Cherry Bowl 2024: Coppettes Hold Their Title
By Shoshanna McCollum • Photos by Robert Levine
Now 40 years strong, the Cherry Bowl is a beloved, perhaps under-documented, Fire Island tradition. This year, the Annual Cherry Bowl took place on August 7, with the best volleyball players among the residents (the Grovettes) playing coed volleyball with Suffolk County’s best in blue—the Suffolk County Police Department—and their team is the Coppetts.
There is much pomp and circumstance as the players and the Emerald Society Pipe and Drums Marching Band step off the boat as the band plays tunes, adding drama to the moment. Not to be outdone, the Grovettes offers entertainment Fire Island-style with drag singers and stunning cheerleaders.
It’s a day of great fun, but the games are all business. Three matches are played to calculate the final score. The Coppettes won back their title last summer and held it strong in 2024 by a 20% margin of 25 to 20. But everyone is a winner in this game by the sheer act of getting together to play it.
