The perennial season opening firematic competitive drill has typically been hosted by the Lindenhurst Fire Department. This year was no different with the host conducting its fifty-first running of the Long Island Invitational Parade and Drill on Saturday, June 4, at the department’s training facility off of Wellwood Avenue. Also unchanged, so it seems, was the winner of the annual tournament which turned out to be the Flying Dutchmen drill team of the West Sayville Fire Department, their fifth consecutive year of doing so.  The experienced team piled up thirty-two points in the eight contests competed against twenty-one other volunteer fire departments from throughout Nassau and Suffolk counties giving them an easy twelve point edge over the second place Yellow Hornets from Hempstead.

The win was the first of the year for the team and the sixteenth time West Sayville has come out on top in this particular drill. In fact, the team has won the tournament twice as often as the next best Central Islip Hoboes who have eight wins to their credit since the competition’s inception in 1961 and the Flying Dutchmen are now closing in on a win ratio of once every three years.
As in past years, the battle at the close of the day was for second place honors which ultimately went to Hempstead while the Copiague Yellowbirds finished up in third with 15½ points. The North Lindenhurst Piston Knockers were two points behind Copiague for a fourth place finish overall and the Hoboes of Central Islip rounded out the top five with thirteen points at the end of the day.

Team Captain Gary A. Schaum proudly pointed out that West Sayville, in essence, had the tournament wrapped up one event past the halfway point having accumulated eighteen of their ultimate thirty-two points at that juncture. Of course, the team went on to compete in the remaining three contests, winning two of the three for the balance of their total points for the day.

The Flying Dutchmen earned their points with first place finishes in B Ladder (5.10 seconds), C Ladder (8.88 seconds), Motor Pump (5.94 seconds) and Buckets (21.84 seconds) and runner-up efforts in Three Man Ladder (6.47 seconds), C Hose (12.81 seconds) and B Hose (8.15 seconds).
On Saturday, June 25, the West Sayville Flying Dutchmen will be traveling to Brookhaven Town Firemen's Park in Ridge N.Y. to compete in the Selden Fire Department’s annual motorized drill.  More than twenty fire departments are signed up to participate in the daylong tournament that is scheduled to kickoff at 3:00 p.m.

The 2011 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, Ryan Huguenin, Chad Leigh-Manuell, Michael Marra, Robert Marra, Frank R. Miller, Jr., Allen Newhouse, Robert Noonan, Richard Quenzer, Joseph Quenzer, Douglas Quenzer, Daniel Tenney and Timothy Tenney.