Fall 2008 Alumni Letter
Hi everyone, now that we are coming to the middle of football season you know wrestling season is around the corner…so that means a few emails from me. Seriously though…the money we raised last season helped send groups of Bethpage wrestlers to the notorious and intense J-Rob camp in Minnesota, The Bruce Baumgartner Heavyweight camp and of course the Hofstra team camp.
In other off-season news several Bethpage wrestlers committed to college wrestling programs as they become alumni themselves. Dave Broughton will be wrestling at Oneonta, Marc Candito at The College of New Jersey (TCNJ) and Jim Isnardi at Centenary College.
Mark your calendar for Alumni Day & Night 2009. We will use the same format as last year with a Quad Meet at Bethpage High School starting at 9:30 AM on January 17th. Then we will gather after the meet for food, drink and perhaps even more exaggerated stories and outright fabrications than in prior years. Details for Alumni Day are to follow soon.
Don’t forget about our web site: http://bpawrestling.wordpress.com/
We’ll be posting new information on the upcoming season as well as alumni announcements.
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2007 Greeting…
Greetings again to all Bethpage wrestling alumni. I think this email may be going out a bit late this year, but better late than never. We are less than 2 months away from the opening of the Bethpage wrestling season and the Hank Paris tournament – an expanded version of the old Mid Island tournament that some of you may remember.
FUNDRAISING SUCCESS
Thanks to last year’s successful fundraising efforts and your generosity, the Alumni club has been able to fund a few very important initiatives: - The Light is Shining: The mat spotlight that we purchased for this coming season is installed and operational. We may have to coax coach Abbs to shift a couple of home matches to night matches so we can see this spotlight and the drama/intensity it adds a wrestling match. I have seen several matches under this light in Suffolk County, and I can tell you it is a treat for the wrestlers and the fans. -Finalist Singlets were designed and purchased over the summer and they look great. We went back to the old traditional gold singlet with the new Eagle head mascot logo on the chest, “Eagles” inscribed in blue with a gold trim on the bottom of the thigh and ”BHS” bold letters again in blue with gold trim diagonally placed on the back of the singlet. We may see coach Abbs break these babies out for special dual meets. - Camp and Clinic Financial Aid: Thanks to a couple of very special alumni donations we still had enough funds available so coach Abbs could send several of our young talent to wrestling camps and clinics at Hofstra. In fact we had 7 or 8 Bethpage wrestlers attend Hofstra team camp over the summer in addition to many other camps, clinics and competitive events. As a team we were more active this off-season than I have ever seen in all my years following Bethpage wrestling. Please be sure to scroll down to the bottom of this email for details on this year’s membership fundraising drive and how to support the Alumni program in any way you can. As always, the member donation is not mandatory, we just ask you donate whatever you can and it will be appreciated.
2007-2008 Bethpage Wrestling Alumni Night
This year’s Alumni Night Celebration should be a good one since we will have more time to kick back and relax after the Bethpage wrestling match. The night will be held on Saturday January 26th. Bethpage hosts a wrestling quad that day with Long Beach, Uniondale and Seaford. Since the quad will end by about 4:30 PM we will be able to schedule Alumni Night to begin at an earlier time …perhaps 5:30 PM instead of rushing to the bar after a night match as we have done in the past. So mark your calendar for a day of wrestling and a night of celebration and reminiscing by wrestling alumni. Details for Alumni night will follow in November/December. Last year we honored Ron Abatelli for his long tenure and success as our coach. This year we’d like to honor the coaching regime that many of us “classic wrestlers” participated in. So Al Blau/Frank Melone get ready for a night of honor (and some serious ribbing I’m sure). The initial plan is to do our traditional Alumni announcements at about 2PM just before the last Bethpage match of the quad.
Help us find more Alumni!
We have done our best to find and attract more wrestling alumni to attend alumni night and stay involved in this great sport. It is special when we can get a mix of classic (not using the word “old”) and younger alumni. So please do what you can to reach out to alumni and get me an email address for each so I can include them on our email announcement list. I have heard some ex-wrestlers who do not receive these emails feel that they are not invited to our events. That is NOT the case. All it means is that I do not have their email address or I do not have a correct/current address. So anything you can do to keep me informed as to changes of email address and new addresses is much appreciated.
2007-2008 Bethpage Wrestling schedule (no finalized starting times right now so I will send an updated schedule before the start of the season)
Dec 1: Hank Paris Tournament (at Plainedge)
Dec 8: Bethpage Dad’s Club Tournament (Home)
Dec 11: at East Meadow
Dec 20: at Bellmore JFK
Dec 29: at Massapequa Holiday Tournament
Jan 3: Island Trees (Home)
Jan 5: at Octorara, PA Dual Meet Tournament
Jan 9: Plainedge (Home)
Jan 11: at Wantagh
Jan 12 & 13: at Center Moriches Tournament
Jan 16: at Lynbrook
Jan 18: at Garden City
Jan 19: Mepham, Locust Valley, Syosset (Home Quad)
Jan 26: Long Beach, Uniondale, Seaford (Home Quad) –ALUMNI NIGHT – festivities to start around 2PM at Bethpage High School
Feb 1 & 2: Nassau Dual Meet Playoffs (Site TBA)
Feb 16: Nassau County Tournament Qualifier-Conference Tournament (Site TBA)
Feb 23 & 24: Nassau County Section 8 Tournament (CW Post or Hofstra)
Feb 29/Mar 1: NY State Tournament ———————————————————–
2007-2008 Membership Fundraising Drive We ask that you contribute whatever you feel comfortable with for this year’s membership fundraising drive. Member donations start at $25 per person. Alumni Night Celebration is also $25 per person to attend. Guests are welcome.
Name:
Graduation Year Email Address:
Membership Fee/Donation: $25_____ $50_____ $100_____ Other $______
Alumni Night Celebration: $25 per person: # of people attending ______
Total Enclosed (Member Fee/Donation + Alumni Night Celebration): ______
Please make checks payable to: Bethpage Wrestling Club. Mail this form completed along with your check to Lou Candito, Wrestling Alumni, 14 Sherman Avenue, Bethpage NY 11714 ——————————————————-
