TRR photo by Richard A. Ross Sullivan West’s Chris Story blocks a shot by Burke’s Sean Gillen. Sullivan West lost to Burke on January 4 but Story led the Dawgs with 10 points. He poured in 20 in the Bulldogs’ Billy Moran Tournament championship win over Port Jervis and was named a tournament All-Star.

Basketball

Rockin’ the New Year

First week of 2008 brings high intensity basketball games to Sullivan County teams

By RICHARD A. ROSS

SULLIVAN COUNTY, NY—Coaches will tell you that early season non-league games and holiday tournaments are mostly about working on chemistry and don’t mean that much in the long run. But given the fact that a team’s overall record, which includes those early games as one of two possible criteria for qualifying for sectionals, that statement is not entirely true.

But whether or not the outcome of early season play affects a team’s chances for earning a ticket to the big dance of sectionals, the games serve as an interesting preliminary to the fireworks that ignite vociferously in early January and end in a spellbinding display in March.

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Basketball

Talon talent

By RICHARD A. ROSS

GOSHEN, NY—For years on end, whenever Sullivan West and John S. Burke took to the court for a boys basketball game, the atmosphere was purely electric. Games were guaranteed to be fierce down-to-the-wire encounters, whose outcomes were in question in the game’s waning minutes.

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Track

Firsts in the first

By RICHARD A. ROSS

WEST POINT, NY—Among the billions of resolutions uttered to usher in the New Year were likely to be some bespoken by Sullivan County track and field athletes centering on their goals in the sport that occupies so much of their energy and passion.

But even if those goals were not on their minds as the glittering ball came down to ring in 2008, the desire to advance their individual and team causes came into clear focus on January 4 as the schools reconvened for their first meet of the new year.

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Also in this issue:

• Tall order