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Section IV Football Season Preview - Broome County Teams with Roger Neel · Cover IV Podcast

• 0:09
  SPEAKER_01: Welcome to Cover Four.
• 0:11
  SPEAKER_01: If you're a Section Four football fan, this is your podcast.
• 0:16
  SPEAKER_01: I'm Coach Smith, and I'll be your host.
• 0:23
  SPEAKER_01: Our guest analyst today is Coach Roger Neal, the sports voice of the Southern Tier.
• 0:30
  SPEAKER_01: Today, Roger's going to be giving us the Section Four football season preview.
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_01: And Roger, like that famous quarterback said once, Hutt, Hutt, it's yours, buddy.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_00: It's all getting underway this week, and it's exciting for a lot of reasons.
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_00: First of all, of course, uh, last year at this time, no football played.
• 0:49
  SPEAKER_00: Then you have a spring season unprecedented, albeit a limited one, with no state competition.
• 0:55
  SPEAKER_00: So whatever ended up, the spring season ended up as records for the team.
• 1:00
  SPEAKER_00: Now you're practicing, and again, well, still a lot of concern about COVID out there, but teams are ready to roll, hopefully, as normally as possible.
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_00: So a lot of excitement, and that kickoff time is just about here.
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_00: There'll be some changing looks around Section 4 football and Broome County football, and some coaches that are not really new to the coaching scene, but new in their roles, at least at this stage.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_00: And I think that's going to be very interesting.
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_00: I find that uh veteran coaches are coming back into the fold and either going from assistant coach to head coach or perhaps even being out of it for several seasons and coming back into the fold as a head coach.
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_00: So that'll be quite interesting.
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_00: And I think as we take a look at what's going to be happening this season, Tim, there are a lot of things to talk about with the new coaches and the different programs, but one of the big things is simply getting enough kids to come out to field competitive teams.
• 1:49
  SPEAKER_00: We've seen a dramatic changeover in the landscape over the past few years.
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_00: Now with Whitney Point going to eight-man football, you've got 13 teams around Section 4 that are playing eight-man football, a major changing dynamic.
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_00: And so what's happened is that there are very few in comparison to oh, back maybe 10 years ago, teams that are of large size, that's diminished now to four double-A schools, three A schools, and then four B schools.
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_00: The rest are C or lower.
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_00: Even the landscape of Class C has changed just over the last couple of weeks.
• 2:22
  SPEAKER_00: Because with the point now going to an eight-man football team, that means that the section uh four class C playoffs changed from the top two in the two divisions.
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_00: So an adjustment there.
• 2:33
  SPEAKER_00: But we'll see what the coaches can do with all this.
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_00: It's still in a very exciting time.
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_00: And for fans, hopefully everything gets back to as normal as possible, and for the players too.
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_00: Talk about changing in coaches.
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_00: Doug Stento is back at the helm of Binghamton High School.
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_00: He's got a major task ahead.
• 2:48
  SPEAKER_00: Last year they had a very uncharacteristic season, albeit a shortened spring one, which again is different than before, but they didn't win a game 0-6.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_00: That is not like a Binghamton team.
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_00: Doug brings a ton of experience around.
• 3:00
  SPEAKER_00: He was a head coach there.
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_00: Mike Ramil replaced him.
• 3:03
  SPEAKER_00: And then Doug stayed on either as an assistant or also helped out the Johnson City program when Fred Deinhart was a head coach there.
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_00: So uh he's been certainly on the football scene, and now he takes over the reins, again tasked with getting a lot of kids to come back into the program.
• 3:19
  SPEAKER_00: That's a change.
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_00: Jim Crundan, longtime assistant coach and a coach of all kinds of sports in the Vestal School District, takes over the reins for Tony Polakare at Vestel.
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_00: Third time as head coach at Homaira Notre Dame, and uh that is gonna be Mike Johnston Sr.
• 3:35
  SPEAKER_00: Now, how about this?
• 3:36
  SPEAKER_00: 75 years old, and he stayed involved.
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_00: He was a defensive coordinator the past four seasons here, so it's not like he's been sitting in a rocking chair standing by.
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_00: He's been very active, but now takes over the reins again.
• 3:47
  SPEAKER_00: And the third time in that program that he is gonna be the head coach, he will take over for Tom Struble, who ran the program in the spring, but is an assistant coach at Cornell University too.
• 3:57
  SPEAKER_00: And then you've got another Johnston, Mike Jr., back as a head coach.
• 4:02
  SPEAKER_00: He was a head coach of uh Corning uh back in the 94 campaign to 2009, then was the offensive coordinator for the Hawks the last several seasons, now back at the helm.
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_00: So those are notable changes in what is occurring in Section 4 will come here in just a few days.
• 4:20
  SPEAKER_00: I think it'll be very interesting.
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, right off the bat, the kickoff on Friday evening is gonna be superb between two of the top teams, perhaps the premier teams in the area.
• 4:29
  SPEAKER_00: That of course is Maine Endwell and Shenango Forks.
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_00: So they will go at it at ME.
• 4:34
  SPEAKER_00: I think it's gonna be, as you could predict, a tremendous game.
• 4:37
  SPEAKER_00: But it's kind of ironic that our two teams that are predicted to be among, if not the cream of the crop in the area, go right at it head-to-head on the opening weekend to play.
• 4:46
  SPEAKER_00: So that'll be getting underway.
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_00: Also, in uh in other news, of course, uh you talk about the Forks 19 straight wins.
• 4:53
  SPEAKER_00: Uh the Blue Devils won their sixth New York State title back in 2019 in the spring, 6-0.
• 4:59
  SPEAKER_00: Now a key for them, Lucas Scott.
• 5:01
  SPEAKER_00: Gone, uh going to um the uh the army uh and and uh taking care of business there, hopefully for them.
• 5:08
  SPEAKER_00: But he was as good a player as there ever was in section four, did everything.
• 5:12
  SPEAKER_00: A bruising runner, superb defender, and now we'll get a chance to uh play at the Division I level.
• 5:17
  SPEAKER_00: So with him out, you know the forks will remain as they always have been.
• 5:21
  SPEAKER_00: That's well coached.
• 5:22
  SPEAKER_00: ME is loaded again.
• 5:23
  SPEAKER_00: Quarterback Michael Mancini heads the charge, but they have Anthony Polakare, who's made the change over from Vestel as a quarterback, also to now move to Maine and well, as his uh father is out of coaching over at Vestel.
• 5:37
  SPEAKER_00: So a change there.
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_00: Susquehanna Valley just one loss since 2017.
• 5:43
  SPEAKER_00: That was the Shenango Fork.
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_00: So they played the cream of the crop and been outstanding as well.
• 5:47
  SPEAKER_00: So those are teams certainly we'll be keeping an eye on.
• 5:50
  SPEAKER_00: And again, I think it's going to be a tremendous start to the season right off the bat with some of these games.
• 5:55
  SPEAKER_00: And it'll be quite interesting to see just how things transpire after the first week or two.
• 6:00
  SPEAKER_00: But a lot of changes, again, a lot of situations where they're getting players with, let's face it, little rest because many of them play um sports in the spring right after football wrapped up.
• 6:11
  SPEAKER_00: And then if they played baseball, they played in the summer and right back at it in football.
• 6:15
  SPEAKER_00: So that'll be a quite interesting situation to see just how they adjust with that little time frame in between.
• 6:20
  SPEAKER_00: We'll keep our fingers crossed for another exciting season of football in section four, and we'll keep you up to date right here as we continue throughout what should be a tremendous campaign.
• 6:31
  SPEAKER_01: Great news, Roger.
• 6:32
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you very much.
• 6:33
  SPEAKER_01: And I know that uh I probably speak for a lot of not only coaches, student athletes, parents, and all the football communities that we're getting back to some level of normalcy.
• 6:43
  SPEAKER_01: One, we're playing the game during the season when it was meant to be played.
• 6:47
  SPEAKER_01: And hopefully, you know, we keep this uh COVID uh condition down and it's more very manageable and we we stay ahead of the curve on that.
• 6:55
  SPEAKER_01: But I'm also looking forward to things too.
• 6:57
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you for taking the time, Coach Neil.
• 6:59
  SPEAKER_01: We really appreciate it, and we'll have you back for some more episodes.
• 7:02
  SPEAKER_01: Take care, Coach.
• 7:03
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you.
• 7:05
  SPEAKER_01: If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to subscribe.
• 7:08
  SPEAKER_01: And remember, tell your friends, Coach Smith says, visit cover4.com and be the next fan up.
• 7:16
  SPEAKER_01: In football and life, it's not where we line up, it's where we wind up.
• 7:22
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you for listening to the Cover Four Podcast.