VOORHEESVILLE — John McClement is a man on the move.

He’s given up coaching girls at Voorheesville to coach boys in Albany.

Two weeks ago, McClement was approved by the Albany City School District to be the Albany High School boys’ varsity basketball coach. McClement resigned from leading the Voorheesville girls’ basketball program he has guided since the 1999-2000 season.
"It was an opportunity to try my hand at something different. It’s a higher level," McClement said of the Class AA school. "And coaching boys, I saw it as a challenge and a very different situation.
"With all the kids I worked with at Voorheesville, we had success," McClement added. "This is a challenge I’m ready to accept at this time in my coaching career."

He has been a physical-education teacher in the Albany school’s since 1989. He has also coached football at Albany.

McClement was not surprised he had the support of the school board.
"I began the process in May and they interviewed all the candidates," he said. "Recently, I was board approved. It’s not shocking. I was really confident with my experience and I felt like I had a good interview. They were nice people and they thought enough of me to offer me the job."

McClement became the varsity girls’ coach at Voorheesville before the 1999-2000 season. Previously, he had coached the junior-varsity girls’ team at Albany High School and was an assistant for the varsity squad.

But he does have experience coaching male athletes, having coached all levels of football at Albany, from freshmen to varsity.

McClement has also taught at many of the different elementary schools in the Albany district and at Hackett Middle School. He is currently teaching at the Thomas O’Brien magnet school.

McClement will continue to be an assistant football coach at Voorheesville. He coached the junior varsity in 2000 and 2001 and has been Joe Sapienza’s assistant since the fall of 2002.
"I am really happy for him," Sapienza said. "It’s a great opportunity. Everyone at Voorheesville wishes him a lot of luck."
"Basketball is basketball"

McClement doesn’t see much difference between coaching girls’ basketball and boys’ basketball.
"I think basketball is basketball," he said. "Girls have a different type of athleticism. One of the changes from my time at Voorheesville is I didn’t have one player that could dunk. That’s a possibility on the boys’ side of things. But for the most part, basketball remains the same. You have to emphasize teamwork and hard play to be successful."

McClement will have to do some rebuilding of the Albany program. But the Falcons did play in the Section II title game two seasons ago. This past season, Albany won just a pair of games.

McClement walked into a highly successful program at Voorheesville in 1999.
"They were one year removed from the state championship," he said. "With Jack [Adams] they had a five-year run of sectional titles. They had three state championship appearances and won the title in ’98.
"The expectations were high coming in," McClement added. "I saw it as an opportunity to come to a program where the kids are going to be successful. It was a lot of fun."
"I haven’t looked at it record-wise," Sapienza said. "But the number of championships he won stacks up with the best in this section. It’s a good opportunity. I think he was looking for a change."
"Albany is an intriguing job because they have high expectations," he added. "They expect a lot. The situations are not exactly the same in terms of where the program is. But the expectations haven’t changed."

McClement said that there is a lot that he will miss at Voorheesville. He will miss the relationships he developed over time, but he accomplished much — including a state title in 2002 — and is looking for a different challenge.
"I think back to the players," McClement said, "And we absolutely had so much success on and off the court. The relationship with the players is what matters no matter what happens on the court. We spent a lot of time together. I got to see kids develop as incoming freshmen and then graduate and go on to college. It was fun on a lot of fronts. That’s one of the things that I will miss most."