LoPierre Leads Forest Hills to Handball Title

   By Michael Graber
PSAL Staff Reporter

  Trailing 19-18 in the clinching match of the PSAL Boys Handball championship, Victor LoPierre of Forest Hills called timeout, drank some bottled water and collected his thoughts.

Upon returning to the court LoPierre ran off three straight points to pull out the match and lift Forest Hills to its first PSAL title with a 3-2 win over upset-minded John Bowne at the World’s Fair Playground in Queens.

“I didn’t want to lose focus,” said LoPierre. “I told myself it’s a three point game and I have to take the lead to put pressure on my opponent. I knew I had to finish it.”

LoPierre had already beaten his opponent, Mehdi Majumder, three times this season, but this was their tightest match. Just a week earlier LoPierre won rather easily, 21-7, to win the Queens individual title. This match would be different.

With the championship match tied at two, the much anticipated game at No. 1 singles would decide the city champion.

Majumder opened a 4-1 lead and stayed in front making every shot early on. He sent LoPierre all over the court and kept him at bay with an aggressive style of play.

Despite trailing for much of the match, LoPierre still seemed to hold an advantage over his opponent, having beaten him each time they played.

“Normally when you play down against someone you’ve beaten you know you can come back,” said LoPierre. “I felt like he could break down.”

Majumder held his last lead at 19-18 and couldn’t find a way to finish off LoPierre.

“I don’t like losing,” said Majumder. “I hate losing.”

LoPierre knows he narrowly escaped defeat against Majumder, an opponent he admires.

“He has a lot of heart,” said LoPierre. “He is someone I definitely respect.”

LoPierre, the United States Handball Association 16-and-under singles champion, will continue playing next fall at Lake Forest College in Illinois. The Lake Forest program has won 11 USHA National Collegiate men’s handball titles.

Even LoPierre’s veteran coach, Ira Wolin, sweated out the championship clinching match.

“I was a little nervous when Victor fell behind,” said Wolin who has coached seven different sports over 20 years but never won a city championship. “He usually doesn’t have to play from behind. Champions rise to the occasion and Victor is a champion.”

John Bowne, which finished second to Forest Hills in the Queens II division during the regular season, had a remarkable run through the playoffs as the 11th seed. The Wildcats beat higher seeds Brooklyn Tech (6), Bronx Science (3) and Stuyvesant (7) on their way to the championship match.

“It would have been nice to win,” said John Bowne coach Dennis Ehrlich. “I knew we were the underdogs. I hope my kids enjoyed it. To lose by two points in the final game is no disgrace.”

Ehrlich also knows that without Majumder, who was academically ineligible the past two seasons, the Wildcats could not have played for a city championship.

“Mehdi played his heart out,” added Ehrlich. “He is directly responsible for us getting this far.”