Wednesday, April 2, I ran into Unadilla Valley head varsity baseball coach Matt Osborne around 6 p.m., who, like me, was eating dinner with his family at the Pizza Hut in Norwich. That statement alone should tell you something.
Osborne, again like me, was enjoying a relaxing evening with his family. Normally, I would be moving dinner along quickly with the purpose of reaching The Evening Sun office to take incoming calls from coaches. Or, I would be returning from an out-of-town game. Osborne, as well, would typically be finishing up a baseball game or finishing up an after-school practice. Why were the two of us so blithely going about our business? Cancellations and more cancellations.
Osborne had games on Monday (at Harpursville), and Tuesday (at Bainbridge-Guilford) slated, and both were postponed. Regardless if either or both games were played on UV’s home diamond, postponement was inevitable. On this April 2nd day, a day available to make up the postponements, field conditions remained across the majority of the area, unplayable.
Not having an exact count handy, I will conservatively estimate the area-wide baseball and softball cancellations due to poor weather at around a dozen and a half. These are all games that will eventually need to be played, and according to empirical evidence and my 13-year track record covering sports, the games left outstanding on each respective team’s docket will appear on open dates in the schedule. As cancellations pile up – and they will most assuredly accrue voluminously – the open dates become fewer and fewer, and legitimate practice sessions will linger as a long-ago memory from the early weeks of March.
My point here: Scheduling baseball and softball games in Central New York this time of year is wishful thinking at best, and unrealistic. I have pushed the idea yearly to move the start of the season back 10 days to two weeks. Cancellations are still inevitable due the fickle nature of spring weather, but the imminent postponements due to cold weather and horrid field conditions may be avoided.
I also like the idea of playing twinbills on Saturday, or at the least playing the make-up contests on the first day of the weekend. Why not? Be it a home game, a road game or a rescheduled game, regular Saturday contests will cover around one-third the entire schedule. Of course, Saturday is not exempt from rain-outs as well.
The end result of the current state of local scheduling is a stack of bunched games over a two- or three-week period. I have written up half a team’s schedule over a seven-week season in 10 days – nine games in 10 days!
Remember, we are not talking about Major League pitching staffs that carry 10 or 11 world-class arms. In most cases, these local clubs have one or maybe two quality arms, and perhaps a couple other guys that can give a couple quality innings. It is watered-down baseball where scores in the double digits become commonplace.
I’m all for offense, but Abner Doubleday did not intend baseball games to end in 22-19 counts with double-digit base on balls and double-digit errors.
To paraphrase a Ben Franklin quote: “Insanity is repeating the same behavior and expecting a different result.” It is time the brain trusts of high school sports look at the inequities in the scheduling and find a better way.

So I slipped out of New York for a week earlier this month, a stealthy exit perhaps unbeknownst to local readers.
Let’s just say that local sports are on the down low from the midpoint of March until early-April. It is an ideal time of year to take a breather from the longest of our three high school sports seasons, and I decided to vacation in Florida and visit my best friend in the world, Aidamarie Rull. Aida and I spoke on the phone frequently discussing a to-do list for my seven-day stay. Hearing about her routine, my interest immediately piqued when she mentioned her ping pong games three times a week at the local YMCA in Navarre. Aida grew up playing the game frequently with her family, but had not played regularly in years. She made the acquaintance of two retired gentlemen, John Lawlor and Grant Urquhart (sounds like “Erk-hart.”), who had their own high-level table stored at the YMCA’s facility. Aida befriended John and Grant, and she was soon joining them along with others in round-robin type matchups. She recounted her daily experiences of table tennis, and I admitted to some envy. I, too, grew up playing ping pong recreationally, but had played sparsely since my college days almost 18 years ago. (Note my flip-flopping use of ping pong and table tennis depending on who I am talking about. My pointed usage will be explained later).
We resolved to make ping pong a part of our morning regimen after working out in the YMCA’s fitness area. Sidenote: Aida is a certified personal trainer and children’s fitness specialist, and she trains and teaches classes at the YMCA.
I was so hyped up to play ping pong, two days before I took my flight out of Syracuse, I resolved to buy the absolute “best” paddle Wal-Mart had to offer. After dispensing a tad over $6 after tax, I was ready to take on all comers.
Early in my stay, Aida and I purchased some ping pong balls so we could play on the weekend before I actually met John and Grant for their thrice-weekly games on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. It was a nice tuneup for the both of us, and a heck of a lot of fun. Doing some research for this blog, I learned that table tennis is one of the world’s most popular games. Considering how I have never met anyone who didn’t enjoy the game upon trying it, I should have assumed that in the first place.
Monday, I was introduced to John and Grant, and therein, the differences between ping pong and table tennis were laid before me. The YMCA’s dynamic table tennis duo usually do a warmup in the YMCA fitness room before embarking on their ball striking fun. Within their duffle bag contains multiple paddles protected with their own form-fitted cover, a buffing and cleaning instrument to wipe the surface of their paddles clean, and multiple balls that are of tournament-level caliber. These two gentlemen come to play table tennis with paddles that cost possibly 10 times what I paid at Wal-Mart. In comparison, I am a hack who has never invested a penny in the game, and the Wal-Mart paddle is the first piece of table tennis equipment I ever purchased.
Summary: Table tennis is not just the formal name for the game, it also describes – in my opinion – the caliber of player. I, Patrick Newell, play ping pong – an informal name for the sport adopted some time ago, and an accurate allocation for informal/novice players.
I learned some nuances of the game during the week (keep your serves low or they will be smacked back at you down your throat was lesson numero uno) I also picked up on rules changes that were implemented a few years ago to increase fan interest among world-class players.
For instance: Games are now played to 11 instead of 21. Two serves are awarded for each player and rotated until someone reaches 11 points. Players must win by two points — the same as the old rules — and in the event of a tie, 10-10, each player alternates one serve at a time until a person wins by two points. The second more glaring rules change is that a player can no longer serve out of his hand, thereby hiding the ball until striking the ball. A ball toss of at least six inches is required before serving. I would imagine that rules change would presently affect a large number of novice players.
A playing buddy of Grant, John, and Aida, whom I met during the week, Kenny, is just a big ol’ cheater. (Just kidding Kenny). He whistles serves at break-neck speed utilizing the hidden-ball-in-hand technique. Kenny, a retired EMT and firefighter, is another great guy I met, and I thank all of the gentlemen — and Aida of course — who reinvigorated my interest in a game I loved for years.

Otselic Valley has one of the best kept secrets in head varsity boys’ basketball coach Dave Loomis. He’s self-effacing to the point where the Amish would admire his modesty. Completely deferential to his players’ efforts, Loomis was justly – and duly – noted for his coaching exploits last month. Section III named Loomis its 2007-2008 Class D-2 Coach of Year. Admittedly, I had no idea he won this award, as Loomis certainly was not going to tell me. Fortunately, an Otselic Valley fan and patron informed by telephone of Loomis’ honor, and I pledged to follow up.
For 21 seasons, Loomis has piloted a successful Vikings club. In my tenure, his team has made two Section III finals, and this past season, a 20-2 mark overall, was one of the school’s best-ever seasons. Often, coaches get too much credit for winning or too much of the blame for losing. In Dave’s case, he’d prefer to fade into the shadows and remain unnoticed.
I congratulated Dave on his award in a recent conversation, and his response: “It’s (the award) more the result of the program and what it has done in previous years,” he said. “If a coach wins the award, it is usually due to the success of the team.”
“Talent wins games” is a bit of a misstatement, in my estimation. If all other things are equal, superior talent does usually win games. Yet, unharnessed talent or skills that are not properly realized can lead to unfulfilled expectations. Working with Dave for 13 seasons and having bore witness to his coaching, he knows how to properly utilize talent. His teams play the game the right way: Plenty of hustle, oodles of hard work, in-your-face defense, working for the best shot in offensive sets, and playing unselfishly and together.
In case you haven’t met Dave, he is not a physically imposing gentleman. He is often times the smallest man on the basketball floor, but he commands the respect of his players, and from the recent vote of Section III coaches, has earned the respect of his peers. Congratulations again Mr. Loomis.

As he saw it, Bob Conway dropped the ball Friday night in B-G’s final MAC league game of the season. Conway called himself (insert expletive) afterward, and some others closely associated with Conway may have shared a similar opinion.
In the late stages of a tightly contested, intense basketball game with Oxford last Friday, Conway ’s niece, Dani Conway, moved past the 1,000-point mark for her career. Coach Conway was aware at the start that she needed 20 points to reach the milestone, but did not have his usual scorer on hand at the head table to start the contest, and most of all, he was making every effort to win his “team” a basketball game.
Conway beat himself up for not recognizing Dani’s significant individual accomplishment, but let’s not forget, basketball is the perfect example of a team sport in which all of the cogs need to work cohesively to achieve success. Conway said his team was playing awful at the start, and in the midst of trying to win a game – and finish a perfect division record – Dani’s 1,000th point was not in the forefront of his mind.
Conway reached her milestone at a point where the outcome was still in doubt. It wasn’t until the final minute that B-G salted the game away, at which point Dani had already fouled out and was no longer on the floor.
Immediately following the game, Conway recognized his oversight, and felt terrible. But let’s be fair here. There is a time and place to stop a basketball game and go through a brief ceremony recognizing an individual player’s record or accomplishment. This was not an appropriate time. As we noted above, it was an extremely competitive game between two longtime rivals. Oxford was trying to add the one and only blemish to a perfect team’s league record, so to stop the flow and momentum of a close game would be totally unfair to the Blackhawks club.
Had this happened in the first half or in a blowout situation later in the game, by all means, go ahead and stop the game. To take umbrage with a coach thinking about winning a game first before an individual’s personal accomplishment is selfish thinking. To reiterate a familar adage: “No player is above the team.”
There is a time and a place for that type of recognition. In hindsight, Coach Conway could have notified the crowd in a post-game speech about Dani’s scoring mark, however, that is Monday morning quarterbacking on my part, and in the moment, we do not always think quickly on our feet.
Yes, Dani should get her due recognition, and she will before the Bobcats’ next home game. Dani is a terrific player who will add significantly to her points total over the remainder of this season, and next season. To those familiar with the B-G basketball program, in their opinion, Coach Conway made an egregious mistake. I, on the other hand, am willing to cut him some slack. In nearly 25 years of coaching, Conway has rarely missed on anything relating to his team, and his 385 career wins have earned him some extra rope.

Chris Mattingly has my respect as one of the more solid, unsung, and definitely underrated running backs in Norwich history. Mattingly joined a select few Norwich backs to race past 2,000 career rushing yards last week against Windsor, and he nudged past the 1,000-yard mark against Ithaca in a 42-12 season-ending win for the Tornado last Friday. He wound up with just over 2,360 career rushing yards – not a shabby total and easily a top-five mark in Norwich history. Still, how will history remember Mattingly? It is quite possible he won’t be mentioned in a discussion of all-time great backs in Norwich history. He isn’t the fastest, strongest or most elusive runner Norwich has had – in fact, he may not be the strongest, fastest or most elusive runner on his own team this year. But he has that special something that you cannot put a finger on. “He just has that knack,” said Tim Mattingly, head football coach of Bainbridge-Guilford, who is also Mattingly’s uncle. “He twists and spins, falls forward…and he runs with a physical style.” When I think of Chris Mattingly, I notice how he gets the most out of each run. If there is just a yard to be gained, he’ll get two; two yards available, he’ll get three. The other glaring statistic that I noticed is Mattingly’s success running the ball the past three years coincided almost perfectly with Norwich’s game success. When he ran the ball effectively, the Tornado were usually winning games or at the least in the hunt. When Mattingly was shut down, typically the entire Norwich rushing offense stumbled. Ten other guys were on the field supporting his running efforts, but as a rule, as Mattingly went, so went the Tornado. Next month I will unveil my 2007 football all-stars, and I’m letting the cat out of the bag here: Mattingly will be on that team.

It was a little over 10 years ago I was writing about another Greene coach reaching a milestone for field hockey victories. Nancy Bromley, the reserved, quiet leader who started the Trojans’ storied program almost 35 years ago, won her 300th career game. Revered and respected by everyone in the Central New York region, Bromley was awarded the ultimate accolade in Section IV sports when she was inducted into the Hall of Fame. Perhaps in another 10 years (or less), a disciple of Bromley will join her on that select Hall list. Sue Carlin, who is in her eighth season coaching Greene, joined an exclusive club of 300-game winners when the Trojans blanked Cortland 5-0 on Monday. Earlier this year, Marathon’s Karen Funk won her 300th game, and while I can’t give a precise number of wins Jan Conover of Afton is likely in the 300-win club as well. That makes just four coaches in the history of Section IV field hockey in rarefied territory. Funny thing, Carlin had no idea where she stood with career wins, although she did admit to a moment of reflection when Funk reached 300 wins. “I wondered how many wins I had,” Carlin said, who in typical fashion deferred attention away from herself an on her kids after Monday’s monumental victory. Carlin’s win total isn’t simply a product of longevity – as she joked on Monday – but a testament to consistently fielding winning programs. The former Greene player under Bromley in the early years of Section IV field hockey, Carlin directed Maine-Endwell for 14 seasons leading the Spartans to a pair of state titles. She came on board at Greene succeeding Nancy Barrows, and won a state title in 2003. She has had Greene in the section finals almost every season, and continues to remain as humble a coach as you will find. And at 50 years old, she is still going strong as the Trojans are again among the top teams in Section IV. Reaching 400 wins may seem implausible, but don’t count Carlin out – and don’t expect her to count the wins for you either!

I get this question quite a bit every year, “Do you think Norwich has a chance against Forks?” Well heck yeah, Norwich always has a chance to beat the Blue Devils, and so does every other team that faces the six-time reigning Section IV champions. Many problems arise when constructing a game plan to defeat Chenango Forks, and one of the biggest elements of that game plan has to be on the mental side. For two or three of the years in their reign atop Section IV, Class B football, Chenango Forks was absolutely the most talented group of players. Excellent coaching and game preparation put the Blue Devils in a position to win – and win convincingly – every time they set foot on the field. For at least two or three of the past seasons however, that talent gap has substantially closed, and it is a fair assessment that Chenango Valley and perhaps Windsor matched up equitably to Forks. Norwich, too, has not strayed for behind in the talent department for much of this decade. The rub here, not unlike a losing team that needs to learn how to win games, is that Section IV teams need to learn how to beat Chenango Forks. The past six years, Corning East is the only Section IV team to defeat the Blue Devils. In a tight situation where the game is on the line, Chenango Forks is either the most charmed team around or proactive purveyors of an inevitable result: winning games. I tend to lean toward the latter. Last week, Chenango Valley was in position to defeat its local rival for the first time in 13 years. In the final quarter, Forks’ defense halted a Valley TD drive that would have likely put the game out of reach. Then it proceeded on a winning TD march culminated by a leaping catch between two defenders. That final touchdown seemed like a guiding hand from heaven was reaching down and impacting a result to favor a chosen team. In reality, it was a ball club that knows how to execute under pressure and has already learned to win. Coaches around here have told me many times: Chenango Forks steps on to the field “expecting” to win every time. So again, yes, Norwich does indeed have a chance to beat Chenango Forks, but does it “expect” to beat the Blue Devils?

Once upon a time, Unadilla Valley had a pretty good girls’ soccer team. Memories of those strong teams seem so far off in the past, but it was just four years ago when the Storm were contending for division and league championships in the Midstate Athletic Conference with all-league players Walbrecht, Lorence, and Baio leading the team to prominence. Then there was the inevitable talent dearth that hits every team at some point followed by precious few wins. Unadilla Valley girls soccer, once a regular top contender was off my radar screen. The drop off of the girls’ program coincided with the ascendance of the boys’ program. The two programs flip-flopped in a manner of speaking. Now, in the midst of a seven-game unbeaten streak that included a New York Pizzeria Tournament title, UV’s girls are in the hunt for a league championship. Talking with head coach Chris Bieniek during the preseason and early-season games, I did not get an indication that big things were expected of the Storm this year. Truthfully, I’m sure Bieniek expected her squad to be at this level either. “I’m sure a lot of people are surprised,” Bieniek said in a recent interview. “It’s a been a while… .” Yes, it has been too long. Welcome back Unadilla Valley, you’re not only back on my radar, you’re front and center in the crosshairs.

Maybe the best learning tool a coach can impart on his players is to finish the game and play to the final whistle. Yogi Berra coined the malaprop phrase, “it ain’t over ‘til it’s over” a long time ago, and that statement was never more true for Sherburne-Earlville, Unadilla Valley-Edmeston, and Greene last Friday and Saturday. I had the fortune of watching two of those three teams play last weekend. The Marauders, amid the festive fervor of homecoming, edged A-P-W by a point. UV-Edmeston, also came away with a one-point win, and lastly, the Trojans spoiled the re-opening of Norwich’s revamped and state-of-the-art field. Again, that was a one-point victory. In each case, the victor was not the dominant team. In fact, if you weren’t looking at the scoreboard, you would surely assume the opposing team was winning the game. And not just winning, but handily controlling play. The aforementioned contests proved to me that total yardage is one of the most deceiving statistics. So is time of possession, rushing yards, passing yards, and almost every statistic except the one that matters most: The actual score. For four quarters, I watched Sherburne-Earlville do virtually nothing on offense – except when opportunity knocked. The Marauders seemed in position to scoop up every loose ball or grap an errant pass. They were pushed around all over the field, but made just enough key plays to keep themselves in the ball game. This was the type of game S-E has lost year in and year out. The breaks in close games rarely went its way, but on that day – perhaps the start of a new trend – the chips finally landed on the Marauders’ side. I didn’t see the Storm’s win over Spencer-Van Etten, and their second-year coach, Jack Loeffler, said his team is not looking at the statistics. Frankly, there wasn’t much to look at with just 90 total yards. But within those 90 yards was one opportune moment where the Storm’s defense recovered a fumble deep in Panthers’ territory, and then strung together three quality plays to score their only points. UV-E’s defense has spent a lot of time on the field this season, and considering the number of yards given up to the number of plays run by the opponent’s offense, it’s pretty darn good. The Storm allowed one fourth-quarter touchdown, but quelled and quieted just about every other S-VE advance to win its first game of the season. And then there was Norwich versus Greene. it was the type of game you enjoy watching, regardless of your allegiances. For one half, neither team assumed control, but from the third quarter to the exciting finish, it was all Norwich. The Tornado drove the ball up and down the field, but had just one touchdown to show for all that effort. Greene, meanwhile, didn’t drive the ball at all. One big kickoff return by Jake Wentlent and one TD pass from Nate Whittaker to Justin Van Wert – on the next play after the return – was about all the Greene offense mustered through 24 minutes of play. But that touchdown was just enough, thanks to a successful two-point try. The momentum, the electric home crowd, and a long winning tradition backed the Tornado on their late march toward a winning score. But the Trojans, an undersized Class C school just starting to make a name for itself, made the ultimate stop of the game halting a winning score one-yard short. It was the first contest between the two schools, and hopefully the first of many more. It’s games like these that further my love of high school football, and for all of the statistics-loving people out there (myself included), the only one that really matters is the final score.

We must take into consideration the level of competition, but statistically speaking, no football team in Chenango County has allowed more yards than Norwich. At 293 yards per game, the Tornado are giving up 19 yards more per game than Sherburne-Earlville. So what is the secret to a 2-0 start for Norwich? How about the significant improvement of a running game that is chewing up large amounts of clock and total yards. The 325 yards per game average Norwich is chalking up through two games is far and away the best in the area. Last season Norwich averaged 208 yards rushing per game, and it had five games where it was under the 200-yard mark. Looking at Norwich’s offensive history in the John Pluta era, a telling statistic in the success or failure of the offense is not the running game, but actually the number of passes attempted. For instance, last year Norwich attempted 20 total passes in its four wins. In the five losses: Thirty-seven attempts. This season, through two victories, senior quarterback Nate Foote has just four total pass attempts. He is 3-for-4, by the way, for 70 yards and a touchdown. That is cold-hard efficiency in the passing game. One other fact worth noting: Senior running back Chris Mattingly is moving toward some elite company. He entered the season with 1,294 career rushing yards, and he’s off to the best start of his three-year varsity career with back-to-back 100-yard days. With 329 yards through two games, he is on pace to easily surpass 2,000 career rushing yards.