Though the small schools continued to have success, the 2006-07 school year will be remembered as the Year of the Dutch.

Guilderland sports teams had their most successful campaign in a long time as they showed that they can compete with a lot of teams in the rough and tough Suburban Council.

Coaches and administrators say that success begins with the football team and trickles to the other sports. And this past fall Guilderland had its best football team since the 1970s.
Did football set the tone" Quite possibly, but an athletic senior class — with a lot of members playing football — probably had more to do with it. And a junior class with a lot of talented athletes also helped.

Voorheesville and Berne-Knox-Westerlo continued to be strong in certain sports. They both continued their success in cross-country and track as both showed that they have some of the best small-school runners in the section.

Here is the year in review, beginning with fall sports this week and continuing with winter and spring sports next week.

Football

There was a new enthusiasm on Friday nights at Guilderland High School.
"For once kids were coming to games to cheer for us and not to watch us lose," senior Kevin Forbes said recently.

The Dutchmen finished the season with a 6-3 record. It was the first winning season for Guilderland since 1995.

The Dutch also qualified for the Class AA Section II playoffs for the first time since 1999 and hosted a sectional game for the first time ever. The Dutchmen battled Christian Brothers Academy but fell short, 13-8, against the eventual sectional champion and state semfinalist.

It was the closest game the Brothers had in the Section II playoffs.

The Dutchmen bounced back to beat Shenendehowa in a crossover game and finished the season on a high note. Guilderland had impressive wins over Shaker, Troy, Niskayuna, Queensbury, and Itahca during the regular season.

Seniors Greg Barcomb, Forbes, Kyle Hussey, and Jarrell Gatterson led Guilderland this year. All four will be playing football in college.

Tom Sweeney, Joe Lima, Donovan Lloyd, Nick Zanotta, Michael Tralongo, Christian Cortes, Russ Qulia, Ian DeSol, and Matt Glock were the other seniors that made big contributions to the team.

Paul Malamood, Parker Wolff, Nick Ranalli, Peter Stanish, Drew Smith, and Paul Booker are the juniors who will be key returning players for next season.

Voorheesville also had a strong season and pulled off one of the biggest surprises of the fall.

The Blackbirds — as usual — had a strong regular season and were in contention for a division championship and a high seed in the Class C playoffs. But a 12-7 loss to Canajoharie knocked the Birds out of the top perch and all the way down to the eighth and final seed in the playoffs.

That didn’t stop the Blackbirds from soaring high over top-seeded Stillwater, posting a 23-7 win over the Warriors.

Voorheesville lost in the semifinal round to Chatham — its second loss to the Panthers this year — to finish the season with a 6-3 record.

The Blackbirds also had wins over Watervliet, Catholic Central, Tamarac, Coxsackie-Athens, and Schuylerville.

Voorheesville was led by senior captains Charlie McGrail, Steve Cardinal, Sean Hognestad, and junior captain Adam Duncan. McGrail and Cardinal will play football in college as will 2007 graduates Sam Pelham and Tim Robinson. Other key seniors were Jeff Connors, Jon Fuglein, Cameron Taylor, Alex Zvinosky, Rob Selby, and Jimmy Cillis.

Key returners will be Pat Jones, Chris Massaroni, Jordan Murphy, Dan Flynn, Sean Fitzmaurice, Duncan, Jay Conde, and Evan Christner.

Soccer

After years of being one of the dominating teams in the Suburban Council, the Guilderland boys’ soccer team has been in a re-building phase for the past several years.

The Dutchmen got the biggest win this season since Coach Mike Kinnally took over the program from the legendary Don Snyder a few years ago.

The Dutch beat Shenendehowa; and not just during the regular season. Guilderland beat the defending state champions in Clifton Park in the quarterfinals of the Class AA Section II tournament.

The exciting back-and-forth contest had to be decided with penalty kicks after the teams played to a 1-1 tie for 80 minutes of regulation and 30 minutes of overtime play.

Senior Klye Klapp’s goal gave the Dutch the lead and classmate Uriah Myrie made a save to give the Dutch the upset.

The Dutch lost in the sectional semifinals, 3-0, to Saratoga. It was the first trip to the semifinals for the Dutchmen in 10 years.

The Dutch were led this season by seniors Klapp, Myrie, Kyle Tassone, Matt Stillman, Greg Murphy, Chris Conway, Phil Cassidy, Eric Conover, Michael Kremer, Shane Haggarty, Seth Canetto, and Philip Atwood.

Cassidy, Klapp, and Tassone will play soccer in college.

The Guilderland girls’ soccer team also faced Shenendehowa in the sectionals but the outcome wasn’t as good as for the boys.

The Lady Dutch lost to the Plainswomen, 4-2, after Shen broke a 2-2 tie.

Guilderland put up a good effort against the perennial power Shen squad but did not have enough. The Dutch finished with an 8-8 record.

The Lady Dutch were a young team with just five seniors. Lynn Tran, Katie Murdock, and Devon Rosenberry were the team’s captains and Julie Malkowski and Francesca Pezze were the other two seniors on the squad.

The Dutch got major contributions from underclassmen Hannah Rosen, Danielle Tetreault, Amanda Best, and Jackie DeLuise.

The Voorheesville boys’ soccer team had another good year. The Blackbirds reached the Class B semifinals before losing to Colonial Council rival Schalmont.

The Blackbirds and Sabres battled to penalty kicks before the Sabres came out on top on their way to the sectional title.

Despite injuries, the Blackbirds battled to a 13-3-1 overall record and a 10-3-1 record in the Colonial Council.

There were 10 seniors on the Voorheesville roster, led by Joe Klembczyk, Dominic Venditti, Matt Miller, Keenan Reynolds, Josh Handen, Rob DiBlasi, Garrett Simpson, Chris Thompson, Nick Banks, and Sulemana Abdul-Rafiu.

The Berne-Knox-Westerlo girls’ soccer team had a good season, despite losing in the first round of the sectional playoffs. The Lady Bulldogs were led by senior Cara Swain, who will play college soccer at Pace University.

The Voorheesville girls’ soccer team struggled to try to get back to the successful plateau the team achieved several years ago. A team with just six seniors and not a lot of experience had a difficult season but the future looks bright as 14 players return.

The BKW boys’ team had a difficult season as it continues to try and build the program back to its past success. The Bulldogs didn’t field a junior-varsity team for the third year in a row and the team shows the effects of inexperienced players.

Some of the most successful local soccer players were on Schalmont teams. Three residents of Altamont were members of Schalmont soccer teams that won sectional championships. Carolyn Barber led the Lady Sabres to the Class B title on the girls’ side and that was equaled by Greg Swift and Chris Bates on the boys’ side.

The Schalmont boys beat Voorheesville in the semifinal contest that was decided by penalty kicks.

Cross-country

Cross-country is one of the area’s top sports and Section II and Guilderland produced one of the top runners on the boys’ side.

Brian Rhodes-Devey, who will run at the University of Texas next year, didn’t defend his state title in the sport, finishing second at the Section II meet behind rival and friend Steve Murdock.

Rhodes-Devey and teammate Roland Graves did compete at the state meet. Rhodes-Devey finished eighth at this year’s state meet and Graves came in 12th.

Guilderland as a team finished second at the sectional meet.

The Voorheesville boys’ team won the Section II Class C race at the sectional meet and advanced to states.

The team consisted of Mackey Lloyd, Conor Cashian, Ryan Allison, Nathan Bub, Tom Pasquali, Taylor Treadgold, and Ian Powell.

Berne-Knox-Westerlo was represented by Ada Lauterbach. The BKW boys’ team won the Western Athletic Conference meet with an upset victory over powerful Fonda-Fultonville.

The top runners for the Bulldogs this past fall were Jared Finke and David Haverly.

The Voorheesville girls’ team finished third at the Colonial Council meet and the BKW girls’ team was fourth in the WAC meet.

Other sports

The Guilderville girls’ swim team did not send any swimmers or divers to the state meet for the first time in a number of years.

The team did get good performances from senior swimmer Stephenie Bintz and senior diver Toni Whitbeck. Both had been to the state meet as juniors.

The Guilderland field hockey team sailed into uncharted waters this past fall. For the first time ever, the Lady Dutch advanced to the semifinals of the Class A Section II tournament.

The Lady Dutch lost to Shen, 1-0.

Guilderland was led by senior goalie Melanie Ostrowski and senior Nikki Branchini, Jen Kaye, Megan Cleary, and Lindsey Green. The Dutch will have 12 players returning this fall.