Roslyn boys tennis team honors fallen teammates in wake of tragedy
Roslyn Middle School students Drew Hassenbein, 14, left, and Ethan Falkowitz, 14, were killed in the Jericho crash Thursday. Credit: Tyler Hill Camp/Andy Siegel
In the wake of an incomprehensible tragedy, the Roslyn boys tennis team demonstrated an enduring resilience of spirit by returning to its home courts on Thursday to resume its season.
The defending Nassau County large school champion Bulldogs hosted Hewlett one week and one day after its hardest day, when teammates Ethan Falkowitz and Drew Hassenbein were killed in a horrific traffic accident with an alleged drunk driver.
“We feel off balance and wrong,” Roslyn coach KerriAnn Jannotte-Hinkley said in pre-match remarks to the teams and large gathering of students, parents and community members. “We feel as though a tornado has come and moved us from our foundations. We are left to pick up the pieces and try to go on — not without them, but for them.”
All gathered, including players on the adjacent lacrosse field who stopped their game to listen, observed 60 seconds of silence to honor the memories of Falkowitz and Hassenbein after her remarks concluded.
Last Wednesday afternoon Roslyn defeated Syosset for its most impressive win of the season. That night four players were in a vehicle en route home when it was struck by a pickup truck driving south in the northbound lanes of North Broadway in Jericho. Falkowitz and Hassenbein, both 14, were killed and the other two players were hospitalized with internal injuries.
Hung on the fences that surround the Roslyn courts were signs and blue and white ribbons, the Bulldogs’ colors. Two signs bore Falkowitz’s and Hassenbein’s first names. Another read “Roslyn tennis loves Ethan and Drew.” Many in attendance donned T-shirts emblazoned with the initials “DH” and “EF” and with the phrases “Legends Live Forever” and “Forever in Our Hearts.”
Jannotte-Hinkley explained that the Bulldogs use a lot of nicknames and that to them Hassenbein was “Hass” or “Hollywood” and Falkowitz was “Falk” or “Falcon.”
“I wish I could provide an explanation for what happened, but I cannot because there simply isn’t one,” she said.
Before the match commenced, the Bulldogs huddled in a group hug between Court 1 and Court 2. Then they took their positions for the match with Hewlett, which they won, 4-3, to improve to 9-2 on the season.
“Today is a hard day and we have many more hard days to come, many new firsts,” Jannotte-Hinkley said in her remarks. “The first practice, our first match, our first ‘break it down’ \[session\]. We will struggle. We will stumble. But we will do it the way we do everything — as a family.”
“All teams form a bond, some temporary and some strong and forever,” she continued. “But the words of Sydney Hassenbein [Drew’s sister], ‘This team is something else.’ I agree. And Drew and Ethan will always be part of this family, as will their families, who we will love and care for always.”
Roger Rubin returned to Newsday in 2018 to write about high schools, colleges and baseball following 20 years at the Daily News. A Baseball Hall of Fame voter since 2011, he has covered 13 MLB postseasons and 14 NCAA Final Fours.
