_______ Lynbrook/east rockaway ______
HERALD
Join us
for Yoga
Improve Flexibility,
SEPTEMBER 12 - 18, 2024
$1.00
ce Well-being
New Students $39
Hitching up the wooden horses Page 10
Reduce Stress, Enhan
2 weeks Unlimited Cl
asses!
All Levels Welcome
32 Church Street, Ma lverne www.peacefulyoga.ne t
. Classes Daily
1262721
Also serving Bay Park
VOL. 31 NO. 38
Peaceful Yoga
(516)992-6311
Ex-Marine tries boxing, and counseling By NICOLE WAGNER nwagner@liherald.com
Photos courtesy East Rockaway and Lynbrook school districts
danielle Lazzaro kissed her son, Luca Leone, goodbye as Centre avenue principal Calia Kelly welcomed east Rockaway families of kindergartners on Sept. 3.
Welcome to school! Students starting their first day at the Lynbrook Kindergarten Center appeared excited about their new adventure — especially Gloria Belmonte, right, on Sept. 5, More photos, Page 3.
Lynbrook resident Peter Latorre has always taken on new challenges, as a boxer and an aspiring mental health counselor for veterans after serving in the Marine Corps. L at o r re, 2 6 , a n E l m o n t native who graduated from Sewanhaka High School in 2015, was a Marine from that year to 2019, and was honorably discharged from Camp Lejeune, in North Carolina, where he was a corporal. He earned an associate’s degree in liberal arts from Nassau Community College in 2021 and a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Hofstra University this year. When Latorre was stationed in Japan during his last deployment, his fellow service members knew where they could find him — hitting the heavy bag in the mixed martial arts room. When he returned home in 2020, he found a boxing home for himself at the Westbury Boxing Club, with his coach, Joe Gadgian. On Aug. 6, at the Texas Troubadour Theatre in Nashville, Tennessee, Latorre won his first official bout, over fellow welterweight Dustin Garret, who was also making his
Peter ‘Voodoo’ Latorre ■ Division: Welterweight ■ Age: 26 ■ Height: 5’10” ■ Stance: Orthodox ■ Debut: 8/6/2024 ■ Bouts: 1 ■ Rounds: 1 ■ KOs: 1 ■ U.S. Rating: #323/276 ■ World Rating: #1,839/2,313 — Nicole Wagner boxing debut, with a firstround knockout. But the experience has been a humbling one for Latorre so far. “Being in a sport where it’s very individually demanding, it really tests your character and it tests your discipline, because no one else is fighting your fights for you,” he said. “It’s you versus you. I mean, o bv i o u s ly yo u ’ re f i g h t i n g someone else, but it’s really Continued on page 20