abuse known as trash-talk. At least part of the credit goes to Jennifer, who played defense with him when he was much shorter. “She’d say, ‘I’m going to be on you like white on rice,’” Tristan said. “She was very competitive.”

He liked sports, including baseball, but around 9th grade his interest in basketball pushed all others aside. “I like the pace of basketball,” he said. “It keeps my attention.”

It was about this time, his mother said, that Tristan found out about tryouts for a travel team and was soon playing with kids from all over the Northeast in a super competitive league. “It was the best thing he ever did,” Jennifer said. “We just sat back, he did all this on his own.”

Gunnar confirmed that he had also played basketball for the Shelter Island High School team and had even scored a point — once.

Tristan suffered a serious setback in 2014 when he severely broke his ankle playing in a travel team game going for a layup. “I made it, but I came down on someone’s foot.” It was June of his 10th grade year; he was crushed as his team went off to a national tournament that summer without him.

When Tristan’s junior year season started that fall, his ankle was healed, but his confidence was not. His mother credits Amy Mobius, a physical therapist at Project FIT, with helping Tristan recover the confidence to land on that ankle. “She took him into the gym and worked with him right under the hoops,” Jennifer said.

“Other people were definitely working harder than me, I was just sitting there,” Tristan said. “So I came back and surprised myself a little bit.”

Next year Tristan will attend SUNY New Paltz, and will play basketball. He thinks he might study education. “I have a lot of cool teachers here,” he said. “I’d like to see what a teacher could do in a student’s life.”

Growing up on the Island, Tristan likes knowing pretty much everyone he meets, everyplace he goes. Still, he’s happy at the prospect of blending in a little bit at college. “In a place that’s big, where people don’t know each other, I’m excited to be in the mix,” he said.