Rhinebeck's Bryce, David Aierstok relish success after basketball absence last year
RHINEBECK - Bryce Aierstok often yells at the television during sporting events, his emotions broached by the ebbs and flows of a game, resulting in outbursts of excitement or frustration. It’s common.
It was even more so a year ago, while watching live streams of the Rhinebeck High School boys basketball team.
“It’s to another level when I’m watching people I know,” he said, “because I’m way more passionate about it than watching professional sports.”
More than rooting for the team, the senior essentially was playing vicariously through his friends and his older cousin, Aiden Aierstok. The hours spent staring, and screaming, at his computer screen were as close to competition as he could get last winter.
“I missed it a lot, but it was tougher for him than me,” his father, David Aierstok, said. “It was difficult for me, watching the games, but I’ve still got a ways to go in my career. As a high school kid, though, he knows there’s a timer on this stage of his life.”
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From the frequency of phone calls and texts Colin Reichelt received from Bryce, he said, he could tell his best friend was “dying to be back here with us.”
But there were no regrets about David and Bryce’s decision to withdraw from the basketball season, leaving a rebuilding Rhinebeck squad without its head coach and a budding star player.
With an immunocompromised member of their household, the risk of participating in sports amid the pandemic was too great, the family agreed.
They hunkered down through most of 2020, limiting contact even with relatives and traveling only when necessary.
The state Department of Health had classified scholastic basketball as a “high-risk sport,” as it pertained to potential transmission of the coronavirus. So, when Section 9 began its season last February, the Aierstoks sacrificed once more.
“I would do anything for my family, and I knew it was the right choice,” Bryce said. “There was no second-guessing at all. But basketball is a passion in life, so not having it was still on my mind a lot.”
It’s why this season, and evenings like Friday, are now so cherished by that family.
Rhinebeck is among the area schools that are limiting attendance to sporting events this month amid the surge in positive COVID-19 cases, but Bryce’s mom and sister were there to celebrate the team’s senior night. And his dad was on the sidelines, shouting instructions, as Bryce scored 15 early points to keep the Hawks afloat during a poor start, before they eventually pulled away for a blowout of Onteora.
Their senior night ceremonies were held relatively early — about halfway through the team’s schedule — to ensure it would be done while the five seniors were healthy and could be present.
“It’s very rewarding,” said David Aierstok, who could only address the team via Zoom on its senior day last season. “Knowing how different things were a year ago, you’re even more appreciative of what we have now, and you truly love moments like this.”
Although, he joked, Rhinebeck winning six of its first eight games in any season would be a reason for joy.
The program had scuffled in recent years, enduring a long rebuild, but players said they always were buoyed by a belief that this season would be “the light at the end of the tunnel” with its talented core.
Bryce Aierstok, Reichelt and Richie Dentico are among the players enjoying breakout seasons, nudging Rhinebeck back into conversations of the better local teams, and having some believing a playoff run is feasible.
“I was away from not only basketball, but my friends and a lot of family,” Bryce said. “It absolutely means more to me now, feeling like we’re making up for lost time.”
A vaccine and a haircut
The Aierstoks took the COVID-19 vaccine in spring 2021 and that, they said, was a green light for their family’s return to normalcy.
Brooke Aierstok, as a sophomore, helped lead the softball team to the Class C sectional semifinal with her father as the coach.
Bryce had practiced on his own at home throughout the pandemic, shooting around and even studying game film as a hobby. The preparation intensified in the spring and continued through the fall, when he worked with LMC Athletics, a Dutchess County-based basketball training program headed by former NBA player Tyler Lydon.
“Back in 10th grade, I was purely a catch-and-shoot guy," said Bryce, a 6-foot-4 wing who is averaging 16.4 points and has become one of the county’s best perimeter shooters. "Now I can create my own shot off the dribble or drive to set up teammates.”
His progress is especially satisfying, David Aierstok said, because his son gave up his junior season then worked diligently to offset the missed time.
Despite sitting a chunk of the second half on Friday, as the score became lopsided against Onteora, Bryce scored 20 points, including five 3-pointers, and had 12 rebounds in the 66-36 win. Reichelt added 17 points and Dentico had eight points and 14 rebounds.
“It was an odd experience last year,” Reichelt said of playing shorthanded and without spectators. “Not having Coach here was weird because he brings that intensity to the court, even though it scares us sometimes. And not having Bryce, with that firepower, was a big loss.”
The Hawks did show signs of progress under interim coach Eric Thomas, going 4-3 in the shortened season. They’ve built on that.
Reichelt, a 5-foot-8 guard, said he deepened his arsenal of moves and has gotten more creative in the paint to help offset his height disadvantage inside. He also is an emotional leader, one whose “energy and attitude” the group feeds off, Bryce said.
He went on a personal 9-0 run in the final two minutes of the second quarter on Friday, as Rhinebeck took control.
“I think we’re coming into our own individually and as a team,” said Dentico, a 6-foot-4 junior. “Since we were kids, way before COVID, we always had a feeling this would be a good year and it would kind of be a turning point for the program.”
That trio is bolstered by a deep cast that includes Alex Kemnitzer, a defensive maven at guard, along with Sean Duke, Davin Greene, Jack Viator, Aidan Prezzano and Jalen McClennon.
With a hounding defense that pressures the back court and regularly forces turnovers, the Hawks are holding opponents to 43.6 points per game. They uncharacteristically gave up 18 to Onteora in the first quarter, but rebound to hold them scoreless in the second, quickly erasing a six-point deficit.
“I knew the group had potential because, right from the start, I noticed how much they like to compete in practice,” David Aierstok said. “As a coach you’re thinking, ‘If they actually want to go this hard in practice, I can’t wait until they’re in games.’ That was a great ‘welcome back.’ You can’t ask for more.”
Well, maybe not him. But Reichelt is asking for mullets.
The senior adopted the throwback hairstyle on a whim during the early months of the pandemic, figuring few people would see him, but he eventually fell in love with the ‘do and has kept it.
“I’m going to college at Coastal Carolina,” he said with a grin, “so I thought I’d get ready to fit in with a southern look.”
He’s taken some ribbing about it from teammates, but Bryce said he digs the look. Not so much for himself… unless Rhinebeck gets far in the playoffs.
The plan, he said, would be to grow his hair out and debut a mullet in the section final.
Dentico has long hair and could easily convert his style into a mullet. But, he said, “No way on that! If we get to the final, maybe. I’d consider it if we get to the final and Bryce keeps his word.”
So, after a year of putting family business to the forefront, Bryce now is hoping for a party in the back.
Stephen Haynes: shaynes@poughkeepsiejournal.com; 845-437-4826; Twitter: @StephenHaynes4
This article originally appeared on Poughkeepsie Journal: Family matters: Aierstoks lead Rhinebeck after sacrifices amid COVID
