F'N AWESOME
7/19/03

The inaugural Five-Star Challenge will go down as the greatest event in CSA history. The four team challenge was, for lack of a better term, fuckin awesome.

The teams were created by semi-open draft on Friday, July 18. The four captains were allowed to choose their first three players from the player pool, then the next six selections were randomly drawn. The captains were then allowed to select the next three players, and the last two were random.

The four captains were Adam Klein, Amber Pereles, Leland Dombrowsky, and Patti Stuczynski. With the first overall selection, Adam chose Ray Lee. Leland followed by selecting Andy Riccioni at number two. The first women selected was Paula Otto, who went third to Patti. Amber closed the final round by selecting Kevin Hoehn.

After the rosters were complete, it was time to start the competition. All the events were held at Aviation Park.

The games started bright and early. The originally scheduled opening event was grass volleyball, but an executive decision was made to scrap that event and instead go with an event that was more in line with the spirit of the Five-Star challenge. So, the opening event would be team Dodgeball.

For the first time in CSA history, Dodgeball was a sanctioned event. The game was played under New York playground rules. If a player was hit by a thrown ball on the fly between the shoulder and knees, they were out, if a thrown ball was caught, the thrower was out. A 10 minute time limit was instituted. The team with the most remaining players at the end of the time limit wins. If a team eliminates all their opponents players, they win.

The competition in the opening event was intense. In the two semi-final matches, Amber's White Trash team defeated Patti's Solid Gold Dancers and the Blue Balls, Adam's team, defeated Leland's Rednecks. This set-up a championship match-up between White and Blue. In the third place match, Gold defeated Red. In the finals, an even match went to sudden death. Both teams had three players left when time ran out. So the first Dodgeball championship in CSA would go to a three minute sudden death finale. The first team to have a player eliminated would lose. On the draw, Blue grabbed all three balls in play and in 14 seconds they eliminated a White player to win.

After one event, Blue had five points, White had three, Gold had two, and Red was yet to get on the board.

Event two was another elementary school classic, Kickball. Each team played one game. Red faced Blue on "Little Fenway" and Gold faced White on the main field.
The Gold and White game was an extremely even match-up. With the winning runs on for White in the bottom of the fifth and Gold leading 3-2, a line shot to third was kicked in the air by the Gold third basemen and caught by the pitcher for the final out.
The Red and Blue match-up wasn't as close. Red jumped out to a three run lead in the top of the first. And was up 5-1 after three. Red cruised to a 7-2 victory. The win, plus the bonus points, moved Red from last to first in the overall standings.

After two events, Red had 8.5 points, Gold had 8.5 points, Blue had 6 points, White had 4 points.

The third event was a more traditional sport, Co-ed Flag Football. Playing under CSA tournament rules, Red faced White and Blue faced Gold.
Red moved out to a 14-0 lead with five minutes left in the game. Red was led by Andy Riccioni, who had two touchdown passes, and Lucia Depretto, who had a touchdown catch and a two point conversion. Both Riccioni and Depretto were named to the All Five-Star Team. White was able to make it close. A late touchdown made the score 14-6 and that was the final.

The Blue and Gold game went much the same way as the other game. At the half, Blue led 8-6 and added a second half touchdown to extend to a 16-6 lead. That was the final.

After three events, Red led with 15.8 points, Blue was in second with 13.7, Gold had 9.5 points, White was in last with 5 points.

Going into the lunch break, the challenge was still tight and all four teams had a shot at victory.

After the break, Softball was the fourth event. Gold took on Red and Blue faced White.
Gold was dominant against Red. Led by pitcher, Larry Smith, who was named to the All-Five Star team, Gold shut out Red 13-0. Gold took advantage of Red pitcher Leland Dombrowsky and lit him up for 9 runs in the first two innings. The offense was led by Steve Swaney, who was 4-4, with a home run. The win, plus the bonus points, enabled Gold to overtake Red in the overall standings.

They weren't able to take the overall lead though. Blue outlasted White on "Little Fenway", and won 8-5. Their win gave them the overall lead going into the Track & Field events.

After four events, Blue was the new leader with 21.3 points, Gold was right behind them with 18.8, Red was still in the hunt with 15.8, and White was now well behind with 6.7 points.

If the event had ended right then, it would have been a success. Then it just got better.

The Track & Field portion of the competition gave CSA the chance to bring back some old events, initiate new events, and resurrect some old playground games.

On the schedule in the Track competition was the hand-off relay (which was first used at the Flag Football All-Star game last spring), Tug-o-war (with a twist), 40 yd dash, Softball and Football throw, and "The Race".

The first track event was the hand-off relay. Each team had six runners, three men and three women. Each runner ran 30 yards and handed the ball off to the next runner. Blue was able to get an early lead and Adam Klein anchored the team and raced to victory. Red stayed close, but Leland was unable catch Adam and they finished second. White came in third and Gold fell to last after they dropped the ball.

Blue had extended the lead going into the Tug-o-war. The "tug" had a twist. Each team was represented by all their girls and only one guy. Their were two semi-final pulls. Gold faced White and Red faced Blue. Gold was anchored by Larry Smith and easily won their pull against White. Blue was anchored by Brad Hartman, and also easily defeated Red.
In the third place pull-off between Red and White, Red got the early advantage, but White was able dig in and when Red's anchor slipped, they pulled to victory.
In the finals, Gold faced Blue. A Gold win would help them pull closer to the leader, a Blue win would extend the lead even more.
 Both teams had big anchors, but the key was the ladies. The Gold ladies were able to dig in deep and they got the initial lean and quickly pulled to victory.

After six events, the scoreboard had Blue leading with 29.3 points, Gold had 23.8, Red had 18.8, and White had 10.7 points.

The 40 yard dash was next. It was a simple one heat race for both the men and women. Each team had one guy and one girl.
In the men's heat, Mike Cook, who was named to the All Five-Star team, represented White and ran to victory fairly easily. Andy Riccioni finished second for Red, and Art Rembelos came in third for Gold.
In the women's heat, Paula Otto, the Five-Star co-MVP, leaned to victory, edging Megan Herak, from White, and Lucia Depretto, from Red.

The last event before "The Race", was the throwing events. The men competed in the Softball Throw, and the women competed in both the Softball and Football throw.

Every player from each team was eligible to compete. Participants got one throw only. The top four distances scored points for their team.
The ladies went first in the softball throw. 24 women competed. Coming down to the final throwers, Judith Stein, from Red, was ahead of two Blue players, Annic Jobin and Kourtney Cotton. The final thrower was Dawn Porter, Five-Star co-MVP, from Gold. Dawn blew away the leaders on the final throw to win the event for Gold. She bumped Judith to second and Annic and Kourtney to third and fourth.
The men's throw had 30 participants. Blue scored highest by placing first and fourth. John Cuomo finished fourth, and Brad Hartman launched his throw past Karl Werl, from Gold, and Andy Riccioni, from Red, for the win.

The football throw was ladies only. In this portion, White, who was shutout in the softball throws, was able to place first and third. Megan Herak finished third, just ahead of Annic Jobin, from Blue. Libby Landers was able to best Dawn Porter to win the event.

The only event left was "The Race". Going into the race, the scoreboard had Gold leading with 41.8 points, Blue right behind with 39.3, Red in third with 28.8 and White still in last at 25.7. The only chance for Red or White to win the overall event was to win the race and finish at least 10 seconds ahead of second place. But, for Gold and Blue, a first place finish would guarantee overall victory.

"The Race" was a four person relay that circled the perimeter of Aviation Park Field #1. Each team had two men and two women compete.

The runners on the first leg were Craig Cleek, Gold, John Cuomo, Blue, Megan Herak, White, and Jade Harrington, Red.
At the first exchange Blue led, with Gold close behind, White was third, and Red trailed. The runners on the second leg were Kourtney Cotton, Blue, Dawn Porter, Gold, Bobby Ashworth, White, and Eddie Cisneros, Red.
Kourtney had a slight lead on Dawn coming out of the exchange, while White and Red were significantly behind. Dawn was able to close the gap on Kourtney, and at the second exchange, both Blue and Gold were almost dead even. By the third runner, both Red and White were out of the mix because they had dropped off significantly.
The runners on the third leg were Annic Jobin, Blue, Paula Otto, Gold, Kelly Heape, White, and Leah Pust, Red.
The third leg is where the race was won. Annic was the first to get the exchange, about two steps ahead of Paula, but Gold's exchange was much cleaner and out of the box, Paula was able to shoot right past Annic into first place. Paula extended her lead heading to the anchor leg.
The runners on the anchor leg were Art Rembelos, Gold, Adam Klein, Blue, Mike Cook, White, and Leland Dombrowsky, Red.
By the anchor leg, it was a race between Blue and Gold. Gold got to the anchor leg first and Paula handed off to Rembelos. Close behind was Annic, who handed off to Klein. Gold had a three step lead. A furious run by both Rembelos and Klein would determine the Five-Star Champion.

Rembelos edged Klein by two steps and Gold won the race, but it was not over. A pre-race stipulation, on the suggestion of Five-Star official Chad Wade, was to replace the baton with a can of Coors Light. Runners had to exchange to can and the final runner had to chug the can after crossing the finish line. Order of finish would not be final until the chugging portion was over.

The officials decided that all four runners made a legitimate attempt to chug, so the order of finish remained as is. This made the Solid Gold Dancers the inaugural Five-Star champions.

Gold was victorious because they had a well-balanced team effort. Dawn Porter and Paula Otto were named co-MVP's and Larry Smith was named to the All Five-Star team.
Blue trailed close behind and Adam Klein and Annic Jobin were named to the All Five-Star team.
Red, who led early on in the competition but faded late, placed Andy Riccioni and Lucia Depretto on the all event team, and White, who closed the gap in the track events had Mike Cook and Megan Herak named to the team.

The inaugural Five-Star challenge was a rousing success. Combining all the elements important to CSA, including diversity of events, opportunity for people to meet, balanced competition, and positive atmosphere, the Five-Star Challenge can truly be called the greatest event in CSA history.