Patrick Newell

* Two area quarterbacks with the most common surname in America – Smith – had uncommonly good days in our season-opening football games last weekend. Friday, Matt Smith of Sherburne-Earlville posted the best individual passing numbers we’ve seen from a Marauders quarterback in some time. Making his first varsity start under center, Smith completed 8 out of 11 pass attempts for 180 yards and four touchdown passes. Head coach Mike Jasper said Matt Smith made every throw you could ask for from a high school quarterback. He threw precise slants, out routes, crossing patterns, and even aired one out lofting a long TD pass to an in-stride Devven Ferris for the last of his four TD tosses. Four TD tosses by a Chenango County quarterback doesn’t happen that often, but twice in the same weekend? That’s precisely what Oxford senior signal-caller Jody Smith did against the vaunted Walton defense. Smith had two TD passes apiece to Andrew Golden and first-year varsity receiver Cameron Heggie. In all, Smith was 12-for-23 for 205 yards. Most importantly, Smith did not throw an interception, and is already well ahead of his pace from last year when he led Chenango County with 13 touchdown passes.

* Bainbridge-Guilford football coach, Tim Mattingly, really likes his group of players this year. Not just their ability and potential as a football team, but how this mature group of young men go about their business during practice and in games. “They’re just quiet, hard-working guys, and I don’t have to get after them at all,” Mattingly said. “”I haven’t had a group like this before. There is great leadership and they just push each other. There isn’t any rah rah type of stuff, they just know what they have to do, and they execute it.” If Mattingly does have an occasion to “get after” the team, he isn’t worried how they will react. “They’re the type of kids where you could ride them hard, and they will respond. They go 100 percent hard in whatever drills we are doing. It isn’t easy because there is a lot of game planning and work that goes into each week, but these guys believe in what we’re doing, and they have the potential to be a heck of a team.”

* The Fall Sports Preview appeared in Thursday’s edition in a special 10-page supplement to our regular newspaper. Due to space limitations this year, we weren’t able to place our usual number of headshots for football players as well as the other sports teams. Next year I’ll just have to ask for more sports pages, and that suits me just fine.

Follow Patrick Newell on Twitter @evesunpat

Patrick Newell

Long time between posts. I should be more prolific now that high school sports is kicking up.

* Congratulations to Greene junior soccer player Paige Wilcox, who broke the Greene girls’ soccer scoring record Tuesday afternoon. In the midst of a whopping six-goal game, Wilcox surpassed the 70 career goals of Amber Pratt. Wilcox has 72 for her career with all of this season still ahead. She may get to 100 this year, but I have heard talk among Greene residents that the girls’ soccer program is suffering from a dearth of actual players, and will need to keep the numbers up in order to continue to the program in ensuing years. It would be a shame to lose the program, especially for Wilcox and her teammates who won a league championship just two seasons ago.

* I may expand on this next topic at a later date. It is plainly obvious that some area schools are getting a woeful turnout for high school sports. Take Oxford, for instance. The team dropped field hockey this year, and I was told earlier this week that the varsity boys soccer team was scrapped due to low numbers. Both of those clubs have been around for a long time, and in the case of field hockey, it won multiple sectional titles over the past 25 years. According to my schedules, Oxford has just one varsity boys sport this fall – football. The football team has less than 30 players, and it draws from students primarily in 10th through 12th grade. According to enrollment numbers, Oxford averages between 60 and 65 students per grade level. Doing the math, there are around 30 to 35 boys per grade level in grades 10 through 12, and that equates to a pool of approximately 100 boys. For whatever reason, just over 25 percent of the available boys are actually participating in an extracurricular varsity sport when you dismiss the dozen or so kids who initially signed up for soccer. In a school the size of Oxford, participation in sports is fundamental in perpetuating a program. Not too long ago, I remember Oxford sustaining a varsity and junior varsity football team, while also easily fielding a varsity soccer team. At one point, there were varsity and junior varsity teams for football and boys’ soccer. Enrollment has slipped some, but how can a school that regularly produced four high school teams in two sports drop to just one high school team? I’d love to hear some thoughts.

Follow Patrick Newell on Twitter @evesunpat

Patrick Newell

I grew up loving the sport of boxing. Yes, there really was a time when meaningful fights were broadcasted on network television, and I was glued to my dad’s recliner the day or night of the big fights. I remember NBC with its afternoon fights and Marv Albert calling the action; Howard Cosell and Alex Wallau on ABC: and Tim Ryan along with Gil Clancy on CBS. All three networks made boxing an integral part of their sports programming. In the last 20 years, if you want to watch one of your boxing heroes, you need to shell out at least $40 for a pay-per-view. The marketing of mixed martial arts and its prevalent television presence has not helped boxing at all, and outrageously bad decisions like the one in Las Vegas Saturday night add another black mark. I eagerly awaited the Manny Pacquiao-Timothy Bradley matchup, and the fight didn’t start until after midnight on the East Coast. Pacquiao, a huge Boston Celtics fan, made a request for the fight to begin after the completion of the Heat-Celtics basketball game. Perhaps it was a bad omen for Pacquiao when his Celtics dropped the decisive game seven matchup.
Just to review quickly, Pacquiao is regarded among the best – if not the best – pound-for-pound boxers today. He was facing a young, hungry, and unbeaten Bradley, who was moving up a weight class to challenge for Pacquiao’s welterweight title. I watched every round with an attentive eye, and to my viewing, it was an easy decision to make. It was obvious to anyone watching that Pacquiao landed more punches, harder punches, and stalked a retreating Bradley throughout the fight. At no point did Bradley ride any substantial momentum, and at any point, one felt Pacquiao was one crisp combination away from ending the bout. Boxing punch statistics revealed that Pacquiao outlanded Bradley in 10 of 12 rounds, and by nearly 100 total punches. Some of those punches were set-up jabs, but the power shots landed also favored Pacquiao by a substantial margin.
What were two of the three judges looking at who gave Bradley seven out of 12 rounds? There are several criteria judges looking at when scoring a round: Aggression, ring generalship, and above all, clean punches landed lead that list. Pacquiao was the aggressor throughout the fight, he controlled the center of the ring, and as we mentioned, he landed the harder, more effective punches.
The second half of the fight, it was pointed out that Pacquiao coasted through the first 1 1/2 to two minutes of most rounds before flurrying hard over the last 60 to 90 seconds. During that time, Bradley would stick out a range-finding, pawing jab, his most utilized punch of the fight. It was a punch that rarely landed, and the final boxing statistics showed that Bradley landed less than 20 percent of his overall punches.
Watching the fight with Aida (my 100 percent Filipino partner), we stood up and stretched out after the final bell satisfied by another dominant performance by the pride of the Philippines. When the judges’ scores were read, we were both in shock. “How can this be? How can this happen?” Aida asked. I had no answer for her. I have seen some poor decisions over the years, but this was likely the worst since Roy Jones’ loss in the 1988 Olympic Games held in Seoul, Korea. Jones battered and beat up Korea’s own finalist for three blowout rounds, but was robbed of a decision.
Boxing already alienates its dwindling yet ardent supporters by forcing them to pay out big bucks to watch their favorite fighters. When those fighters (Pacquiao) are treated unjustly by the judging professionals, it casts further doubt on the future of the sport.
The only positive that came out of this robbery was Pacquiao’s classy acceptance of the loss and his graciousness toward Bradley. “Whatever we think of the result, we have to respect the decision,” Pacquiao said in his post-fight comments. “That’s boxing.”
That’s not the boxing I knew as a kid. Bradley comes away the winner and a new title strap to wear around his waist, but boxing is the real loser.

Patrick Newell

* Could the third time be the charm for the Greene Trojans? Saturday afternoon we’ll be at the BAGSAI Softball Complex, located near Broome Community College, to cover the Trojans’ bid for a Section IV Class C softball title. Two years ago, a flash rainstorm at the most inopportune time led to a Seton Catholic Central bottom-of-the-seventh victory in the title game. A year before that, Tioga masterfully outplayed Greene for the title. Seniors Rebecca Hanrahan, Caitlin Willis, and Natalie Greene have seen just about all of the highs and lows the past four seasons at Greene. The highs being the trifecta of league championship victories; the lows, the disappointing sectional playoff losses. More so than the previous three seasons, this year’s group of Greene players, coached by Rick Smith, are a mix of young and old, but it is the veteran leadership of the longtime seniors – and even second-year player Taylor Ellis, also a senior – who have guided Greene to the cusp of that elusive championship. “(To win), it would be picture perfect for those girls, and no one deserves it more,” Smith said. “They’ve been great leaders and they are great kids.”

* Norwich sophomore Matt Murray won a Section IV title for the Tornado track and field team winning the 400-meter dash Thursday. A number one seed in the 400- and 200-meter races, Murray won his semifinals race in the 200, but was clearly worn down from the heavy workload Thursday evening running to a sixth in the 200 finals. Still, Murray is heading to the state meet for the first time, and he will be joined by teammates Nate Ashton, Nuri Harper, and Jaime Zieno as part of the 3,200-meter relay. The record-breaking foursome met the state meet qualifying standard at last week’s Class B sectional meet, so they were moving on regardless of their performance at yesterday’s qualifier. By the way, the NHS relay team placed fifth in 8:09, a time that is still 17 seconds faster than the established school-record time at the beginning of the 2012 season. Norwich sophomore Brooke Bonney will also make an appearance at the state meet winning the Division II shot put title and placing second overall.

* B-G/Afton freshman Julia Knapp qualified for the state meet in three events. She was second overall in the 100-meter hurdles and long jump, and was third in the 400-meter hurdles, while placing first in Division II in all three events. B-GA’s Connor Fuller (steeplechase), and G-MU’s Eddie Ray Cotton (200-meter dash) and Christina Hawkins (discus) also qualified for the state meet.

*Ten years into its new home in Section III, Sherburne-Earlville’s baseball team played for its first Section III title Thursday evening. The Marauders, who became one of the best teams on the diamond in the Susquenango Association its final years in Section IV, have continued to produce consistent winning teams under the direction of head coach Brian Hicks. The Marauders finished their regular season with an 8-2 record in division play, and that included a pair of victories over state-ranked teams. After two successful outcomes in postseason play, S-E’s season came to close last night at Alliance Bank Stadium losing to Cazenovia. Congratualations to the Marauders on an outstanding season.

Follow Patrick Newell on Twitter @evesunpat

Patrick Newell

The sports world is still trying to make sense of the tragic passing of former NFL linebacker – and future Hall-of-Famer – Junior Seau. My significant other’s sister, Aida Ryder, lives in the San Diego area, and passed the Seau house several times a week with her morning jog on the beach. While not a friend or even an acquaintance of Seau, Ryder often shared “hellos” and “good mornings” with Junior Seau.
“ Junior Seau didn’t know my name, but I knew his. I saw him as a guy from my neighborhood,” Ryder said. “I pass his beach house on my regular morning run. Sometimes it’s around 7 a.m. and Junior might be pedaling his beach cruiser coming back with a coffee. Or he is on his deck or front porch with coffee and a paper. Sometimes he is with family or friends. He has no entourage, unless you count his smokey-colored pit bull. He is just out enjoying the quiet morning. Probably a far cry from the hustle and bustle of his professional life. We would pass with a smile and a wave, maybe even a “good morning.” It’s nice to think that he recognized me as a fixture in the morning routine.
“When the waves are right, I would spot him out on his surfboard. He was usually the one not wearing a wetsuit if the weather was warm. If anything, Junior Seau was not hard to miss! Even amongst a crowd of surfers, he was a powerful presence. A few times, I watched as he taught his son how to stand up on the board. Other times, he would be out sharing the waves and some laughs with fellow surfers.
“Once I was trying to adjust my mp3 player- while still running -and didn’t immediately notice that someone came running out of the sea with a longboard tucked under his arm. As my face nearly collided with the surfboard, I noticed that it was a beautiful wood inlayed pattern. We noticed each other at the same moment and laughed as we both fell down to avoid a collision. Still laughing, we sputtered apologies. As he pulled me up, he said, “You’re the smallest person to ever knock me over!” Then someone called out to him from his house and he said, “see you tomorrow.”
“ One day, passing the Seau house, I heard a ukele playing and someone singing with great joy. It was Junior relaxing, being happy – at the beach. That’s how I want to remember him.”

—

Speaking of loss, one of my NHS classmates, Doug Grzibowski, had his 27-year-old Section IV record broken earlier this week. Grzibowski set the sectional discus mark in 1985 with a throw over 172 feet. He made two appearances in the New York State meet as Section IV’s discus representative during his high school career, and he was the decathlon champion in Section IV his senior year. The decathlon was and is still not an official event in the New York State Track and Field Championships, but Section IV used to hold the two-day event for top area athletes. Grzibowski’s mark was broken by Ithaca’s Sam Cherney, who tossed the disc 174 feet, 1 inch. Grzibowski’s record was one of the oldest standing records in Section IV.
–––

Former Evening Sun sports editor Tom Rowe wrote a marvelous blow-by-blow account of the 1937 football team’s perfect season. We published part one of the story yesterday, and today’s sports section wraps up perhaps the most detailed account of that season ever produced by this publication. Only eight of the 44 team members still survive, yet many will be in attendance May 12 when the team is inducted into the Norwich High School Sports Hall of Fame. On a sad note, the number of surviving players was at nine up until early this week when Tom Mirabito passed away. Mirabito was a fixture at every function I ever attended that recognized the 1937 team. His complete obituary appears in today’s edition.

Follow Patrick Newell on Twitter @evesunpat

Patrick Newell

What has it been, six weeks since my last blog? In fairness, local sports were idle for the majority of March, and I spent much of my extra time composing our 17th Annual Race Day publication that ran this past Thursday, April 19. It was 16 pages, and the page count is largely dependent upon the number of driver profile submissions. We’ve had as many as 40 to 45, and with four per page, that equates to 10 or 11 full pages. It surprises me that the number of submissions has dropped to the mid 20s. This year we had 24, the lowest number I can remember. To have your profile published requires that you take the three or four minutes to fill out the form, include a picture, and either mail it to us or e-mail the information with a digital photo. To me, it’s a free advertisement for a driver, and it’s an opportunity to not only showcase a driver’s accomplishments, but also give proper credit to sponsors. Additionally, I sift through the profiles closely with the hope of finding a feature story opportunity. This year’s stories on Bret Belden and his wife Brenda were born of their consistent driver profile entries. It also helped that Bret has established himself as one of the most consistent and best pro stock drivers at Utica-Rome Speedway over the past 20 years.

This June 1-3, Unadilla Valley Sports Center, located on Route 8 a few miles north of New Berlin, will host its MX Rewind. Motocross legends of the past 40-plus years will return with vintage garb and bikes, and a long list of activities planned over the weekend, said Unadilla spokesman, Jill Robinson. “We’re expecting to have three world champions with us that weekend,” Robinson said. “We’re really excited by the level of commitment these racing legends are putting into this, and the access fans will have to them…it will be a great weekend, and there will be a lot of cool, historic bikes that should make for some great pictures.” All of the event and ticket information is available online at www.mxrewind.com

It’s T-minus one day until the retirement of a beloved Evening Sun employee, Jan Rowe. Jan, a mother a grandmother, has been like a mother to The Evening Sun reporting staff for the entirety of her career here. She, using a sports term, is our “glue guy.” No, she doesn’t have a byline, but she does just about everything else for us. I cannot count the times she has popped her head into Jeff Genung’s office and asked if he needed anything. Jeff knows that if he asks something of Jan, there is no one better to complete the task. For us, she has proved an indispensable employee whose presence will be sorely missed by all those who have worked with her. I wish Jan and her husband John (who is a few weeks away from his own retirement) happy travels. I know they plan to see more of the world, and no one deserves that opportunity more than Jan and John.

Follow Patrick Newell on Twitter @evesunpat

Patrick Newell

Several hours after Norwich lost to Bishop Ludden, a post-game comment from NHS head coach Tom Collier struck a chord. “Bishop Ludden was the better team, and the better team won,” he said. “It’s hard for us to accept that, but that is what sports is all about.”
When you’re playing for a championship, only one team hoists the trophy, and its players are the last ones smiling. Too often you hear parents, fans, and often players and coaches making excuses for losing. Many coaches, gracious in defeat, will follow the comments post haste with the obligatory “would’ve, could’ve” rationales. I have no doubt, behind closed doors, Norwich’s players and coaches wished they had shot the ball better over the first three quarters. By our count, shooting 10-for-39 (25.6 percent) will not win too many titles at this level of basketball.
Matching up the advantages and disadvantages, Norwich was the better established perimeter shooting team. The Gaelic Knights were more of an up-tempo team that created easy buckets off of its defense or in defense-to-offense transition. Only one starter, Cameron Littlejohn, averaged at least one three-pointer per game, and Ludden made just one three-pointer in its 12-point win over the Tornado.
Norwich, meanwhile, made 115 three-pointers this season. It wasn’t Norwich’s team record for threes by a long shot, but the three ball keyed a 20-point comeback victory for the Class B title. The three-pointer was certainly a big part of the Norwich offense all season, and Kyle Edwards, Dennis Oralls, and Eric Walling proved themselves adept from long range. Norwich had plenty of good looks from 20 feet last Saturday, some of the same shots that went in one week earlier against CV. Overall, the Tornado made less than 20 percent of its three-point attempts, a statistic again summed up perfectly by Collier: “Sometimes the shots just don’t fall.”
That’s just basketball.
—

Are you a student of bracketology? This week we’re running the brackets for the men’s basketball March Madness Contest. As was the case last year, the first four games are a virtual gimme if you wait for the results before submitting your entry. Let me remind you: Those first four games (Tuesday and Wednesday) may be “gimmes,” but they are not “freebies.” If you leave that section of the bracket empty, I will gleefully mark them wrong with my red marker. (Or black, depending on which sharpie still has ink left.) I believe I am still scarred from my college freshman year when my English teacher had more words written in red than the entirety of my essays. Monday’s entry was on page 10, and if you’ll notice, we’re handing out $75 to this year’s winner. If you play your cards right, we may even snap a photo of the grand champion. The deadline to hand-deliver entries is this Thursday at 12 p.m. Mailed entries should by postmarked by Wednesday, March 14.

Follow Patrick Newell on Twitter @evesunpat.

Patrick Newell

Not in favor of Greene policy
No, I do not entirely agree with Greene’s athletics policy that requires its sports teams to finish with at least a 500 record to proceed into postseason play. Our neighbors to the north, Section III, has a mandatory postseason policy in which teams must win at least 40 percent of their games. That percentage seems reasonable, and it can account for some mitigating circumstances. For example, take a look at Marcellus’s varsity basketball team. Just last week, Marcellus traveled to Sherburne-Earlville for a first-round Section III boys basketball playoff game. A month ago, Marcellus had two wins and was headed nowhere fast. Its top inside player – and scorer – was out most of the season due to injury, but he returned for the final seven games. Marcellus won six of those games to finish with an 8-10 record. According to Section III standards, Marcellus’s record was good enough for the postseason, and it made the most of that opportunity defeating higher-seeded S-E last week in overtime. The joy of playing – and winning – a playoff game is an experience those boys will treasure forever. If Marcellus had a Greene-like policy, that game would have never been played. The problem with the Trojans’ .500 requirement is that it does not factor in unforeseen circumstances or how well a team is playing at the end of the year. Sure, most teams with season records of 6-12 or 7-11 are not going to make much of a dent in the playoffs. But who knows for sure? Did anyone think Oxford’s four-win girls soccer team would do much four years ago? I didn’t. All the Blackhawks did was pull one upset after another to reach the Section IV finals. It made for a great story, and Oxford’s young ladies were fashionable in Cinderella’s slippers. While we can foresee the likely result of many contests before they are played, the reality is that sports are not scripted, and anything can happen. The best judge of a team’s preparedness for the postseason is its head coach. If the team is close to a .500 record with either its overall or league record, let the person most intimately involved make the final call on the postseason – the head coach. When in doubt, let the kids play.

HOF inductees
On to good news. Section IV’s Sports Hall of Fame announced its 2012 inductees this week, and three of the athletes I had the pleasure and opportunity to cover. Oxford’s Mike Chrystie, and the Norwich trio of Jason James, Joe Downey, and Katie Almeter will be honored March 3 at the Broome County Veterans Memorial Arena. Chrystie, Almeter, and Downey were part of my early years covering local sports, and their accomplishments remain forever embedded in my memory. James was part of Norwich’s back-to-back state championship basketball teams, but he contributed much, much more. He was a tremendous baseball player earning all-star honors in the Southern Tier Athletic Conference all four years, and was a two-way starter at linebacker and fullback for Norwich’s football teams that went 27-4-1 in his three years with the club. Congratulations to the athletes and their families.

State Wrestling Tournament
Saturday I will be in Albany for the New York State Wrestling championships, and throughout the day I will be providing updates of local wrestlers via Twitter. If you’re not a Twitter member, the process to register as a new member is simple. Once you’re good to go, follow me at the address below:

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Patrick Newell

During my sophomore year of college, I took a required business course, statistics. As I remember it, I think I was about the only one in the class who actually enjoyed finagling formulas to complete statistical analyses. Little did I know 20-plus years ago that statistics would be part of my job description. And I still love the computations. Thanks to my friend Greg Bonczkowski (Norwich teacher and Unatego basketball coach), who already inputted the proper formulas, I use a formatted spreadsheet to tally scoring averages, free throw percentage, and anything else numerical that I think is necessary. The process is fun for me as I enter the numbers for each player, and then look to the far right as the average constantly changes. Another one of my friends called me a “sports geek.” Yes, the shoe indeed fits in this case. The number of games is slowing down as the playoffs near, and I was able to not only update scoring averages Wednesday, but also peruse free throw shooting numbers and three-pointers made. Through Tuesday, Feb. 7 games, Unadilla Valley’s Justin Hofer (19.6/game) and Ryan Porter (B-G, 18.2/game) lead the boys’ scoring. On the girls’ side, B-G senior Shania Vandermark is averaging a county-best 15.4 points, while UV junior Jordan Anderson is a close second at 14.9 points per game. For three-pointers, Norwich junior Kyle Edwards has 44 makes, eight more than runner-up Jeff Carlin of Greene. On the ladies’ side, Greene’s Kaitlin Gorton has 32 three balls in 15 games, while Sabrina Brooks of G-MU has 25 treys with one game left to play. In the free throw shooting department, Sherburne-Earlville senior Cassie Beaver is draining a nifty 83.3 percent of her attempts. Norwich senior Dennis Oralls leads the boys at 80.8 percent.

The Section III and Section IV Division II wrestling tournaments begin Friday afternoon. I will have the top-four seeds in each weight class listed in our Friday sports section, and if the number one seeds hold, we could have as many as eight Chenango County wrestlers heading to Albany for the state tournament. Top-seeded Section IV wrestlers from the area are Joe Nelson, Oxford (99); Tristan Rifanburg, Norwich (126); Dan Dickman, Greene (152); Mike Beckwith, Greene (160); Keegan Cerwinski, Greene (182); and Kyle Stanton, Greene (220). From Section III, Sherburne-Earlville’s Spencer Franklin (120) and Cody Santiago (220) are the top seeds in Division II.

Getting back to free throw shooting, I was surprised at the slow start of UV junior Amanda Off. She was a good free throw shooter last year (around 70 percent), so when she was barely above 50 percent through the first five games of the season, I took notice. Off is a returning second team Chenango County all-star who put up 15.3 points per game as a sophomore. I expected better, and over the last 10 games, Off has seldom been “off.” Over the last 10 games, she is hitting free throws at an 82 percent clip to pull her seasonal average to 71 percent, the best on her team and among the best in Chenango County…Oralls, as we noted above, tops the area boys in free throws, and he made 21 straight charity tosses over the previous four games before missing on his fifth attempt last Friday against Owego.

Bainbridge-Guilford’s girls basketball team has enjoyed a great deal of success under longtime coach Bob Conway. The boys? Not so much, until this year. In a season of firsts, B-G clinched its first MAC playoff berth since the 2005-2006 season, and not coincidentally, that was the last time the Bobcats sported a winning record. In the last month, B-G ended two winless droughts. The first was the team’s first victory over Oxford in six years. A week and a half ago, the Bobcats ended an even longer drought defeating local rival Sidney for the first time in 21 years. “People around town have said we have had talent,” said B-G first-year coach Greg Warren. “The biggest thing was getting them to believe in themselves. In the early part of the season when we lost some close games, we spent a lot of time breaking it down and looking at the positives in everything we were doing, and building on those. Now they believe. It’s not arrogance, but (the players) now believe they can compete in any game they are in.” Since a 1-3 start, B-G has won 11 of 13 games, and meets Unatego Tuesday in the MAC Tournament semifinals.

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Patrick Newell

Again, I must thank the late Tom Schwan for his diligence in keeping historical records of area basketball teams. Last weekend, Bainbridge-Guilford beat Sidney 41-35 in a Midstate Athletic Conference boys’ basketball game. B-G head coach, Greg Warren, said it’s been a long, long time since the Bobcats defeated the Warriors. He wasn’t sure when that last B-G win came, but posited it may have been in the 1970s. I keep the majority of my historical records (dating to the 1995-1996) in-house, and I looked back over my records. Nope, the Bobcats had not beaten Sidney in my tenure. I e-mailed Greg with my research results, and resolved to dig deeper. Thursday morning, it occurred to me that Schwan’s basketball records – from 1970 to 1995 – were kept in a spiral notebook in a box at the base of my computer station. How could I forget? I rifled through each meticulously-kept season. Tom kept standings and game results for just about every conference in Section IV – STAC, Susquenango Association, Tri-Valley League – and even Section III’s Center State Conference and Central Counties League. If those details were not enough, he also kept up-to-date junior varsity results for the STAC and the Sus leagues. Each season was divided and stapled, It took a little bit of digging, but I found that elusive B-G win over Sidney. The opening game of the 1990-1991 season, B-G edged Sidney, 53-50. I let Warren know, and again, my heartfelt thanks to the late, great Mr. Schwan.

Sherburne-Earlville’s boys’ basketball team became the first area team to earn league honors when it clinched the Center State Conference Division I title last weekend. This week, S-E won its ninth and 10th league games to complete an unbeaten run in the CSC. I have seen the Marauders play three times this season, and I like to compare them to Norwich. Each team is extremely deep – nine or 10 players see plenty of action – and each club banks on its defense and contributions from many different players. The Marauders do not score as much as Norwich – about 55 points per game – but give up just 47 points per game. S-E has held its last eight opponents under 50 points, and it has the unique distinction of bringing its leading scorer off the bench. Eighteen area players average double figures scoring, and S-E sophomore, Austin Jasper, at 11.75 points tops his club and is 12th in overall scoring. In my recollection, I cannot recall a team with a record similar to S-E’s (13-3) that had its top scorer coming off the bench.

The most meaningful wrestling matches of the season begin this weekend with the Class B, C, and D tournaments. Top-four finishers in each weight class earn automatic bids to the Section IV Division II tournament next weekend at the Broome County Veterans Memorial Arena. In case you’re interested in attending any of this weekend’s tournaments, be prepared to fill your gas tank. The Class B tourney, featuring local clubs B-G/A and Norwich, is at Waverly; the Class C tournament is at Lansing; and the Class D tournament is at Odessa-Montour. If you’re a Section III fan, particularly Sherburne-Earlville, the Marauders host the Class C tournament Saturday.

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