PINE PLAINS — Almost a decade since he competed as a student athlete for the Pine Plains Central School District, Justin Cooper, 25, has returned to his alma mater, Stissing Mountain Junior/Senior High School, this time as a coach for the varsity boys basketball team and as an honoree of the State University of New York Athletic Conference (SUNYAC) Men’s Basketball All-Decade Team.
Identifying himself as “a pretty competitive person,” Cooper remarked that basketball has been a good sport for his competitive nature. A lifelong resident of Pine Plains, Cooper’s basketball career began when he was just a tot with the Pine Plains Pee Wee Basketball League and followed him into high school, where he played at the varsity level for all four years before heading off to college.
Considering his evolution as an athlete, Cooper said, “I just had a drive to get better — I was always playing the game… so being able to work on the game came easy to me and as you start to get older and play at higher levels, you start to get better.”
Following his graduation from Stissing Mountain in 2013, Cooper completed a post-graduate year at Trinity-Pawling School in Pawling, before continuing his education at SUNY Cortland. Along with pursuing a major in sports management, he competed on the college’s basketball team for all four years.
Among the highlights of his career at Cortland as noted in a press release from the state college, Cooper competed in the guard position for four seasons from 2015 to 2019 and ranked first at Cortland in career free throws made and in free throw percentages. He also recorded 28 career double-doubles, according to www.jr.nba.com, and helped his team win the SUNYAC title and advance to the National Collegiate Athletic Association second round during his freshman year. Looking at an array of impressive career statistics, Cooper scored a total of 1,378 points (averaging 14.8 points per game), 751 rebounds, 272 assists, 104 steals and 85 three-pointers.
The colleges nominated players for the All-Decade Teams, which consist of 15 players each and mirror the size of annual all-conference teams, though they’re not broken down by position. To be eligible, players needed to have played at least one season between 2009-10 and 2018-19 and must have either been named All-SUNYAC at least twice or a SUNYAC Player of the Year once.
“It means a lot — it shows that the hard work I put in is recognized and it also shows that I had some really good teammates that supported me and worked hard with me,” Cooper said. “It’s an honor to have post-graduation recognition.”
Following his graduation from Cortland in the spring of 2019, Cooper began operating his own basketball skills company, LMC Athletics, with one of his former Bomber teammates and Pine Plains buddies, Tyler Lydon, who eventually made it all the way to the NBA. Continuing to stay involved with the game, Cooper said he’s more of a coach now than a player, adding that “as you get a little bit older, there’s less playing and more teaching.”
Between coaching the Stissing Mountain varsity boys basketball team and running clinics, camps, individual and small group training offered through LMC Athletics, Cooper said he tries to share some of the things he went through as a player with the players he’s now molding. He remarked that his past experiences help him relate to those players, and while COVID-19 has created a unique time for sports, the game has remained the same and he’s determined to give his players the best experience given the circumstances.
Regarding his return to his hometown to now be a coach, Cooper said, “It’s great. It’s a really nice experience to be back here and coach and help these kids get better and help them reach their goals, and it’s always unique to coach on the court I once played on.”
NORTH EAST — Habitat for Humanity of Dutchess County will conduct a presentation on Thursday, May 9 on buying a three-bedroom affordable home to be built in the Town of North East.
The presentation will be held at the NorthEast-Millerton Library Annex at 5:30 p.m.
Any first-time home buyer interested should attend the information session.
The application for this pilot program home-buying opportunity must be made between May 1 and June 10.Minimum household income for the pilot program is $55,000 while maximum income is determined by family size.
Applications are available at the North East Town Hall.Habitat for Humanity describes itself as a nonprofit with global reach, working across the United States and in approximately 70 countries.
‘Migration Collage' by ransome
If you claim a single sobriquet as your artistic moniker, you’re already in a club with some big names, from Zendaya to Beyoncé to the mysterious Banksy. At Geary, the contemporary art gallery in Millerton founded by New Yorkers Jack Geary and Dolly Bross Geary, a new installation and painting exhibition titled “The Bitter and the Sweet” showcases the work of the artist known only as ransome — all lowercase, like the nom de plume of the late Black American social critic bell hooks.
Currently based in Rhinebeck, N.Y., ransome’s work looks farther South and farther back — to The Great Migration, when Jim Crow laws, racial segregation, and the public violence of lynching paved the way for over six million Black Americans to seek haven in northern cities, particularly New York urban areas, like Brooklyn and Baltimore. The Great Migration took place from the turn of the 20th century up through the 1970s, and ransome’s own life is a reflection of the final wave — born in North Carolina, he found a new home in his youth in New Jersey.
‘Square Quilting painting' by ransomeAlexander Wilburn
Map fragments of North Carolina feature heavily in a large collection of eight-by-eight collage and acrylic paintings, sold individually but together mounted on Geary’s wall resembling the stitched patterns on quilts, like the quilts by the late Black American artist Arlonzia Pettway. Along with artists like Annie Mae Young and Mary Lee Bendolph, Pettway was a renowned artist associated with the quilts of Gee’s Bend, generations of women in the town of Gee’s Bend, Alabama who preserved African American culture in beautiful and vibrant textile art with bold combinations of stripes, textures and colors. The influence is also wonderfully clear in ransome large-scale collages and acrylic paintings like “Square Quilt painting” on display at Geary. It’s a powerful symbol of Gee’s Bend’s legacy continuing on, even under a new artistic medium.
In the smaller works, called “Migration Collages,” painted portraits are combined with pieces of floral and pastel paper, evocative of the tradition of “Sunday Best” splendor worn in Black churches in the South. “The women elders at my Baptist church often greeted each other that way on Sunday mornings when one hat was more elaborate, colorful, or wider brimmed than another,” New York Times veteran Lena Williams wrote in her 1996 essay, “In Defense of the Church Hat.” “It was traditional to put on one’s newest finery for church, and in many historically black churches, the wearing of fancy hats by women carried both spiritual and cultural significance.”
“The Bitter and the Sweet” is on view at Geary through Sunday, June 2.
Hospitality, ease of living and just plain fun are rolled into one for those who are intrigued by the leisure-time Caravana experience at the family-owned Four Brothers Drive-in in Amenia. Tom Stefanopoulos, pictured above, highlights fun possibilities offered by Hotel Caravana.
The month-long process of unwrapping and preparing the various features at the Four Brothers Drive-In is nearing completion, and the imaginative recreational destination will be ready to open for the season on Friday, May 10.
The drive-in theater is already open, as is the Snack Shack, and the rest of the recreational features are activating one by one, soon to be offering maximum fun for the whole family.
Tom Stefanopoulos, the second generation helping to guide the Stefanopoulos family’s recreational complex, brings a deep understanding of hospitality and business sense in support of the multi-faceted enterprise, begun in the 1970s, that is now a mainstay of the town of Amenia, located on a corner in the heart of the commercial district. He paused for an interview on Friday, April 26.
Two luxury camping trailers, each with an attached wooden deck and fire pit, make up Hotel Caravana, and each offers a different fun vibe, Stefanopoulos explained. The larger of the two, offers a California lifestyle, retro to 1967, although its modern where it should be. It can sleep four.
The smaller Caravana sleeps two and offers a lifestyle of the future dating to about 2041. It’s a brand-new Airstream, Stefanopoulos noted. It also has an attached deck with firepit.
“We get a lot of New York City people,” Stefanopoulos said when asked what sorts of people are apt to be attracted to Hotel Caravana. “They want to experience the upstate life,” he added. The idea of sitting out on the deck while watching an actual drive-in movie appeals to them, as does room service offered by the restaurant.
The lobster rolls prepared by the Snack Shack, are served on brioche hot dog rolls, either Maine-style or Connecticut-style, and the lobster can be topped with caviar. Four Brothers version is praised by customers for the generous portion of lobster in each, and the price is competitive.
Caravana guests may book for a single night, or maybe two, or even longer, taking advantage of the bicycles to pedal along the nearby rail trail, a local amenity, Stefanopoulos noted.
“We make our guests feel like movie stars,” Stefanopoulos said of the hospitality. And, if they like miniature golf, it is just a few steps away from their Caravana deck.
Asked how and why the Caravana idea began, Stefanopoulos recalled that as the drive-in theater grew in popularity, people were traveling from greater distances away. The last film of the night might start at midnight, he said, so the idea grew that Four Brothers might be able to offer an accommodation to stay the night.
In addition to Caravana, Four Brothers offers an alternative of two or three tent camping sites.
Future plans may include a third Caravana, Stefanopoulos said. Also, there is a giant mastodon skeleton, presently in storage, that should be on display, he said.
“It’s pretty big,” Stefanopoulos added.
The playground might be enlarged in the coming seasons, and perhaps an old-fashioned arcade added for retro amusement.
The community that surrounds Four Brothers remains important to the Stefanopoulos family as they offer substantial summer employment opportunity. Stefanopoulos said that a goal is to contract locally for business needs, such as musical entertainment and advertising. The drive-in also schedules occasion fundraisers to benefit local organizations, including the Amenia Fire Company and area schools.
