There are challenges to be faced in this short wintry season
They are doing awesome.
On Thursday, Feb. 4 the Board of Education of the Highland Falls-Fort Mont-gomery Central School District approved higher-risk winter sports to be played.
On Friday, Feb. 5, tryouts for those varsity teams — boys and girls basketball and cheerleading — began. On Saturday, Feb. 13, the first games for the two basketball teams were held.
They will play a 10-game season. When those games are finished — by February 28 — the season is officially over, because there will be no post-season play. The next day, Monday, March 1, the ‘Fall 2’ season begins.
It’s not ideal, but the Raider basketball coaches are proud of the way their players are making the most of what they have.
Boys’ Coach Debbi Crowe and her team kicked off their season with a 65-33 win over Liberty, and a 53-42 loss to Chester last weekend.
She’s got a squad of 15 players. It’s led by seniors Hector Borgos, Bryan Jones and Andrew Lyle. The juniors are Caleb Hagemaster, Gabe McCoy, Joey Lennon, Ben Aprilante, Arthur Truss, Chris Sanders and Antwon Lewis; and sophomores are Iasiah Bates, Jordan Thompson, Austin Borgos, Nick Waugh and Ben Despirito.
In that first game, Crowe said she was very happy with their overall performance, with all players getting some time on the court. Hector Borgos scored 28 points and had 10 rebounds in the game, and Lewis had 12 points.
The next day, she said, her team had some trouble with a 6’6” Chester senior who “played really well”.
“We didn’t shoot well from the outside, we had 15 turnovers, and we could have rebounded better,” Crowe added. In that game, Hector Borgos had 14 points and 10 rebounds, Thompson had 12 points, and Lewis had 11 points, six defensive rebounds and five assists.
Crowe said for the circumstances they are playing under, “these kids are doing awesome”. There are no spectators allowed at the games, there is constant hand sanitizing and social distancing, they are being tested for COVID daily, and they are playing in masks.
“I’m very impressed with how well they are handling it,” she said.
We are very happy to be playing.
Coach Rob McIvor’s varsity girls’ basketball team struggled a bit with wearing a mask while playing in the first half of a fast-paced game at Chester on Feb. 13. But, they regrouped at halftime, and nearly came back to beat the Hambeltonians.
The final score was 47-43 in that game, with the Raiders outscoring Chester 27-16 in the second half. McIvor said he could not have asked for any more from his team, who, like Crowe’s had only practiced together as a team four times going into the game.
The team features seniors Amber Borgos, Ella Collins, Genny Richardson, Neveah Jackson and Athena Terio. There are four juniors, Josie Arbogast, Aniyah Lewis and sisters (new to O’Neill this year) Ariel Harvey and Jya Van. Sophomores are Brynn Marks, Adah Spain, Marzella Rhodes and Leah Richardson, and there’s one freshman, Daisy West.
Starters for the first game were Collins, Richardson, Arbogast, Lewis and Rhodes. McIvor said Lewis scored 11 points and had five steals and three assists in the game, and Arbogast had 10 points, eight assists and three assists.
“I am very proud of how they played,” McIvor, whose assistant coach is JIO English Teacher Brent Stapleton, said. This is McIvor’s first year as varsity coach; he’s previously coached the JV girls for two seasons and is also the HF-FMCSD’s JV football and modified baseball coach.
He said his team is just glad to be playing. “They are doing as great as they can,” he said. “Every day is a long day for them, with school, COVID testing, practice … it can be frustrating. But they aren’t complaining.”
Like the boys’ team, McIvor said his team misses having spectators at their games. The HF-FMCSD is planning to livestream home games via the district’s website.
We love their dedication.
While the higher risk sports are just getting going, the low risk winter track season has been practicing for several weeks. Unfortunately, this past week the team found out it basically wasn’t going to have a season.
“We have been training so hard for weeks,” Coach Terry Rafferty posted on social media last weekend. “Unfortunately, all the meets we had scheduled for outside have been canceled due to Mother Nature.”
Crowe, also the school district’s athletic director, confirmed that, noting that the team may participate in a non-league outdoor event this week in Cornwall.
“This team still comes everyday and trains so hard,” Rafferty said. “Coach (John) Flynn and I are so proud of these young men and women. We love their dedication; hopefully ‘normal’ returns soon.”
On the girls’ team are: Olivia Bergmann, Kahiyrah Bodiford, Alexis Clark, Sofia Dyroff, Allison Gash, Amelia Gash, Angie Grunert, Ella Johns, Kiley Johnes, Kathryn Laird, Ellie Lemler, Margaret Norberg, Samantha Reeves, Samantha Starling and Sage Wilson.
On the boys’ team are: Hayden Bahaghighat, Samuel Benson, Luis Columbie, Dylan Dhabolt, Wyatt Frank, Ricky Fregoso, Richard Gash, Michael Greifenstein, Joshua Kreh, Michael Larkin, Thomas Larkin, Grant Lemler, Evan Maasick, Kyle Mayo, Zack McCarthy, Caleb Rhodes, Jeremy Stoll, Keegan Trubenbach and Jay Waite.
