WEST SAYVILLE FLYING DUTCHMEN
CONTINUE THEIR WINNING WAYS IN JULY

The Flying Dutchmen Drill Team of the West Sayville Fire Department rounded out the first half of the 2012 firematic competition season with a pair of first place finishes bringing their year-to-date total to four victories. The first win came at the Riverhead Fire Department’s annual invitational drill on July 21, 2012 where just shy of a dozen and one-half volunteer fire department teams vied for the top honors with West Sayville’s day total of twenty-eight points edging out the Hoboes of Central Islip by three. The Bay Shore Red Skins earned third place recognition with fifteen points while the St. James Wildcats took fourth place with thirteen points and the East Islip Guzzlers fifth place with twelve points.

One week later the Flying Dutchmen and Hoboes battled it out again among twenty-eight teams from throughout Long Island for a first place tie in the Central Islip Fire Department’s fiftieth running of its annual Suffolk-Nassau Invitational Drill. Unhampered by a rain delay during the Efficiency contest, both teams finished the day with a total of twenty-seven points, thirteen ahead of the third place Guzzlers from East Islip. The Islip Wolves and West Hempstead Westerners rounded out the top five with twelve and one-half points and nine points respectively. The two wins now bring the Flying Dutchmen’s total victory count to 162 since the team first ran at the 1892 Suffolk County Volunteer Firemen’s Association Tournament in Greenport.

Long-time team coach and former competitor for the Flying Dutchmen, Frank R. Miller, Sr., expressed his satisfaction with the team’s consistent performance at both drills. “At Riverhead,” he noted, “the team placed in seven of the eight contests run with two first place event finishes. We bettered that in Central Islip by placing in all eight contests which gave us just the right balance to sustain our winning status in the end despite having no first place runs in any event.”
The Flying Dutchmen earned their points at the Riverhead Invitational with first place runs in B Ladder (5.04 seconds) and Buckets (21.53 seconds); second place efforts in Three Man Ladder (6.35 seconds), C Ladder (9.38 seconds) and B Hose (8.03 seconds); and, third place in the C Hose (12.76 seconds) and Motor Pump (6.33 seconds) contests.

In Central Islip, West Sayville amassed their day’s total with second place finishes in Three Man Ladder (6.27 seconds), B Ladder (5.19 seconds), C Ladder (9.12 seconds), C Hose (12.73 seconds) and B Hose (8.00 seconds); third place in the Buckets contest (23.54 seconds) and fourth place runs in efficiency (9.67 seconds) and Motor Pump (6.03 seconds).

The 2012 Flying Dutchmen Drill Team is coached by Frank R. Miller, Sr. and G. Scott Schrader and comprised of Captain Gary A. Schaum, Lieutenant Ryan Tenney, David Banks, Kristy Banks, Patrick Garrett, Michael Heerbrandt, Ryan Huguenin, Chad Leigh-Manuell, Michael Marra, Robert Marra, Frank R. Miller, Jr., Allen Newhouse, Robert Noonan, Richard Quenzer, Joseph Quenzer, Douglas Quenzer and Daniel Tenney.

Photo Courtesy of LNBN.smugmug.com
The West Sayville Flying Dutchmen demonstrate their precision in passing five gallon canvas buckets brimming with water up the ladder to fill a fifty-five gallon drum atop the arch at the annual Riverhead Fire Department Invitational Drill on July 21, 2012. The team completed the event in 21.53 seconds to take first place in the contest and win the overall drill.