Down the Middle Foundation (DTMF) and its partners helped brighten the Christmas holiday for children across the area through its sixth annual Shop with a Cop event.

DTMF founder Darnell Lee Jr. noted that the event gives area children the opportunity to cultivate a positive relationship with area law enforcement as they participate in an exciting shared endeavor — shopping for presents that the children can have for Christmas.

This year’s iteration of the event took place Tuesday, Dec. 16, and featured second graders from Capron Elementary School, Meherrin Elementary School, Nottoway Elementary School, Riverdale Elementary School and Kilby Shores Elementary School in Suffolk.

Participating law enforcement agencies included Southampton County Sheriff’s Office and Virginia State Police.

“The goal is to have 20 (children involved) every year, and we’re trying to increase it every year, but this year we were able to have 13 kids in the store,” Lee said.

The store partnering with DTMF for the event is the Walmart located in the city of Franklin.

“What Walmart does, they provide little goodies for the kids at Walmart, and then each kid will be partnered with a police officer, and they will shop for $100 of whatever they want,” Lee said. “And after that, we go to the (Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Community) Center, we have volunteers that wrap gifts and (we) eat pizza. (Franklin) Parks and Rec partners with us, they provided the crafts at the MLK Center.”

As noted on its website, Down the Middle Foundation, which Lee founded in 2009, has a mission “to support the character development and athletic skills of youth through community service, mentorship, team building, and sports education.”

Lee explained that the Shop with a Cop event aims to develop youth in a positive way by dispelling fears they may have about law enforcement, helping them to understand that officers are here to help the community.

A lot of local teams have a lot of different needs

Fort Lewis College men’s basketball head coach Jordan Mast cheers his team on while playing Adams State University on Dec. 13 at FLC. (Jerry McBride/Herald)

Jerry McBride

It’s the holiday season, so there’s no time like the present for a fun Christmas-themed article that looks back at the first part of the winter sports season.

Local winter sports teams have had varying amounts of success, but all of them want to improve in certain areas to reach their potential.

Let’s look at some local sports teams and what gifts their coaches should’ve asked Santa for this Christmas.

Fort Lewis College men’s basketball: The gift of health

The FLC men’s basketball team has had a decent start to the season at 6-5 overall and 4-0 in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference. FLC has a win over a top-25 team in Division II, and four of its five losses were against teams that were either in the Division II top 25 or were receiving votes in the poll.

However, the season has already started to turn into a what could’ve been story with all the injuries the Skyhawks have had. It began in the preseason with senior guard Jude Tapia tearing his meniscus, freshman guard Daniel Steverson tearing his ACL and freshman forward Garrett Barger breaking his collarbone.

Tapia was the RMAC’s leading scorer at Adams State last season and was expected to be a big part of FLC’s success this season; Tapia is still out. Steverson is a promising guard who will miss the rest of the year, and Barger has only played a few games since his return.

After the season started, the Skyhawks lost redshirt sophomore guard for a few games to a sprained MCL. Senior forward Cassius Carmichael missed a few games with a concussion and redshirt sophomore guard Nate Penney has only played in three games with a broken foot.

FLC still has the depth and talent to do well in the RMAC even with the injuries. However, FLC needs the gift of health so no more players get hurt.

FLC women’s basketball: The gift of free-throw shooting

The Skyhawks women’s basketball team is off to its best start in six years, with the team at 9-3 overall. FLC is having a great year so far despite struggles at the free-throw line.

FLC ranks last in the RMAC in team free-throw percentage at 60%. Free-throw shooting hasn’t cost FLC a close game, but it’s only a matter of time before that happens.

The schedule will get much tougher for FLC in RMAC play, and if the Skyhawks want to keep a winning record, make the RMAC tournament and secure some key upsets along the way, FLC will need to hit its free throws at a higher percentage.

Durango High School boys basketball: The gift of role-player production

It’s a transition year for the Durango boys basketball team after the Demons lost valuable seniors from last season’s state-tournament team.

Durango is 3-4 overall after two non-league tournaments down in New Mexico. The Demons have gotten great production out of their top two players, junior King Kerlin and sophomore Taj Batiste.

After that, the production hasn’t been so reliable from the role players, which isn’t surprising considering a lot of these role players don’t have experience at the varsity level.

Once the Demons get into league play, teams will be keying in on Kerlin and Batiste. Durango can’t expect those players to play well every night, so the role players will have to produce on some nights for Durango to win.

Durango High School girls basketball: The gift of consistent offense

The Durango girls basketball team lost a lot of production from last year’s Great 8 squad, with four experienced seniors graduating. Therefore, it’s not surprising the offense has been inconsistent for the Demons with some new main characters.

Durango failed to hit 40 points in its first four games, and the Demons have scored at least 49 points in their last four games. Can the offense be consistent? That’ll likely be the key to Durango’s success as the Demons have always been strong defensively under head coach Lauren Moran.

Durango High School boys wrestling: The gift of experience

Like Durango boys basketball, the Durango boys wrestling program is going through a reset year after losing star wrestler Ryan Dugan to graduation.

The Demons have some experience, but even those wrestlers haven’t hit the heights of competing in top matches at state. After that, the Demons have a lot of inexperienced wrestlers who are still trying to figure it out on the mat.

Head coach Jason Silva has said this year is all about his team getting experience, as most of the wrestlers will be back for next year.

Ignacio High School wrestling teams: The gift of continued success after big tournaments

The Ignacio boys and girls wrestling teams have had a great start to the season with Lincoln deKay picking up a few wins, other wrestlers making it to the finals and other Bobcats placing.

Ignacio has competed in some of the top local tournaments, including the Western Slope Showdown and Warrior Classic. For a 2A school, the Bobcats faced a lot of wrestlers from bigger schools that they won’t see again this season.

The question is: Can the Bobcats take this early-season success to the postseason tournaments? deKay has shown he can wrestle at the top of the state after finishing second last season. Larissa Espinosa also placed last season for the Ignacio girls.

Can either of these two get over the hump and win a state title? Using what worked for them in those bigger tournaments early in the season will help.

bkelly@durangoherald.com

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Hosting an ESIAC quad meet Dec. 19 proved to be an early present for Delmarva Christian’s swim teams.

The boys scooped up their first two wins of the year by besting Sts. Peter & Paul 41-4 and Salisbury School 39-15. Salisbury Christian’s talented team got the best of the Royals 49-31.

“Tonight, we just got every guy qualified for states,” said senior Cole Parker. “Last year, almost everybody went.”

A legend was born during the quad meet when the 200 freestyle relay team qualified. Trax Rogers was the second swimmer to leap off the blocks, and if you can believe it, the junior had just wrapped up swimming the 500.

“The 500 is distance, a long-haul race, and Trax gave it his all in that race and turned around and did the relay right after,” said coach Laurel Kamosa. “He did great, and they ended up qualifying for states at the exact time, which was amazing.”

Diving over to the girls, they got a taste of each outcome in the quad meet, edging out the Dragons 39-36, tying the Sabres 31-31 and losing to the Jaguars 66-16. The girls stand at 2-3-1 with just three meets left when they come back from their January term.

“We’re doing really good,” said senior Libby Dawson. “We’re pushing ourselves to be the best we can with limited practice in limited time.”

At 2-5, the lads have a bit more ground to make up, but lucky for them, one of the three meets is a tri-meet and another is a quad meet.

“We’ve had our ups and downs a little bit, and like Libby said with limited practices and stuff, I think that’s made it a little bit tougher, but other than that, I think all the guys at least have been pushing themselves, and that’s just great to see,” Parker said.

“We’ve got a lot of good swimmers,” Kamosa said. “We’re working on technique, we’re working on getting faster, and we’re definitely seeing that with the kids. At the end of the day, we want to have fun and have a good time, but make strides along the way, so I think we’re doing that.”

Gains this season are a result of buy-in from the older swimmers who have seen the program grow year by year.

“Freshman year to now, the growth is insane, and just building the program more and more each year is just the biggest thing we can do,” Dawson said. “Building it more in our school and putting more of a light on swimming at Delmarva Christian.”

“The confidence is definitely building with the kids,” Kamosa said. “They’re building that camaraderie with each other, and with the other teams as well. I really appreciate their sportsmanship with the other schools.”

Orange High School is the site of the 60th annual Orange Holiday Basketball Classic beginning Friday, Dec. 26. The event will include both boys and girls divisions and wrap up on Tuesday, Dec. 30.

Coach Jake Rhodes will lead his Orange Panthers boys basketball team into the long-running tournament.

In the boys division, Pool A consists of Incline, Nev; Irvine, Orange and Shadow Ridge, Nev. Pool B will include Boulder City, Nev., Cerritos, Fullerton, and Long Beach Wilson.

In the girls division, Pool A includes Apple Valley, Laguna Hills, Montclair, and Valley Christian. Pool B includes Cabrillo, Fullerton, Irvine, Orange.

Pool play games:

FRIDAY, DEC. 26:

Girls: Orange vs. Cabrillo, 9 a.m.; Irvine vs. Fullerton, 10:30 a.m.; Valley Christian vs. Montclair, noon; Apple Valley vs. Laguna Hills, 1:30 p.m..

Boys: Cerritos vs. Long Beach Wilson, 3 p.m.; Orange vs. Incline, 4:30 p.m.; Shawdow Ridge vs. Irvine, 6 p.m; Fullerton vs. Boulder City, 7:30 p.m.

SATURDAY, DEC. 27:

Girls: Laguna Hills vs. Valley Christian, 9 a.m.; Cabrillo vs. Irvine, 10:30 a.m.; Montclair vs. Apple Valley, noon; Fullerton vs. Orange, 1:30 p.m.

Boys: Cerritos vs. Fullerton, 3 p.m.; LB Wilson vs. Boulder City, 4:30 p.m.; Shadow Ridge vs. Orange, 6 p.m.; Irvine vs. Incline, 7:30 p.m.

MONDAY, DEC. 29:

Girls: Fullerton vs. Cabrillo, 9 a.m.; Laguna Hills vs. Montclair, 10:30 a.m.; Apple Valley vs. Valley Christian, noon; Orange vs. Irvine, 1:30 p.m.

Boys: Irvine vs. Orange, 3 p.m.; Incline vs. Shadow Ridge, 4:30 p.m.; Long Beach Wilson vs. Fullerton, 6 p.m.; Cerritos vs. Boulder City, 7:30 p.m.

The tournament wraps up on Tuesday, Dec. 30 with games starting at 9 a.m. The girls championship will be at 6 p.m. followed by the boys tournament final at 7:30 p.m.

“Looking forward to helping our AD host the oldest running Christmas Tourney in Orange County,” Rhodes said on X this week. “We have great teams ranging from LA County, OC, San Bernardino County and Southern and Northern Nevada.”

Send basketball news to timburt@ocsportszone.com

For the last 18 years, longtime Wellington resident Chris Fratalia has been serving as the volunteer president of the Wellington Wolves travel basketball program. During that time, he has been the heart and soul of the organization. Whether it was ordering uniforms, organizing practice times, planning travel for an out-of-town basketball tournament or running the longtime March Madness tournament in Wellington, Fratalia was very involved in getting things done.

As the old saying goes, all good things must come to an end. This past fall, Fratalia stepped aside as the president of the Wolves, which means the organization is now moving forward under the leadership of Mike Colin.

Longtime Wellington Wolves supporter John Sitomer said that Fratalia was a brilliant administrator and will be missed.

“Chris did the work of 10 people,” Sitomer said. “He showcased tremendous leadership. His legacy with the Wolves is amazing.”

Throughout the year, Fratalia oversaw the administrative and business side of the Wolves organization.

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“With my marketing and business background, I focused on the business operations of the Wolves,” said Fratalia, who grew up in Charlestown, Massachusetts, where he played football and ice hockey. “I always left the coaching of the Wolves teams to our coaches.”

Fratalia started his long tenure with the Wolves because of his son’s interest in basketball.

“Years ago, my son, Max, was in the fifth grade, and he wanted to play basketball, so we visited Village Park to see what opportunities there were to play youth basketball,” Fratalia said. “I quickly realized that I could help the Wellington Wolves organization. I was asked to join the board of directors. And then I was asked to be the president. That was 18 years ago.”

Through the years, one of Fratalia’s strengths was understanding marketing and branding.

“In the early days, I would get clothing made that showcased our logo and our organizational name. We would sell the items at cost,” Fratalia recalled. “Then, when I would visit gyms around Palm Beach County to watch a basketball game, and I’d see people wearing our clothing. That helped spread awareness.”

A big part of Fratalia’s work with the Wolves was organizing and conducting the annual March Madness basketball tournament, which attracts more than 100 youth basketball teams from Florida and elsewhere to Wellington for a two-day event, always held in early March.

“I would start my early preparations in August, and in the week leading up to the tournament, I would take a week’s vacation from work to take care of final details,” recalled Fratalia, now in his 27th year as a sales director for Southern Glazer’s Wine & Spirits. “Our March Madness tournament expanded to 18 basketball courts around Palm Beach County.”

The organizational tournament work performed by Fratalia did not go unnoticed.

“We won the U.S. Amateur Award for the top travel basketball tournament for seven straight years,” Fratalia noted.

Besides running a travel basketball organization, Fratalia oversaw the creation of a shoe drive, a food drive, and helped with the Council of Dads, a group of adults who help tutor student-athletes with the Wolves who needed a helping hand with homework and their academic obligations.

Looking back at his time with the Wolves, Fratalia is quick to thank other people for their support.

“I had a very supportive board of directors who understood our mission,” Fratalia said. “I also want to thank Eric Juckett and Ryan Hagopian with the Village of Wellington for their ongoing support. Also, my wife Kate was very supportive of the time that I spent with the Wolves.”

As Fratalia reflects on his time guiding the Wolves, he will miss the relationships he made with players, coaches, parents, sponsors and referees.

“It has been a great ride, and it’s time to turn over control to a new group of leaders in Wellington’s basketball community,” Fratalia said.

Without a doubt, Fratalia will be missed and never forgotten.

Coach Ringo Bossenmeyer leading the Tillers in a game last season. (PHOTO: Tim Burt, OC Sports Zone).

The long-running Tustin Boys Basketball Classic has a new name.

It’s been renamed in honor of former Tiller coach Ringo Bossenmeyer, according to new Tustin Coach Jonathan Antolin. Bossenmeyer resigned at the end of last season after 25 seasons leading the Tillers. He joined the staff of the Chapman University men’s basketball team.

The Ringo Bossenmeyer Tustin Holiday Classic begins on Friday at Tustin High School and has pool play games through Monday. The championship is Tuesday at 4:30 p.m. at Tustin.

Tustin, Servite, Hawaii Baptist and Huntington Park are in Pool A. St. Anthony, Tesoro, Mercer Island and Beckman are in Pool B.

Pool play schedule:

Friday, Dec. 26:

St. Anthony vs. Beckman, 3 p.m.; Servite vs. Huntington Park, 4:30 p.m.; Tesoro vs. Mercer Island, 6 p.m.; Tustin vs. Hawaii Baptist, 7:30 p.m.

Saturday, Dec. 27:

Mercer Island vs. Beckman, 3 p.m.; Tesoro vs. St. Anthony, 4:30 p.m.; Hawaii Baptist vs. Huntington Park, 6 p.m.; Servite vs. Tustin, 7:30 p.m.

Monday, Dec. 29:

Servite vs. Hawaii Baptist, noon; Tesoro vs. Beckman, 1:30 p.m.; St. Anthony vs. Mercer Island, 3 p.m.; Tustin vs. Huntington Park. 4:30 p.m.

Send basketball news to timburt@ocsportszone.com