Sports Archives — The Altamont Enterprise, August 31, 2006
Dutchmen need to show talent on the field
By Tim Matteson
GUILDERLAND — This might be the most talented team Guilderland soccer coach Mike Kinally has had in his four years at the school.
But he wants to see how his players will perform on the field before he claims them as the best. Due to the late start date of practices — Aug. 21, a week later than usual — the Dutchmen haven’t had time to put in a lot of the practice time Kinnally feels the team needs.
"We have a game on Friday and we have done 60 to 70 percent of what I want to cover," Kinnally said. "We have Columbia the following week and everything should be good by then. We’ve stayed away from the injury bug and we’ve been blessed about that."
The Dutchmen open the season on Friday in the Queensbury Tournament. They will play Scotia-Glenville on Friday and then the host team on Saturday..
"It’ll be a good tournament to start off well," Kinnally said. "Everybody is squeezed for time"They both are probably the top teams in the Foothills Council."
The Dutch will have a scrimmage today (Thursday) that includes Chatham and Niskayuna.
"It will help," Kinnally said. "We haven’t even gone 11 versus 11 in practice that much. We have a lot of teaching to do. We have a lot of new players."
But they are talented new players.
"Our skill level is better," Kinnally said. "We have to deal with holes from players that graduated last year. But I feel we’re better in terms of personnel. Whether we perform better than last year is the question.
"We’re definitely deeper than last year," Kinnally added. "Our team speed is better than last year."
Kinnally sees just a couple of spots where the team will need to find a replacement.
"Losing [Mike] Camardo probably will hurt us," the coach said. "Everywhere else, we’re stronger. We have to figure out what to do in the midfield."
"Intangibles"
The Dutch have been working on the "intangibles."
"What I mean by that is," Kinnally said, "working on our shape and formation of plays, improving our re-starts and all those types of things."
The Dutch are senior heavy with eight returning from last year’s team and six probably earning starting roles. Kinnally also sees a sophomore and four juniors in starting roles.
Junior Frank Campagnano will return to lead the attack on offense. Senior Chris Conway returns from an injury-plagued campaign in 2005 to help on the front line.
"He was injured at the beginning of the year," Kinnally said. "And I’m not sure he was up to 100 percent full playing ability. He’s played very well this pre-season."
Phil Cassidy and Kyle Tasone, both seniors, will be key members of the defense. Uriah Myrie, another senior, will anchor the defense from the goalkeeper position.
Senior Kyle Klapp, fresh off playing in the Empire State Games, will be the anchor in the midfield.
"We’ll have five new starters," Kinnally said. "We have some players that saw time and they are getting bigger, better, and stronger."
The Dutch have 23 players on the roster but an injury to returner Jordan Dubose limits the team to 22 healthy players.
The coaching staff is working harder than they ever have before, Kinnally said.
"We’ve worked hard before," Kinnally said. "But the coaching staff is extremely organized. Everything is structured and well planned. We are addressing the intangibles. We are more focused as a unit."
Kinnally isn’t sure the team is ready for the opening of the season.
"I don’t know if playing Friday is two or three days earlier than we should," Kinnally said. "But we will be more prepared going against Columbia next week after the tourney."
Goals
Kinnally’s goals for the Dutchmen haven’t changed from when he started four years ago. They want to win one more game than last year, give up fewer goals than last year, and score more goals than the previous year.
"Everything beyond that is gravy," Kinnally said. "If we win 11 games, it’ll be ‘Okay, boys, let’s go.’ We’ll build off of that."
The Dutch are looking at having just five games at Don Snyder Field this season. The other games will be on the road. Included are trips to Union College to play Ballston Spa in a night game and to Valley Central High School at Mount Saint Mary’s College, where Kinnally used to be a coach.
The Dutch will also have five night home games — which will be played on the football field. They will have Youth League Night against Mohonasen and Senior Night will be against Saratoga.
There will be some changes to Don Snyder Field. A new fence will be put in and a scoreboard and new bleachers will be added.
More landscaping work will be done during the spring season.
As for the Dutch on the field, Kinnally feels they don’t have any pressure.
"We just want to be better than last year," the coach said. "It’s not like anyone else in the league feels we are a team to be concerned about. It’s not like anyone is gunning for us. That takes the pressure off."
Challenging season ahead for Lady Dutch
By Tim Matteson
GUILDERLAND — Injuries have added to the challenges the Guilderland girls’ soccer team will face this season.
The Lady Dutch have been without four experienced players in the pre-season and Guilderland Coach Barb Newton is not sure when they will be able to reach their full potential.
"We have an injury situation to a couple of seniors and a couple of sophomores," Newton said. "Physically we are behind, which will translate to other parts of the game. Decision making during practice is behind because we’re not in shape."
The Dutch are missing sophomores Danielle Tetreault and Amanda Best. The two saw considerable playing time as ninth-graders last year and Newton was expecting great things from them this year.
"They are two of the top players on the team," Newton said. "They’ve been injured since day one. They were going to have a big impact on the team."
Devon Rosenberry and Lynn Tran have also been injured throughout the pre-season. Both were key members of the defense last season.
"Devon Rosenberry seems to be on the way back," Newton said. "Lynn Tran has a quad pull and issues with her foot. I’m not sure when they will be 100 percent."
The Dutch have 19 players on this year’s roster. Eleven of the players are returning from last year’s team.
"We graduated a lot of players," Newton said. "Out of the returners, four are injured. Seven of them saw quite a bit of playing time."
Graduated from last year’s team are captains Bianca Germain, Kayla Best, and Jen Mihok. Taylor Stringer, Krystal Myers, Kaitlyn Gescedi, Cristina Rodgriguez, and Sam Ruppenthal also graduated.
On Tuesday, Newton said she would get a better idea of what she has this year after a scrimmage on Wednesday.
"I’m very concerned about the defense," Newton said. "I’m not sure of the defense. When Devon Rosenberry comes back, that will help out quite a bit. I’ll be putting her at sweeper."
Kate Murdock will also be a key player for the Dutch this season.
"She is one of our most fit players," Newton said. "She will play a lot on defense. She plays with a lot of passion."
Junior Hannah Rosen will return at outside halfback and can be a playmaker for the Lady Dutch.
"She has an awesome cross," Newton said of Rosen’s passing ability. "We need her to score double-digit in goals. We have no goal scorer. I hope Hannah will take on that responsibility. She has a great shot."
Jackie DeLuise will be returning at forward. She provided the Dutch with some offense last year.
"She plays with a lot of heart," Newton said. "She gives a non-stop effort. What we need from her is to become more technically sound, to make better decisions."
Julie Malkowski returns to play goalie.
"She played a lot in goal last year," Newton said. "I’m hoping she takes it more serious in leading the defense."
Rhea Rubin is a newcomer to the varsity whom Newton says could do good things.
"She brings more speed," Newton said of the sophomore. "That’s something we need. We’ll be playing a lot of defense and in the midfield. She has solid skills."
Junior Sarah Heller will be competing for playing time in the goal, Newton said.
"She is fearless in that position," the coach said.
Fighting for everything
The Lady Dutch open the season against Shaker on Sept. 8. They will get a test this weekend as they play in the Shen Scramble at Shenendehowa High School.
"We’ll play some top teams," Newton said. "We’ll be extremely tested up there. We’ll be playing some teams from out of our section that are pretty good."
Newton is not sure where all the pieces of her team will fit, but one thing she knows is that she does not have a lot of size.
"We are a small team," Newton said. "It will affect every game for us. We need to get the team 100 percent. Even then, we’ll be fighting for everything."
And the Lady Dutch will have to fight against some bigger players.
"Last year, we had pretty good size," Newton said. "Girls are five-nine or more now. We average five-five. Whoever we play, the girls will be five inches taller. It will be a struggle fighting for the ball."
Newton hopes that her players will stand up to the struggles they will face this fall.
"We’ll be fighting for everything," she said. "It will not come easy for us. It’s going to be a challenging year."
Foster goes deep
to replenish Kokanee Salsmon
By Tim Matteson
John Foster’s dream is to one day have a pond stocked with nothing but Kokanee Salmon.
Dr. Foster, the head of the fisheries and aquaculture department at the State University of New York College of Agriculture and Technology at Cobleskill, wants to see the west-coast fish thrive in the New York.
Foster is working with the state’s Department of Environmental Conservation and a fish hatchery in Glass Lake in Rensselaer County to provide a home for some of the Kokanee Salmon. Sockeye Salmon (also called red salmon or blueback salmon) live in the Pacific Ocean and migrate up river from the seas to breed in freshwater; the same species in landlocked bodies of water is called kokanee.
The state used to have kokanee stocked in various lakes but gave up the project about four years ago.
"Kokanee were stocked in various lakes for at least 20 years including Glass Lake," Foster said. "For whatever reason, the state changed its priorities and they stopped stocking kokanee. They had no place to spawn. The fisheries were going to die out so some local folks contacted the regional fishery office because they didn’t want to see that happen. They were willing to work together to see what would happen if we tried to maintain the population."
Foster said that the DEC had some kokanee stocked in lakes and ponds in the Adirondacks. The fish is not native to New York.
"They can’t reproduce naturally," Foster said. "There isn’t a suitable stream. They usually reproduce in Alaskan or Canadian rivers. We must do it artificially."
At the hatchery
A new project to re-stock Glass Lake with kokanee began a couple of years ago. The regional fishery at Glass Lake, which is headed by a graduate of the Cobleskill program, came to Foster and the state DEC for help. Trout Unlimited, a trout and salmon conservation group, joined in to help maintain the fishery.
"We put trap nets in the lake to remove the adult fish," Foster said. "Students helped catch the fish in the trap nets. We spawned the ones we caught in our aquatic hatchery. We sent the eggs to the DEC pathology lab and they confirmed the eggs were disease free and we moved the fish down to the main cold-water hatchery."
In the spring of 2005, a group from Cobleskill took between 5,000 and 6,000 fry into Glass Lake. They held back 600 fry in the hatchery as brood stock.
The fish at the hatchery are in four-foot deep round tanks. There are about 500 kokanee in one tank.
There are also tanks containing arctic char as well as brown and rainbow trout. A hatchery manager takes care of the fish all year long.
"He is involved in teaching as well as looking after the tanks," Foster said. "We have an assistant hatchery manager and many of the older students come here and work."
Students in the Fishery and Aquatics program are assigned tanks to help work during the school year.
Normally, it takes the fish four years to mature. But, when they are in the hatchery, it takes just two years.
"We feed them and look after them," Foster said. "They don’t have to catch any food. We give them high-protein food and they grow faster.
"It is very labor intensive," Foster added. "Trout Unlimited gave us a small grant for the cost of the feed."
The largest fish in the tank were 12 inches long. Male kokanee will grow to be about 16 inches. Females will be a couple of inches shorter.
Female kokanee produce 800 eggs per pound of fish, Foster said. He said they can get 200,000 eggs from the spawned females in the tank.
The kokanee are manually spawned and are checked on twice a week until the eggs are ready to be moved into an incubator.
"Athletic fish"
When the eggs hatch, the fry, are released into Glass Lake.
"We spend six months looking after the fish," Foster said.
Foster saw that there was a commitment by the state to stock rainbow trout and brook trout but not one for Kokanee Salmon.
"They started doing it for kokanee 15 years ago," Foster said. "I worked with them for a little while."
Foster has been at Cobleskill for 19 years and been in the Fisheries and Wildlife Department for all of them.
"It is a nice project," he said. "Most of it is a focus of production aquaculture. Most of the state aquaculture is from the support of hatcheries and fisheries."
Every fall, Foster and a group of students from Cobleskill check on the stock at Glass Lake.
"Last year, I was surprised," Foster said. "I thought there would be more adult fish. The spawn we caught, there were very few. We didn’t take any eggs. There wasn’t enough to take any eggs.
"It was disappointing," Foster added. "The whole fishery depends on the fish stock. The hatchery depends on the kokanee and maintaining the brood stock. On our side of campus, it has to pay for itself. We each have a separate entity to keep operating. Over in the barn, the cows produce milk. That’s easier to produce than aquaculture"This is much more difficult to run; we are a shoestring operation."
But it is the love of these challenging fish that makes it worthwhile for Foster.
"There are very few places in New York you can go kokanee fishing," he said. "They are very athletic fish when you get them on the line. But they are very tasty. It’s worth trying to maintain the fishery if we possibly can."
But the ideal — which is Foster’s dream — is to find a pond where the kokanee can thrive.
"We need a stable place to put the brood stock," he said. "There needs to be a hatchery where they can be protected. Compared to most hatcheries that are small business, this is more educational. It would be better to have another facility. We’ll see what we can do."
Rain doesn’t stop Altamont 5K
By Tim Matteson
ALTAMONT — Rain didn’t wash away the Altamont 5K this year, but it did stop some runners from showing up.
The ninth installment of the annual race in the village was a wet one, but it didn’t dampen the spirits of the competitors and volunteers who showed up.
"The rain kept the numbers down," said race coordinator Phil Carducci. "We had 50 less runners than last year. I think people woke up and said, ‘I’m not doing that.’ A bunch of people that pre-registered didn’t show up. I’m assuming that’s why."
The Saturday race was won by Ryan Walter of Delanson. The 22-year-old Berne-Knox-Westerlo graduate finished in 16:11.
Terra Sarnachi, 28, of Long Branch N.J., originally from the Cobleskill area, Carducci said, was the top women’s runner. She ran 19:05 to lead the field.
Jim Sweeney, 27, of Albany was the second male runner. He finished in 16:44. Greg Ernest, 22, of Gloversville was third in 17:09.
But some of the top runners were missing from this year’s run.
"The guys that were in the top three last year were hurt," Carducci said. "Well, Bob Irwin decided to run in the [Tri-City] Valley Cats 5K the day after. But Ben Greenberg’s been hurt and Matt Gokey, who finished third last year, has also been hurt. The fast guys were missing."
The defending women’s champion, Katie Roden, was second in this year’s race. The 26-year-old Albany resident finished in 19:35.
Catherine Hartung, 47, of Morrisonville was third in 20:46.
"The women’s times were faster than they have been," Carducci said. "Katie Roden was one second slower than last year."
Walkers and kids
Donna Masters, 44, of Troy was the top woman walker. She covered the course in 29:56. Bill Masters, 42, of Troy was the top male walker and finished in the same time.
Jacob Smith, of Altamont, was the winner of the Altamont Mile kids’ race. He ran 6:36 to top Marc DuMoulin and Daniel Senercal-Moseley.
Smith’s sister, McKenzie, was the first girl to cross the finish line. She ran the mile in 8:12 to best Jenette Dziezynski of Niskayuna and Eileen Seery of Altamont.
"We had a lot of kids," Carducci said.
Despite the rain, Carducci said the race had a good crowd.
"The rain kept coming," he said. "Even during the awards ceremony. But people didn’t seem to mind."
Carducci was disappointed in the number of volunteers who helped out with the race.
"We had only 27 volunteers," he said, "that was due to the weather. It’s hard to get people to help out in rain like that. But we did what we had to do to be successful and it pretty much went off without a hitch."
There was a little problem with the traffic (see Carducci’s letter to the editor). But Carducci said, for the most part, motorists were respectful of the runners and other participants.
"With the traffic, we got better at it," Carducci said. "There were a couple of bad eggs. But most people were good. It was better than last year because we had it on a Sunday and that was a problem. But this year, it was great. Ninety-nine percent of the people were good."
Carducci was impressed with the crowd in a couple of spots on the race course.
"Though it was raining, there were a lot of people cheering on the runners," Carducci said "On the corner of Lincoln and Main and the corner of Gregg and Western they came out in the rain. And that is a good thing."
A number of businesses supported the race again this year and Carducci wanted to thank them all. Weatherguard Roofing was the main sponsor. Fotojack.com was also there taking photos of the race and pictures will be available for participants to buy on the website.
Carducci also was grateful for the Boy Scouts and Girls Scouts for running the water stations along the race course.
Next year marks a milestone for the race. It will be the 10th edition and Carducci is already planning for a big turnout.
"Next year is the big one," he said. "It’s the 10th year and I’m planning a big to-do. I want to invite past winners and do some special things. I want to make it bigger and better. I’m hoping to get 600 participants. I want to get everybody out there."