Long Island couples find love through recreational sports leagues
Isabel Sussman and Kevin Stross on the boardwalk at Long Beach. Credit: Newsday/J. Conrad Williams Jr.
They’re going from dodgeball to "I do."
Chris Brand proposed to Alexa Warnock on July 1, dropping to one knee at a vineyard as the 30-year-old court officer presented a ring to the beaming 28-year-old massage therapist.
The proposal was a far cry from their first encounter — facing off in a dodgeball game.
"He kept trying to get me out," Warnock says. "He got my attention. I was like, ‘Who is this guy?’ Eventually he asked me out, and we’ve been pretty much inseparable since."
Turns out, playing together can lead to staying together. Recreational sports leagues like LI-Kick, East End Volleyball and Huntington Bicycle Club have become an old-school alternative to dating apps — offering organic, low-pressure ways to meet. No swipes or bios, just real-time chemistry.
Alexa Warnock and Chris Brand went from opposing dodgeball teams to the same LI-Kick team on and off the court. They got engaged in July. Credit: LI-Kick
Brand and Warnock, who live in Ronkonkoma, see parallels between love and league life. "You need your team to back you up in both," he says.
They’re one of many Long Island couples who found connection not through profiles and algorithms, but through play, laughter and teamwork.
Cupid wore sneakers
Julianne Lovece and Jonathon Greene met through kickball. Credit: Julianne Lovece
Julianne Lovece, 28, an applied behavior analysis therapist from Sayville, and her fiance, Jonathon Greene, 33, a mechanical engineer from Patchogue, met during an LI-Kick kickball game in May 2021.
"It was the tail end of COVID," Greene says. "A whole team of strangers."
And plenty of chemistry, to boot.
Postgame chats turned into running dates — "We’re both pretty athletic," says Lovece — and later, into a relationship and homeownership in Yaphank.
Greene proposed during a Catskills hike. Their wedding is set for Feb. 14. "Kickball was such a great alternative to dating apps," Lovece says. "You loosen up and show who you really are."
Art, IT and a kickball connection
Jennifer and Isaiah Colon married in January. Credit: Jennifer Colon
LI-Kick founder Sal Farruggia says the league has sparked 21 engagements — including his own. He tied the knot earlier this year.
The same goes for Jennifer Colon, a 30-year-old art teacher, and her husband, Isaiah, a 36-year-old IT specialist. They first met at volleyball but say three years of kickball really sealed their connection in September 2020.
"On the kickball field, he’s focused — not just on winning but on having fun," Jennifer says. "That’s how he is in life, too."
They married in January and honeymooned on a Mediterranean cruise in July. That meant missing kickball games back home. He says they plan to "kick-start everything" on the field when they return.
Love in tandem
Tony Barone and Ursula Middel met 18 years ago on a trip with Huntington Bicycle Club. Credit: John Siedlecki
Tony Barone, 92, and Ursula Middel, 87, of Sayville, met 18 years ago on a Huntington Bicycle Club trip to Pennsylvania.
"We just happened to sit across from each other at dinner," Barone says.
Their relationship gradually clicked into gear through shared bike rides, hikes, kayaking, and ski trips to Vermont, where Middel has a home.
"Tony’s determined, persistent, enduring," she says, adding that they’re valuable traits in life and in biking.
"Ursula’s abilities exceed mine," Barone adds. "She is very motivating. She can get anybody to move at any time. I’m one of those people."
Spiked with serendipity
Kevin Stross, 35, and Isabel Sussman, 28, met two years ago playing for opposing teams in East End Volleyball.
"Toward the end of the game, he asked for my number," says Sussman, a teacher’s aide. "Then he invited me to play in a doubles tournament."
Their first date followed, and slowly but surely by August, they were a couple. Now they live together in an apartment on the Long Beach boardwalk, steps from the courts.
"The beach has always been special to us," says Stross, who runs Binding Systems of America, a printing business in Islandia. "And volleyball too — I played in college, Isabel in high school."
"Whenever anybody asks how we met," he added, "I’m proud to say that we just met serendipitously on the beach."
Teammates for life
Jessica Daniels, 35, head of wellness at a Water Mill spa and retreat, and her fiance, TJ Fallon, 34, a service pool manager, credit East End Volleyball for bringing them together three years ago.
They grew up in East Moriches with mutual friends but "didn’t hang out," she says — until beach volleyball put them on the same sandy playing field.
Three months later, they were dating. A year after that, they welcomed their son, Odin. Now they’re planning an August wedding.
Fallon loves how their lives fell into place and how Daniels enthusiastically digs in — whether it’s volleyball, life, work or being a mom.
"She dives in headfirst," he says. "She’s not scared to go for things."
