Sports Archives — The Altamont Enterprise, August 25, 2005
Altamont 5K hits the roads of the village
By Tim Matteson
ALTAMONT — A new course did not knock the Altamont 5K off track from another successful year.
Over 270 runners took part Sunday in the eighth edition of the race, starting and finishing at Bozenkill Park and running on the streets of Altamont in between.
"It was great," said race director Phil Carducci. "We got to be in a nice setting and it made it more close-knit instead of spaced out. People said they loved the course. We did not have great weather but it was not bad."
A five-minute rain did not stop the start of the race.
"At about a half-mile, it stopped," Carducci said. "Two of the most awesome sights were near Bozenkill Road when the rain stopped and steam was coming off the road with 300 people running. It looked like they were coming through a mist.
"Then also seeing a mass of people running from Lincoln to Main Street," he added, "made a small race look like a big race."
Ben Greenberg of Voorheesville won the race with a time of 16:12. Robert Irwin of Guilderland was second in 16:24 and Matt Gokey of Delmar was third with a time of 17:12.
Kaite Roden of Albany was the top female finisher. She crossed the finish line in 19:34.
Emily Bertier of Union Bridge, Md. was second in 19:50 and Dana Lynskey of Albany was third in 20:18.
"It was a nice pace," Carducci said. "The course is faster, though the times don’t show it, but the humidity was up."
Carducci said the event ran smoothly on the course — and beyond.
"It was in a controlled area," he said. "The organization was better and the kids’ races got off on time. We started at nine and we were out of there at 12:15 after the awards."
Carducci said the Altamont Police Department did a good job of keeping traffic under control and helping out with the race, despite the busy time of year with the Altamont Fair in town.
"We’ll probably move the date again," Carducci said. "It was on the last day of the fair, so it’s hectic. We’ll try and get on the first Saturday after the fair. It will also help get our own identity."
Carducci was very appreciative of the sponsors of the race and others that helped with the event.
"I want to thank the police department and Tony Salerno," he said, naming the new public safety commissioner. "I would also like to thank public works, the fire department, the rescue squad, and all the volunteers...I’d like to thank the Girl Scouts for handing out water. I would also like to thank WeatherGuard Roofing and The Enterprise for sponsoring the race."
Carducci organizes the race but rarely gets a chance to see the immediate results.
"In eight years, I’ve seen three finishes," he said. "But it’s nice to see a lot of the same people come back over the eight years and to see new people coming out."
Carducci hopes more people come out to race in the event which this year benefits the Altamont Community Food Pantry.
"We want to build it up," he said. "Next year, we want to get it up to 400. I just need to get out and pound the pavement."
Age-group winners
Alyssa Drapeau, 11, of Glenville was the female winner in the one-to-12 age group with a time of 23:38. Lea Cure, 11, of Altamont was second and Kendra Housten, 10, of East Nassau was third.
Sean Sanford, 12, of Altamont was the top male in the age group, finishing in 22:19. Corey Housten, 11, of East Nassau was second and Justin Donohue, 12, of Schenectady was third.
Ada Lauterbach, 15, of East Berne won the 13-to-16 age group for females with a time of 21:25. Kim Negrich, 16, of Mayfield was second, and Allison Grant, 15, of Altamont, was third.
Alex Brooks, 16, of Gloversville was the top male in the 13-to-16 age group with a time of 18:15. Roland Graves, 15, of Slingerlands was second and R.J. Sniffen, 15, Latham was third.
Sarah Furman, 17, of West Berne won the 17-to-19 age category for females with a time of 23:31. Katie Moller, 17, of Altamont was second and Amanda Blanchard, 17, of Mayfield was third.
Kris Geist, 18, of East Berne was the top male in the age group. He crossed the finish line in 17:26.
Jake Zucker, 19, of Altamont was second and Chris Rowe, 18, of Schenectady was third.
Naomi Dudek, 21, of Glenville won the 20-to-24 age group for women with a time 25:15. Jessica Lipper, 24, of Knox was second and Megan Christian, 23, of Liberty was third.
Greg Ernst, 21, of Gloversville won the male 20-to-24 age group with a time of 17:36. Dan Haggerty, 20, of Albany was second and John Carlino, 24, of Watervliet was third.
Stacey Horner, 25, of Ghent won the 25-to-29 age group for women, crossing the finish line in 23:05. Judith Wines, 28, of Altamont was second and Christina Ardito, 26, of Troy was third.
Arthur DeGraw, 25, of Watervliet was the top male in the age group, finishing in 17:27. Matthew Fryer, 25, of Loundonville was second and Matthew Letteer, 27, of Latham was third.
Andrea Delp, 30, of Scotia won the 30-to-34 age group for women in 22:52. Denise Vanderwerken, 33, of Cobleskill was second and Sally Drake, 32, of Albany was third.
The male 30-to-34 age group was won by Brian Northa, 30, of Troy in 18:57. Jim Van Ess, 34, of Castleton was second and David Parry, 30, of Troy was third.
Kim Miseno-Bowles, 35, of Amsterdam won the 35-to-39 age group in 21:41. Julie Burke, 37, of Troy was second and Kari Gathen, 36, of Albany was third.
Tim Cooke, 39, of Rennselear was the top male finisher with a time of 19:49. William Kowal, 36, of Niskayuna was second and George Burke, 39, of Troy was third.
Jane Hawksley-Ogle, 41, of Schenectady won the 40-to-44 age category for women in 22:16. Joanne Salerno, 41, of Cobleskill was second and Mindy Mackesey, 41, of Altamont was third.
Dan Cantwell, 44, of Albany was the top male in the 40-to-44 age group, finishing in 18:52. Wayne Richardson, 41, of Altamont was second and Tom Mack, 40, of Wynantskill was third.
The female 45-to-49 age group was won by Nancy Taormina, 46, of Albany in 20:28. Joyce Goodrich, 47, of Glenville was second and Maureen Fitzgerald, 47, of Clifton Park was third.
Valdimir Ilin, 47, of Albany won the 45-to-49 age group for men in 17:37. Jim Maney, 47, of Slingerlands was second and Pete Cure, 46, of Altamont was third.
Ellen Mueller, 53, of Schenectady won the 50-to-54 age group for women in 27:08. Claudia Burtman, 50, of Voorheesville was second and Carole Bieber, 54, of Slingerlands was third.
Dave Glass, 58, of Glenville was the top male in the age group, crossing the finish line in 19:58. Paul Forbes, 55, of Guilderland was second and Terry Failing, 59, of St. Johnsville was third.
Sibyl Jacobson, 62, of Canaan won the female 60-to-64 age group in 30:09. Liz Milo, 64, Altamont was second and Marion Bayly, 60, Speculator was third.
David Hayes, 61, of Niskayuna was the top male in the age group, finishing in 21:29. Dan Bigelow, 60, of Woodstock was second and Tom Adams, 61, of Rotterdam was third.
Betty Langevin, 65, of Cohoes topped the female 65-to-69 age group coming in at 32:07. Eiko Bogue, 68, of Schaghticoke was second.
Jim Moore, 65, of Niskayuna won the male 65-to-69 age group in 23:34. Ken Connolly, 66, of Voorheesville was second and Armand Langevin, 68, of Cohoes was third.
Richard Eckhardt, 71, of Albany won the male 70-to-74 age group in 30:42. Don McBain, 72, of Wynantskill was second and Kenneth Clikeman, 74, of Altamont was third.
Pat Fitzgerald, 75, of Greenville won the male 75-to-79 age group in 26:41.
2005: The Year of the Blackbirds
By Tim Matteson
VOORHEESVILLE — This is the year.
That is what the senior captains of the Voorheesville football team are saying as they prepare for the upcoming season.
The Blackbirds are coming off consecutive 4-5 seasons and first-round playoff exits.
But Voorheesville’s four captains have been on the team both of those years and are looking to make their senior year memorable.
"We are very, very excited," said one of the captains, Paul Hognestad. "This is definitely the year."
"Our ultimate goal is to be playing in the 13th week," said Nick Duncan, another captain.
The Blackbirds hope that their experience and depth will help them reach the Class C state championship game.
"We have 29 players," said Voorheesville Coach Joseph Sapienza. "That is not typical for us. We usually have no more than 25. We have a lot of upperclassmen but not a ton of seniors.
"We have someone like Stephen Cardinal who played last year as a sophomore," Sapienza added. "This is a very experienced team. We have four seniors in their third year on varsity."
The Blackbirds will have the most depth on the offensive and defensive lines.
"We’re deep on the line," Sapienza said. "But we’re not deep at running back and the secondary. It’s usually the opposite. This year we have just a handful of receivers and backs. To have a lot of offensive and defensive linemen is a luxury. That’s where players get worn down, in the trenches."
The Birds also have experience at quarterback as Andrew Catellier returns for his third year as the starter.
The Voorheesville team will also have a leader on the offensive line.
"Eric Dickson can run the offensive line," Sapienza said. "He’s been there since he was a sophomore."
Catellier and Dickson are the other two captains for the Blackbirds.
Duncan will be one of Catellier’s main targets in the air and Hognestad, who is coming off an injury that sidelined him for most of last season, will return to play running back.
"We’ve got veterans and all year we’ve got to step it up," Dickson said.
New divisions
The Blackbirds will get on the playing field this weekend in a scrimmage at Broadalbin-Perth, which includes Johnstown and Bishop Gibbons.
The Birds will also have a new challenge as the divisions in Class C have been realigned from three to two.
Voorheesville is in a division with Mechanicville, Catholic Central, Chatham, Watervliet, Canajoharie, and Coxsackie.
The Blackbirds will open the season at Mechanicville on Sept. 3. Their home opener is against Chatham on Sept. 17. They also host Watervliet, Greenwich, and Coxsackie at home. They travel to Catholic Central in Troy and to Canajoharie.
"It will be nice to play different teams," Catellier said. "I like playing Mechanicville and Watervliet."
"The schedule has not changed much," Sapienza said. "We take out Schuylerville and put in Mechanicville. And we’ve never played Catholic High.
"I love playing Mechanicville," he added. "We have a nice history. They’ll be ready right out of the gate."
Positives
Sapienza has liked what he has seen so far this season.
"We’ve had some positives in the pre-season," he said. "This is a nice team. We’ll be in the mix. We’ve got balance. Andy is in his third year and Duncan, who was a third-team all-state reciever, is coming back."
A few of the players on the team have had success in other sports — mainly basketball and baseball — last season and that experience can be carried to the gridiron.
"They want to win," Sapienza said. "You can see that influence. They learned how to win and they like winning."
But there is also another element to the players on the Blackbirds’ squad.
"We’re a bunch of guys with heart," Hognestad said. "We just want to play."
Dutchmen look to right ship with Penna at helm
By Tim Matteson
GUILDERLAND — The Guilderland Dutchmen are starting the football season with a lot of new faces, including the main guy on the sideline.
Dan Penna has taken over the head coaching duties for Pete Schwan, who resigned the post in December.
Penna had been an assistant coach for the Dutchmen the past six years.
He will be joined by many new athletes as well.
"We have tons of kids that are returning to football," Penna said. "They haven’t played in a while. Tim Montgomery came out and he’ll see some time at halfback and Kevin Doherty will be in the backfield. We also have a good core of juniors and three sophomores that are coming up."
The new guys will have to replace a talented group of seniors who graduated last year.
"They were a great bunch of kids," Penna said. "The Class of ’05 was great. We had a lot of size and we lost a thousand-yard rusher in Chris Paratore. We lost Joey Wyld on line and we lost a great leader in Josh Miller. We had three seniors play in the all-star game, in Phil Durand, Paratore, and Wyld."
‘Learning a lot’
With the loss of those players comes a change in philosophy for the offense. The Dutch don’t have as much size up front, so they are going to count on something else during the season.
"One of the reasons we are changing our offense is because of speed," Penna said. "We don’t have as much size as we’ve had in the past. We want to use speed to our advantage."
The Dutch have two returning starters from last year’s line in center John D’Ambrosio and guard Kyle Hussey.
"We are all learning a lot," Penna said. "We are putting in the new offense. We’re putting in changes and working on team chemistry. Some players are developing into leaders."
The players are not the only ones who are learning.
"The coaches are learning or doing a drill for the first time," Penna said. "We’re teaching kids the right way to do the things they need to do."
The team also has a couple of mottos, Penna said. He said that the players demand excellence in everything that they do and they strive to be perfect.
"If they work at everything they do," Penna said, "they have a better chance to be successful."
Penna said that there are 47 kids on the team this year with a good group of juniors joining many of the new faces.
"The team is looking good," said one returning senior, John D’Ambrosio. "We have a lot of guys and a lot of good athletes. We don’t have size anymore, we have to rely on our athletic ability and speed."
"We’ve come together well as a team," added returning junior Kyle Hussey.
Leadership council
Penna and the Dutch are trying something different as they have not picked captains to lead the squad on a full-time basis. The Dutch will still have game captains, who will be picked based on performance in practice. But Penna has created what he calls a "leadership council" to lead the team.
The nine-member council includes players with experience and new players to the varsity.
"We decided on it and it seems better on and off the field," D’Ambrosio said. "We have guys that represent different parts of the team instead of having two guys winning a popularity contest."
On the leadership council are seniors Judd Robinson, D’Ambrosio, Tim Montgomery, Greg Buck, Chris Wolfe and juniors Hussey, Greg Barcomb, Nick Zanotta, and Kevin Forbes.
"The guys are very competitive and are beginning to buy into the concepts of hard work and discipline," Penna said.
Class AA has been split into two divisions from the three that were in place last year. Guilderland is in the same division as Shenendehowa, Troy, Christian Brothers Academy, Columbia, Colonie, and Bethlehem. Guilderland also plays Ballston Spa from the other Class AA division.
The Dutch have a scrimmage scheduled for Saturday at Niskayuna, which will include Scotia and Schalmont.
Guilderland opens the regular season against long-time rival Shenendehowa on Sept. 2.
"We want to get out on a good note and start with a bang," D’Ambrosio said. "We are having fun and we want to win. We want to have a winning season and earn respect for the program."